Rapid adoption of OS X Mountain Lion would clearly threaten Microsoft. But after digging into Apple’s new operating system, Edward Aten of Swift.fm thinks it poses a threat to another, less obvious, company — the current leader in the consumer cloud, Facebook. Read More »
Independent mobile app store GetJar is looking to virtual currency to get users to come and keep downloading and interacting at GetJar’s app marketplace. The company today is introducing GetJar Gold virtual currency which will be awarded to users for downloading Android apps. Read More »
Mozilla is getting ready to make a big push around HTML5 mobile apps in 2012, starting with a plan to unveil a mobile Web app store next week at Mobile World Congress. The maker of the Firefox browser is hoping developers are ready to submit apps. Read More »
Apple on Thursday released a developer edition of Mountain Lion, the next upgrade of it’s operating system that will go on sale sometime in summer this year. As part of the news, the company shared some metrics about OS X Lion (version 10.7). … Read More »
Could the app economy be the cure for United States’ employment doldrums? A new report suggests that the nascent app economy spurred on by iOS, Android and Facebook apps has generated 466,000 jobs in the U.S. economy since 2007. Read More »
Dr. Sang Hoon Woo is an internist at Stanford Medical School, and with his own patients’ tales of trying to find health information online. He’s one of several entrepreneurs trying to bring medicine to reach consumers in the online (and mobile) age. Read More »
Google is getting serious about improving apps on Android, which are sometimes less polished and usable as their counterparts on other platforms. It’s introducing the first Android Design style guide, which is aimed at helping developers learn the principles and best practices for building awesome apps. Read More »
Many of us are using our smartphones to track our health, but much like the web, it’s hard to say what’s a worthwhile app or not. Happtique, a startup wants to change that by creating a certification program for medical apps. Read More »
The world is increasingly going mobile: mobile apps, to be more exact. New data out of app analytics firm Flurry finds mobile users are spending more time in mobile apps than mobile web browsing, widening a gap that began for the first time last summer. Read More »
Analysis by Xyologic found that of the top 150 apps downloaded on each the iPhone and Android in 2011, Android leaned toward apps, with 85 of 150 being non-gaming apps, while 100 of the top 150 apps on the iPhone were games. Read More »
App analytics firm Distimo said the iPhone App Store is generating about four times as much revenue for the top 200 apps compared to the top 200 apps in Android Market. The app revenue gap is prompting developers to look for creative ways to make money. Read More »
Asymco.com blogger Horace Dediu has come from no where and become one of the most followed Apple analyst. His accurate track record and his ability to sift through mounds of publicly available data has made him many fans, especially amongst those who follow the phone business. Read More »
More Must Reads
After launching a little over three years ago, Android Market has caught fire with downloads, hitting 10 billion over the weekend. Google’s mobile application store is now up to 1 billion downloads a month, and growth is accelerating as the number of Android devices sold soars. … Read More »
The Entertainment Software Ratings Board intends to apply its familiar game-rating stamps to mobile apps, providing a way for parents to monitor and restrict the games and content their kids download. Five mobile operators and Microsoft have signed on but Apple and Google are missing. Read More »
Tapjoy, which ran afoul of Apple’s ban on incentivized install campaigns, is getting back into the business of helping drive downloads of iOS apps with a new web app called Tapjoy Games that allows it reach out directly to consumers. Read More »
Appcelerator has built up a community of 1.5 million developers that have used its cross-platform development tool to build more than 25,000 apps for iOS, Android and BlackBerry. Now it’s looking to turn that community into a selling opportunity by launching a marketplace for software modules. Read More »
Verizon Wireless has rebuilt its VCast App Store with a new interface and better search capabilities thanks to a partnership with app discovery start-up Chomp. It’s part of a larger effort to ensure that Verizon’s store is a well thought out place to safely buy apps. Read More »
Android app downloads are expected to overtake iPhone apps this year for the first time, according to research firm Ovum, and will nearly double iPhone downloads by 2016. The growth in Android app downloads could have big implications for freemium app developers. Read More »
Android Market is paced by a number of very prolific app makers and it also sees more updates per app than the App Store, according to app ratings analytics and discovery firm Mobilewalla. The company found that Android users are also focused more on popular apps. … Read More »
TaskRabbit, the online marketplace that allows people to outsource errands and other jobs, has debuted its first iPhone app. The whole point of using TaskRabbit is to save precious time, so the iOS app is great — it allows people to get things done on the … Read More »
App ratings have always been a key tool for mobile developers to get their apps noticed. But with the increasing competition in app marketplaces as well as the decline of some distribution tools, there seems to be renewed focus on app reviews and ratings. Read More »
W3i has come up with a new alternative app discovery product that it hopes will aid game developers to push downloads. It shows how app marketing is getting more creative to meet the growing demand of developers looking to get their apps noticed and downloaded. Read More »
