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 »
Tech
Appsfire, an app discovery platform, is launching a free service called App Booster that allows developers to create a simple two-way inbox inside their apps to help establish a communication channel between developers and users. It’s designed to be an easy way to foster in-app engagement. Read More »
WillCall is now available for download, with a few acts already lined up. The coolest part of WillCall — besides enabling poor planners and procrastinators of the world — is its attempt to capture the inherently social nature of concert-going within the app. Read More »
Just in time for its second birthday, food-finding app Foodspotting is rolling out some major design changes. Starting Wednesday, regular users of the app will notice a redesigned interface and a new logo, meant to emphasize new personalization and social features. Read More »
955 Dreams has gotten plenty of praise for its stunning iOS apps, which create next generation albums and magazines in app form. Now, the company is getting the love from investors, who are pouring in $3.25 million in a seed round for the small start-up. Read More »
Gimmie, a new startup out of Tandem Entrepreneurs, is trying to take the idea of incentives and real-world rewards one step further by creating a rewards platform that incentivizes all kinds of engagement in apps with the goal of helping developers ultimately do more in-app transactions. Read More »
Appstores.com is launching an app distribution network that allows web publishers to curate their own app galleries, highlighting relevant apps for their audience. Appstores.com is also releasing a mobile ad unit that allows web publishers to inserts ads for apps that are tailored to its users. Read More »
New data from app analytics firm Localytics suggests the best way to make in-app purchase pay is to build loyalty and engagement, which can result in more revenue overall than a quick sell. Localytics found that loyal users generate 25 percent more in-app purchases. 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 »
All that virtual currency sold in mobile games is anything but virtual in terms of revenue. Juniper Research, in a new mobile games report, said revenues from mobile in-game purchases totaled $2.1 billion in 2011 and are expected to grow to $4.8 billion by 2016. 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 »
Increasingly, websites and services are getting a bigger chunk of their traffic through mobile with some pushing past the 50 percent mark. That’s setting up a world in which developers and publishers have to think mobile first as consumption shifts to smaller devices. Read More »
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