Editor’s Choice is exactly what it sounds like, a pick of the best apps from the App Store team intended to highlight something they don’t want to get lost in the shuffle of the 600,000 apps for sale in the iOS App Store and the 10,000 in the Mac App Store. The debut choice for iOS apps is Facebook Camera, a high-profile new camera app for iPhone, and the game Extreme Skater. For Mac Apps, Cobook and Deus Ex Human Revolution were the picks.

The first Editor’s Choice picks in the Mac App Store

Making the App of the Week free for the first time — it was for Cut the Rope: Experiments — is, as many will note, something out of Amazon’s playbook. A free app each day is one way Amazon helps people discover new apps in its Android Appstore. Who knows if Apple will ever do it again. It could have been merely an experiment — but it does show Apple is keen to try new things to improve app discovery.

It’s slightly ironic to me that Facebook Camera was one of the first choices for this new feature, particularly because when I tried to search for it in the App Store on my iPhone yesterday after news of its availability hit, the store returned the wrong results. Instead of Facebook Camera, it kept giving me Camera Awesome, iVideo Camera and iUploader for Facebook. What does it say about App Store search if the hottest new item can’t even be found by people trying to search directly for it? There are more drastic measures that need to be taken than just surfacing a few cool apps.

It’s obviously not a secret to App Store shoppers — or app creators for that matter — that sifting through hundreds of thousands of apps is tough. That’s why Apple has continued to introduce categorization features meant to more easily surface quality apps across different genres. There’s already the carousel of picks up top, the “New and Noteworthy” and “What’s Hot” sections, in addition to the top paid and free app charts, in addition to curated lists like Games, Education, and a variety of starter kits.

But it’s also not a secret to Apple. It’s presumably what was behind its purchase of app discovery tool Chomp back in February, believed to be for $50 million.

Not that any of these challenges have prevented Apple and its developers from making money on them. Apple has seen more than 25 billion downloads from the iOS store alone since 2008. But making that process easier is always welcome.

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Comparison of SIM card sizes by Giesecke & Devrient

Earlier this year we covered the squabbling within the European telecom standards group over Apple’s potentially-not-so-innocent offer of handling and licensing the final design of future nano-SIM cards, the tiny SIM cards carriers put in cell phones. Some members of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) weren’t thrilled with Apple’s offer — Nokia being the most vociferous objector — and the group agreed to delay a vote on the competing offers of nano-SIM designs from Apple and Nokia. Turns out, that vote is wrapping up and we could soon get a referendum on how far Apple’s mobile power does or does not extend.

The Verge chatted with Giesecke & Devrient — the makers of the nano-SIM that Apple designed — at the CTIA conference this week. G&D is showing off Apple’s nano-SIM at the conference and said that the delayed vote on the competing designs for the new standard is actually underway right now and should wrap up by the middle of this month. As The Verge’s report notes, it’s a pretty clear signal that the SIM card pioneer is backing Apple, even if they won’t say it publicly:

G&D is a voting member, though it wouldn’t tell us which way it’s leaning — needless to say, the presence of Apple’s design here signals that they’ll almost certainly put their votes in that direction and away from Nokia’s more radical design that limits backward compatibility with micro-SIM and mini-SIM slots on older phones.

If Apple does get enough votes, its design for the future nano-SIM card used in Europe will be standard. It’s already offered to license the design to other ETSI members for free. That has some important future implications. It would certainly help Apple gain even more leverage over carriers — more than it already has. And if they were able to take their nano-SIM design to more worldwide standards bodies could eventually lead to Apple being able to sell iPhones and iPads as well as sell and activate wireless service plans without having to go through the carriers directly. Or, even more extreme, it could eventually lead to Apple becoming a mobile carrier itself.

Should Nokia win the day and Apple’s design is voted down, well, we’ll know that even as the most profitable mobile handset maker, its power does have limits. But this isn’t a company that would take such a vote as a final answer. Look for it to find other ways to sell its two most important products — the iPhone and iPad — and control the entire customer experience, from the hardware to the software to, eventually, the wireless service.

