Game developers are getting new tools from startup PaeDae that allow them to monetize through real-world branded rewards and distribute their apps through a promotion product. The service is trying to make its mark with very smart targeting of rewards. Read more »
Nokia is launching the Nokia Ad Exchange to help developers monetize their apps through in-app advertising. Using technology from Inneractive, developers can advertise easily on Nokia phones but also on iOS, Android and BlackBerry. Read more »
Freemium app revenue is now dominating premium for developers on both iOS and Android, said App Annie. The analytics firm said that freemium apps generate 69 percent of the worldwide iOS app revenue and 75 percent of global Android app revenues. Read more »
France’s three big mobile operators are cooperating to put out a common API that mobile retail sites and apps can use to autofill customer data into a purchase screen. It’s a small achievement, but a notable one, considering operators past failures to lure in developers. Read more »
Flurry, which has helped developers measure and monetize their mobile apps, is now poised to help them build their apps too. The company announced it has bought Seattle-based Trestle, a provider of mobile backend services, and will offer a set of cloud services for developers. Read more »
Qualcomm, which normally works with manufacturers, is taking a page from Intel and trying to sell developers and ultimately consumers on the benefits of its chips. With a new Snapdragon SDK for Android, Qualcomm thinks it can be the go-to name for devs and consumers. Read more »
Facebook announced Thursday that mobile developers using the company’s API will now be able to cleanly integrate Facebook’s iconic like button into their design, allowing users to perform the equivalent of a “like” within another app and then cross-posting that action to Facebook. Read more »
The Pew Research Center this week said mobile devices are increasingly driving traffic for traditional news outlets, but digital revenues aren’t enough to offset falling print revenues. So instead of investing heavily in mobile applications, some outlets should focus on building great mobile ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Twilio, the cloud communications platform, is arming app makers with the ability to add Voice over IP features to their iOS apps. With a new Twilio Client for iOS, the company is making it easy for any app with connectivity to incorporate Skype-like functionality. Read more »
Analytics firm Distimo said that, of the top 110 apps that appear in both Android Market and Amazon Appstore, 42 of them make more money on Amazon than on Android Market. That’s a strong showing for Amazon’s Appstore, which got a boost from the Kindle Fire. Read more »
Android apps on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will not be able to support mobile advertising at launch, RIM said. That means Android developers who make free apps will have even less incentive to bring their apps to the PlayBook through the Android App Player. Read more »
Mobile backend as a service StackMob is announcing a hosted HTML5 solution that will make it easier for developers to build HTML5 and hybrid apps that use HTML5. The move allows the company to become a more full fledged platform as a service. 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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
In an apparent effort to close the gap on iOS and its developer advantage, Google has announced a new set of Android developer classes aimed at helping walk developers through a series of lessons. Android Training will offer more than 30 lessons on larger topics. Read more »
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 »
Urban Airship, a push notification and mobile development service provider, is enjoying a huge lift from the growth in mobile and has now pulled in $15.1 million in a Series C Round led by Salesforce.com and Verizon. It’s looking to become a one-stop mobile engagement platform. Read more »
Appcelerator, which helps developers build native and HTML5 mobile apps, has been on a tear in the last year, going from 5,000 apps to 30,000 apps built off its Titanium platform. And it’s now raised $15 million in funding for its Series C round. 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 »
With Android gobbling up market share, it was just a matter of time before it took the lead in app downloads from Apple’s iOS. That’s what happened in Q2 with Android commanding 44 percent of overall app downloads compared to 31 percent for iOS. Read more »
Mobile backend provider Kinvey found 73 percent of iOS and Android apps are basically static and don’t connect to a backend. IOS apps fare better with 35 percent of apps connecting to cloud backends while 18 percent of Android apps connect to these services. Read more »
Thought you’d seen enough mobile photo apps? Well, Aviary has some different ideas. The New York City-based developer of advanced creative tools for photo, design and audio, is now bringing its web photo editing tools to mobile developers through an SDK for iPhone and Android devices. Read more »
Xignite, which is offering financial data that’s hosted on Amazon’s cloud to its clients, has raised $10 million to become the big data repository for financial market information. The company, which was formed in 2004, is betting on the trends of mobile, cloud and big data. Read more »
The boom in mobile apps is opening up opportunities for mobile application development services, a market which is expected to grow to $100 billion by 2015. The latest to ride that growth is Apsalar, a mobile analytics and behavioral targeting platform that just raised $5 million. Read more »
Former Ning CEO Gina Bianchini has launched a new social application called Mightybell, which tries to help people create, achieve and share experiences using step-by-step actions. The idea of Mightybell is to break up a specific goal into smaller steps, allowing people to experience something incrementally. Read more »
PlayHaven, a San Francisco start-up is looking to bring the real-time web to mobile marketing with a new platform that brings the dynamism of the web to mobile ads. The new platform gives mobile game developers the ability to react quickly to their shifting needs. Read more »
Mobile developer Gameview Studios said average revenue per user for its casual game Tap Fish is comparable between iOS and Android, and on some days Android is 30 percent higher than iOS. It shows that Android is closing the revenue gap on iOS. Read more »
After debuting at January’s Consumer Electronics Show, the ASUS Eee Pad Slider is nearing a release. An Australian blogger has one of the first units and shares his impressions. I’m not sold that many folks will want the extra weight and bulk of an integrated keyboard. Read more »
Apple CTO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer sat down with RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky on Wednesday, and according to the analyst, the executives conveyed that Apple’s key motivator for getting into the lower-end smartphone market would be to provide a “category-killer” experience. Read more »
IOS platform competitors take note: Indie iOS dev Chris Eidhof has posted a list of the main reasons why a new developer finds Apple’s mobile OS such an attractive prospect. It’s a nice snapshot of what attracts new dev talent to iOS in the first place. Read more »
WhitePages’ new local discovery app is launching on Android first, in part because the platform allows it the ability to better track the efficacy of location-based ads. It’s another sign that Android is appealing to more developers. Read more »
Crittercism is getting in on the booming market for app support services with its user diagnosis and support tool, that helps developers track app crashes and address user complaints and bug reports. The company announced new funding from Kleiner Perkins, Google Ventures and others. Read more »
Finding new users for apps has grown increasingly complicated with the number of apps exploding and app store owners like Apple cracking down on some download tools like pay-per-install campaigns. That has forced some publishers and developers to look at third-party companies such as Fiksu, a Boston startup, in order to wrangle new users. Read more »
The market for enterprise tablets shows enormous promise as end users take their own devices to work and IT departments begin to deploy the new gadgets. But a small army of manufacturers is vying for a slice of the market, and competition will be fierce. 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 »