Appsfire and others have helped tackle the issue of app discovery by bringing new social and sharing tools to bear on the task. Now, Zwapp, a new start-up is trying to go one step further by building essentially a social network around app discovery. Read More »
While Android Market is growing fast, it has an attrition rate that is twice as high as Apple’s App Store. That explains why, contrary to previous reports, Android Market is not on pace to overtake Apple’s App Store in overall apps. Read More »
Tapjoy, whose app promotion campaigns have been halted by Apple in new and updated iOS apps, has come up with a new solution that it hopes can help it avoid Apple’s recent ban. But Apple doesn’t appear interested in the proposed fix. Read More »
While the Android Market is on pace to overtake Apple’s App Store in overall apps later this year in terms of sheer volume, it is trailing far behind as a money-making platform for developers, according to new analysis from app research firm Distimo. Read More »
Despite the recent improvements to Android Market, Amazon’s Appstore for Android is still winning over developers who are increasingly drawn to its marketplace for apps. The latest is TextPlus messaging app publisher Gogii, who has the featured free app of the day on Amazon today. Read More »
Android Market has hit 4.5 billion app downloads, but it’s sometimes been in spite of the store experience not because of it. Today, Google announced a set of improvements to Android Market meant to highlight more apps and developers and help guide consumers to relevant content. … Read More »
Freemium game apps have an outsized influence in the Apple App Store, making up 40 percent of all free game downloads in the App Store in March. But with the recent crackdown by Apple on incentivized installs, freemium app makers are having to adjust. Read More »
Apple isn’t just tweaking its App Store rankings to include more than download numbers and possibly lessen the impact of incentivized pay-per-install marketing campaigns. It’s actually banning apps that use pay-per-install, according to one of the leading providers, Tapjoy. Read More »
Apple is apparently also tweaking its App Store rankings to factor in more than pure download numbers, a welcome sign if true. It could be an attempt to mimic what Google’s done with the Android Market, which now appears to take into account engagement data. Read More »
IPhone developers have a new tool to highlight their apps to a wider audience. Using a new product from Pieceable called Viewer, developers can publish their apps on the Web, allowing PC and Mac users to test out their apps without the need for an iPhone. Read More »
Amid all the fanfare over the iPad 2, Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs boasted that the company has paid out $2 billion to developers for apps sold in the App Store. This comes just eight months after it announced developers had made $1 billion on downloads. Read More »
Google’s stance on prohibiting apps in Android Market from being mini-app stores led to the quick demise of Kongregate Arcade, a flash game portal app that got pulled yesterday. But it could also have an impact on Amazon’s plans for an Android app store. Read More »
Independent, off-deck, app stores will become the major driver of mobile app downloads by 2015, eclipsing on-deck app store. That’s the word from a new report from research firm MarketsandMarkets, which forecast the growth of the mobile app market. Read More »
Larva Labs, an Android developer which has chronicled many of the shortcomings of Android Market and the plight of its developers, finally sees some cause for hope. It comes from new monetization opportunities like alternative app stores, in-app purchases and the growing potential for ad revenue. … Read More »
Issuu, a popular document sharing service that may have provided some competition for Apple’s planned digital newsstand, has abandoned plans to release an iOS app after Apple rejected the company three times. The company hinted that its openness was the cause of its rejection. Read More »
Android Market eclipsed the 100,000 app milestone today, according to a tweet from the Android Developer Twitter account. This puts Android Market on a solid pace though still trailing Apple’s App Store by a wide margin. Read More »
Appbackr is introducing the wholesale model to iOS apps, giving developers a new way to move their apps. The Appbackr Marketplace, launching in beta this week, allows buyers to purchase a bulk number of apps from a developer at a lower price, then sell them. Read More »
Freedom-loving developers have long used open-source licenses as a tactic to maintain the open availability of their source code. With the rise of closed hardware/software platforms like Apple’s iPhone, however, that tactic is being challenged. And that may not be a bad thing. Read More »
After finding more than $375 of iTunes transactions on my credit card this weekend, I thought I was hacked. It turns out the “hacker” was my step-daughter who was understandably confused between virtual goods and real currency for in-app purchases inside a free iPhone application. Read More »
It’s time to clean up the Android Market before the poor experience and questionable apps get out of hand. There are already 65,000 apps to be found there, so the time is right for Google to follow these simple steps and neaten the store. Read More »
Whether you think Apple’s efforts to control the iPhone OS environment are helping or hurting, the question is when its ability to control things will break down. I think it already has. Read More »
Apple a couple of weeks back Apple released a “tip” for developers on how to enhance its apps using its “Core Location” framework. But while some said it signaled the death of the location-based ad industry on the iPhone, that seems very premature. Read More »
Nimbuzz, a mobile VoIP service and social networking services integrator, says that its Symbian app has been downloaded more than a million time from the Ovi Store by Nokia. In other words, Nimbuzz is benefiting handsomely from increased usage of the Ovi Store. Read More »
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