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The Chinese smartphone market is huge — as of November there were 118 million 3G smartphone owners counted  — and this study, which surveyed 600 people, is admittedly a small but telling portion of that.

From Guohe’s findings we’ve compiled some instructive tips for app makers interested in making money in the world’s fastest growing mobile market. What’s interesting is how similarly useful they are for app makers targeting buyers in established markets, like the U.S. and Europe too:

• Don’t believe the current conventional wisdom. Though there’s an impression that Chinese consumers just don’t like to pay for apps, that’s changing. The study found that almost two-thirds of iPhone users, or 62 percent, have purchased at least one app for their device. Seventeen percent have purchased more than 11 apps. A big part of this shift in buying behavior has to do with Apple’s decision to start taking local currency payments last fall through the iTunes store instead of requiring credit cards that processed U.S. dollars, says Guohe.
• Target iOS devices for paid apps. If you’re looking to make money on paid apps and weighing Android over iPhone, iPhone owners in China are more likely to buy apps. Guohe found that just 23 percent of Android device owners had purchased at least one app, compared to iPhone’s 62 percent. This is similar to the dynamics the larger mobile market. Piper Jaffray calculated in November that of the 6.8 billion Android apps downloaded, just 1.3 percent, or 90 million, were paid for.
• Target Android for ad-supported apps. Android growth in China has been huge and it is a good platform to reach the largest group of people. In fact, more than half (54 percent) of those surveyed for this study carried an Android smartphone. So, even if you want to distribute your app for free, an ad-based model will work in this market. “The opportunities sit on a data-driven approach to target the right audience from millions,” Guohe says. Of the Android owners polled, 63 percent said they’d prefer free apps with embedded ads, versus 13 percent who said they’d prefer ad-free apps they’d have to pay for. Again, this is very similar to download patterns in the U.S. and the larger Android market as a whole.
• Plan ahead to make tablet apps too. Research firm Canalys ranks China as the second-largest market for tablets. The iPad in particular is doing well among the affluent in China, and for current iPhone app makers thinking about also marketing iPad apps, this is a great demographic to target, since members are more likely to purchase apps. According to Guohe:

“In our own research, we found that iPhone users are almost 2 times more likely than Android users to buy an iPad. The synergy of using the same system cross mobile phone and tablet is truly valuable for some of the heavy users. In that sense, the emergence of well-designed and reasonably priced Android tablets (e.g. Kindle fire in US market) could motivate these Android phone users to jump on the tablet bandwagon too.”

These statistics should be encouraging for app makers interested in selling apps in the China market. And while clearly the above chart shows that far more smartphones owners’ incomes lay on the lower end of the scale, that’s changing pretty rapidly. As the middle class there continues to grow, more people’s ability or desire to pay for things like apps will too.

Thumbnail courtesy of Tracy O/Flickr

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Update: In a statement, Apple said, ”This is the same case Motorola already brought against another Apple entity and the court’s decision does not impact product availability. Our customers in Germany should have no problem finding the iPad or iPhone they want. However, we disagree with the court’s decision and plan to appeal the ruling.”

Motorola sued Apple over the way iCloud and its predecessor MobileMe send “push” emails, claiming the method used is a violation of “multiple pager status synchronization system and method patents” — basically technology Motorola once used in pagers. Apple said following the initial ruling that Motorola’s “old pager patent is invalid.” But a judge disagreed and forced Apple to come up with a workaround in early February. Apple did that: The overall services of MobileMe and iCloud still work in Germany, but users have to check their email manually, rather than it being automatically pushed to them.

While it’s a win for Motorola, it’s just one battle in the all-out mobile patent war that has engulfed most of the world’s major mobile device and software makers. For a visualization of who’s suing whom, don’t miss this helpful graphic illustrating the global patent suit mess.

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Comparison of SIM card sizes by Giesecke & Devrient

Apple has reportedly offered its design for itsy bitsy SIM cards — known officially as nano-SIM — to other mobile device makers that are part of the ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) without asking them to pay for it. There’s probably more to it than a sudden spirit of generosity. Apple loves to control the entire experience of its products, and when it comes to the iPhone and now iPad, the biggest uncontrollable element is a customer’s wireless carrier. And having a say in the SIM card, in theory, pushes Apple closer to the long-term goal of controlling every aspect of its mobile devices.

This has bubbled up in the news because of an impending hearing to decide between Apple’s proposal for the design of nano-SIM cards and those of Nokia, Motorola and RIM before the European telecom standards organization later this week, as the Financial Times reported last week.

Why does Apple care about SIM card design at all? Its interest in smaller SIM cards is certainly related to design and usability — a SIM card that’s 60 percent smaller than the current micro-SIM can mean a smaller, slimmer smartphone. And in a power-hungry device like an iPad, the space leftover from a smaller SIM could go to larger batteries or other components.

But there’s more in it for Apple. If it’s able to control the SIM card in phones, it holds more sway over the subscriber. My colleague Stacey Higginbotham has covered this extensively, and was first with evidence that Apple is aiming to cut out the carriers eventually with even tinier embeddable SIM cards made by Gemalto. If they succeed in embedding these cards, iPhone or iPad buyers could buy the device direct from Apple and simultaneously choose the carrier they want to use, and Apple could activate service right at the point of purchase. It also means easier roaming on other networks.

Yes, carriers would have to allow Apple devices to operate on their networks, so Apple has to have support from some of them to pull this off. And that doesn’t seem to be happening in the immediate future.

Nano-SIM cards aren’t the same thing as tiny, embeddable SIM cards. The line from a situation where every major personal cellular device uses the same small SIM card to Apple gaining control of the carrier relationships with its own customers isn’t direct. But you can see how such a strategy to control what SIM cards are used could consolidate power and pull within the industry in favor of Apple. That could come in handy eventually.

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In a report about the state of the handset industry issued Thursday morning, UBS noted that Apple and Samsung together are taking over 50 percent of the profits in the handset industry:

Smart-phones continue to grow strongly, now accounting for over 30% of total volumes and over 75% of total industry revenues. However, the performance disparity between the stronger players – Apple and Samsung – vs. the others remains stark and these two now account for over 50% of industry revenues and over 90% of total EBIT.

If it’s not clear by now, the Android-versus-Apple battle isn’t the most interesting or important story when it comes to the handset business. As we’ve written before, Samsung is the true force Apple has to reckon with when it comes to phones — and mobile devices, period. Because not only is Samsung capable of keeping up with or slightly surpassing Apple in terms of total phone shipments, as it did in 2011, Samsung has stepped up its non-smartphone game too.

Though mocked by some for its inclusion of a stylus, the Galaxy Note did much better than analysts expected, selling 1 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011. Now, UBS says it expects Samsung to ship 4 million to 5 million Notes in the first quarter of 2012. So, even though the Galaxy S3 isn’t expected to ship until next quarter, UBS is betting this one is going to be good for Samsung, thanks to momentum in their mobile devices on the market now, as well as the brand’s momentum in China and emerging markets.

Huawei Ascend P1 S

UBS continues to feel confident in Apple too — both in the demand for the iPhone and in the company supply chain’s ability to churn out a lot of new devices really fast. Last year’s iPhone 4S launch and the new iPad launched last week show that Apple is getting a lot better at keeping up with demand than, say, a year ago, when the iPad 2 was notoriously hard to get thanks to supply issues. According to UBS:

Apple has been consistently accelerating the pace of each successive iPhone launch, expanding both country and carrier rollouts within a shorter timeframe.

For the iPhone 4S Apple launched in 29 countries within 2 weeks of the initial launch, the iPhone 4 was launched in 22 countries within 6 weeks of launch, and the iPhone 3GS was launched in 14 countries within 1 week of its initial launch.

And with the new iPad expanding from 10 countries in the first two weeks with no major supply shortages to 25 new countries starting Friday, Apple is demonstrating its ability to keep up with demand now.

But the future is not just going to be about Apple and Samsung. As we’ve written before, China’s Huawei has been making a run over the past few months to become a household name worldwide. Its less-expensive Android-based phones are selling well in emerging markets and in its home country of China — also the most important international market for both Apple and Samsung. According to UBS, for both Apple and Samsung, it is the one “to watch out for.”

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Apple’s 37 million iPhones sold last quarter were good enough to just eke out a win in smartphones sold during the final three months of 2011. Meanwhile, Samsung shipped 36 million units during the same time frame, according to IDC.

But for all of 2011, Samsung actually shipped the most smartphones, to the tune of 94 million units, IDC says. That’s an increase in shipments of 310 percent for the company compared to 2010, when the company shipped just 22.9 million smartphones — a huge growth rate.

Apple was very close behind, with 93.2 million iPhones shipped during 2011, which, at 96 percent for the year, is also impressive growth but nowhere near Samsung’s amazing showing.

If you’ve been following along then it won’t be a surprise that the rest of the smartphone pack failed to keep pace with these two. Nokia was a distant third for the year with 77.3 million smartphones shipped, followed by RIM with 51.1 BlackBerrys shipped, and HTC with 43.5 million units.

The final tally for 2011 worldwide market share finds Samsung with a 19.1 percent share, and Apple with a 19 percent share. Some might say that’s too close to call. Whatever the exact numbers are, the real story is clearly how over the course of 2011 the smartphone market has coalesced around these two companies. I’d say 2012 is going to be a very interesting year in smartphones.

Note: This story originally misattributed the data to The NPD Group. The report is from IDC.

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On Tuesday, Kayak plans to launch a new app for iOS. It’s throwing out its old Kayak HD iPad app and making a universal Kayak app for iPad and iPhone.

We got a preview of the new app and the overall theme of the changes can most easily be summed up with the word “consistency.” For instance, now the navigation is all left-aligned, with the same icons that will be familiar to users of previous versions of the app. All the filters for searches (flight, cars, hotels) are on the left and the results on the right.

The designers in Kayak’s mobile development lab in Concord, Mass. spent a lot of time “nitpicking” and making the design language universal for the brand, said Bill O’Donnell, Kayak’s GM of mobile and chief architect.

“With this new release, we wanted to bring it up to modern iPad app standards and our own modern visual look we have in our iOS applications,” he said in an interview Tuesday. And making the way the app is navigated and making all the functions consistent (the UIs for flight and hotel search were different in the previous app) was a huge priority.

“It’s more consistent than before,” O’Donnell said. “Before, three different pieces of the app were developed by different people at different times.”

They also added in some features that have been on the Kayak website and in the iPhone app to this new universal iOS version, like rental car search and the Kayak Explorer (a favorite of those of us with wanderlust), an expanded trips management feature that allows you to send any reservation confirmation emails to the app, including concerts and restaurant reservations, and an auto form filler optimized for tons of travel sites Kayak works with.

Another major lesson learned is the implementation of direct booking of hotels. There’s a big impediment to being a an aggregator of travel deals when you’re working with mobile users: When you direct those customers to outside airline or hotel websites, you never know what exactly you’re sending them into.

“In mobile, you can get wildly varied experiences across airlines and hotel sites,” said O’Donnell. Some are Flash-based, some are just terrible quality. “And that’s a problem for us; we make money through referral fees. If you find something in our app and you can’t book it…we lose.”

Kayak introduced direct bookings for some hotels and flights a few months ago, but this is the first time it’s coming to the iPad app.

So what has the iPad team been doing these past two years? Since the 2010 iPad launch, Kayak has had a lot to figure out about the space — as in what users want, and what other developers are doing that’s cool and innovative — and learning to evolve with the maker of the iPad and arbiter of iOS app taste and style, Apple itself. “We had to learn all that. There’s no way around that except time and experience,” O’Donnell said.

It was also a challenge to figure out the difference between designing for a tiny iPhone screen, a much larger computer browser and an iPad screen. It takes far more time to design well for the iPad, according to O’Donnell.

“When you’re dealing with an app on an iPhone or an iPad, your application is the only thing on the screen. The big thing you control is edge to edge and top to bottotm; there’s nothing else to distract the user. To some extent, you can get away with a plain or sparse or austere website, because it’s framed in a Safari window or a nice Mac desktop or Windows desktop,” he said. But, “when you’re the only thing on the screen, that can look really bad. You have to pay attention to use of white space, lines, separation of colors and spend more design time on it.”

There’s also something in here for users of Kayak’s iOS apps to learn: The new app, as mentioned before, is universal. So if you have the old iPad HD app, that one’s dead now and won’t be updated again. The new iOS app, which is still free, will have to be downloaded anew. It will detect if you’re downloading it on an iPhone or an iPad. It should be in the App Store later today.

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Good’s survey includes responses from 400 of Good’s largest customers, with 2,000 employees or more, in October. And according to the results BYOD is being very clearly embraced: 70 percent of respondents said they currently let employees bring their own smartphone (or tablet) to work, 19 percent are considering allowing it, and just 9 percent said they had no plans for BYOD programs.

Being a large company isn’t a deterrent: among those polled, 80 percent that allow BYOD have 2,000 employees or more, 60 percent have 5,000 or more and 35 percent have 10,000 or more. And of those companies, half allow employees to bring their own smartphone or tablet to work as long as they pay for all the costs, while 45 percent offer some kind of stipend for employees to use toward buying a device or a way to expense monthly costs.

BYOD is not as popular among retailers and government agencies, according the the study. But the reason that it’s finding so much success at highly regulated industries, like healthcare and finance — which have very high bars for security and compliance — is the existence of software available that allays those concerns. (Like Good’s, hence their survey.) New mobile software can be installed on personal iPhones or Android phones that “create strong separation between business data and what’s happening on the personal side of the device,” John Herrema, SVP of Corporate Strategy at Good, said in an interview. That separation helps hospitals, banks and other meet compliance standards like HIPAA, PCI data security and more.

As far as what kinds of devices these workers are bringing in when given the choice, it’s not a huge shock: “Overall, our customers are absolutely activating iOS and Android to the exclusion of everything else we support,” said Herrema. “Historically, we’ve supported Windows Mobile, Symbian, some are even on old Treo devices. Bu these days it’s all about iOS and Android all night.”

The exact breakdown among smartphones brought to work (among Good’s customers) is: 60 percent are iPhones, and 40 percent Android. In tablets, it’s not that close: 95 percent of tablets brought to work are iPads, just 5 percent are Android-powered.

For those companies or IT managers hesitant about the practice, consider this: BYOD can help you save money. It’s fairly obvious that by having employees buy their own smartphone instead of issuing them a BlackBerry you’re going to see savings in your IT budget. But even those companies giving a stipend are seeing the financial benefit.

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In a statement, the company said:

We stopped supporting CarrierIQ with iOS 5 in most of our products and will remove it completely in a future software update. With any diagnostic data sent to Apple, customers must actively opt-in to share this information, and if they do, the data is sent in an anonymous and encrypted form and does not include any personal information. We never recorded keystrokes, messages or any other personal information for diagnostic data and have no plans to ever do so.

Sprint has admitted to receiving data from CarrierIQ’s software, but it denies using it to track its customers, as has AT&T, which says it uses the information for network management. Verizon, on the other hand, has denied using the software, as has Google on any of the Android phones it makes.

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