I purchased a Jupiter Jack to broadcast my Pandora to my car radio but the product isn’t very good. I then decided to do a small review on it before returning it to the store. Be sure to subscribe, comment, and rate. Twitter: twitter.com/wimervision
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Google: Android Market now serving 30,000 apps
At the most recent Mobile World Congress, Google CEO Eric Schmidt revealed that the company’s partners are now selling over 60,000 Android handsets on a daily basis. With that kind of growth rate, it’s no wonder that the size of the Android Market is quickly increasing in its slipstream.
While Google doesn’t publicly show how many applications there are in Android Market, a Google representative this morning informed me that the application store now serves approximately 30,000 free and paid apps in total.
The application store for Android devices supposedly hit the 10,000 apps milestone in September 2009 according to third-party developer AndroLib, who later also claimed that number doubled in just over 3 months.
Google at the time matched these claimed stats against its own count, and said there were in reality some 16,000 apps in Android Market in December 2009. Yesterday, I asked Google for an update to those internal stats after I noticed AndroLib currently pegs the number of apps at nearly 35,000, and this morning the company got back to me saying there are now officially 30,000 apps in the Android Market. In other words, Google says the number grew from 16k to 30k apps in exactly three months.
The company declines to detail what percentage of apps in Android Market are paid versus free, but for what it’s worth, AndroLib says the ratio is about 39% paid vs. 61% free of charge.
Just for comparison’ sake: Apple counted over 140,000 apps in the App Store in January 2010, so it’s safe to assume there should be about 5 times as many apps for the iPhone and iPod touch as there are for Android devices right about now.
Research agency research2guidance recently released a report forecasting that the total app download market could grow to a whopping $15 billion by 2013.
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At recent the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona, mobile app analytics startup Distimo
gave a presentation with some other interesting comparisons, such the relative size of the iPhone App Store (150,000 total apps at the time) compared to the Android Market (20,000) and Blackberry (5,000) others.
It showed that in January alone, the Apple App store grew by 13,865 apps versus 3,005 new Android apps, 734 new Nokia Ovia apps, and 501 new Blackberry apps. Android was the fastest growing App store and the Android market has more free apps (57 percent) than Apple (25%) or any other mobile app store (full slide deck embedded below).
By far the most popular category in the iPhone app store is games. Distimo reported that 58 percent of all apps in the App Store are games. And in a new report that just came out today (download it here), Distimo breaks down the game apps further by price, category, and which ones sell the most.
While the biggest category is Puzzles (15 percent), Action and Arcade both come in second with 11 percent each. The average price of a paid game in Apple’s App Store is $2.24, much cheaper than Blackberry games ($4.60) or Windows Mobile games ($4.90), and a little bit above Android games (2.08).
Breaking down further by category in the Apple App store, the most expensive games are in the Role Playing category, with an average price of $7.96. Action and Arcade games are cheaper with average prices of $1.68 and $1.39 respectively. Adventure games are in the middle with an average price of $4.43.
But when you look the top grossing games, 22 percent are in the Action category, 12 percent are in Arcade, and 9 percent are Adventure. Those are the top three grossing categories. Only 5 percent of the top grossing games are role playing games. (Click on charts at right to enlarge).
So the top-grossing games are not necessarily the ones with the highest price points, especially as game developers switch to free or 99-cent games with in-app purchases. According to Distimo, Tap Tap Revenge 3, which became free and upsells songs via in-app purchases grossed more in January than the FIFA 2010 soccer game, which sells for $6.99. Quality games can still command higher prices, but getting players to pay more over time seems to be the strategy many top mobile game developers are pursuing.
Source: Techcrunch
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At the recent Mobile World Congress 2010, Dutch app store analytics firm Distimo presented their findings on the six largest mobile application stores in existence today: the iTunes App Store, BlackBerry App World, Google Android Market, Nokia Ovi Store, Palm App Catalog and Windows Marketplace for Mobile. In their presentation, they analyzed everything including store size, store growth, the most popular applications and where you can find the best deal. They recently shared some of the highlights from that presentation by way of a slideshow embedded on their blog.
For mobile industry insiders, some of the findings won’t be all that shocking, just common knowledge paired with statistics. However, there were a few surprises that caught us off guard, maybe they will you too.
Distimo collects public application data from app stores and also offers developers an analytics tool which is used to monitor their apps and those belonging to their competitors. After examining and analyzing the data, the company releases market reports detailing their findings.
One of their most recent reports looked at which application stores have the highest percentage of free apps. Not surprisingly, the Android Market was the winner here. In an interview with Venture Beat, Distimo co-founder and CEO Vincent Hoogsteder said this was due to multiple factors: the nature of the open-source operating system from Google attracts the sort of developers that enjoy giving away their works and the open nature of the application- approval process (that is, no review board middleman exists between app creation and public release) makes it easier for casual developers to launch. Also, anecdotal evidence points to developers’ dissatisfaction with Google Checkout – paid Android apps are required to implement this payment method for purchase, a much slower process than Apple’s 1-click buying process.
The different ratios of free apps versus paid was one of the findings presented during MWC 2010. In the chart below, you can see the varying percentages by store. (Note that Distimo’s findings were focused on the U.S. market only). Android has the most free applications (57% free) and Nokia has the most paid (85% paid). The next closest store to Android in terms of free is Palm, followed by Apple, Blackberry, Windows Phone, and finally Nokia.
Another interesting finding had to do with the prices for the paid applications. Apple, Android and Palm were all in the same range when it came to the average price for paid apps ($3.27 to $3.62). However, RIM and Microsoft were more than twice as high ($8.26 and $6.99, respectively). This didn’t necessarily have to do with the different types of applications available in each store – sometimes, the exact same app was just priced higher on other platforms. For example, Tetris was $4.99 on Apple and $6.99 on Windows. IM+ was $4.99 on Apple and $29.99 on Blackberry.
Android is now the second-largest application store, reports Distimo, with 19, 297 apps. It’s still a far cry from Apple’s 150,998 apps, though. And other competitors are farther still. Ovi, we were surprised to discover, is the third largest with 6,118 apps available while Blackberry has a respectable 4,756. Palm has only 1,492 and Windows has 693. Apple is also the fastest growing store with a shocking 13,865 new applications added per month. Android’s growth is picking up too – they now have 3,005 new apps per month (15%). Relative to the number of apps housed, Android is actually the fastest growing store.
Also discussed were the popularity of applications by category. On Apple’s store, games and entertainment were the most popular categories (58% and 18%, respectively). Somewhat more surprising was the popularity of games on Blackberry, the platform often used more by enterprise and SMBs than by consumers. Here, games were also in the lead with 29% popularity to only 18% for utilities. One would have thought that would be the other way around – that corporate users would be more likely download apps that helped them work, not play. Apparently, that’s not the case.
For more details on this presentation, you can view the entire slideshow on Slideshare or contact the company itself for a more in-depth marketing report.
Source – www.readwriteweb.com
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Over 5000 apps stricken from the Apple app store, new rules in place
Things just got a lot more wholesome in Apple’s app store as a boat load of apps were just banned, and new rules for future apps have been put into place. Bring on the lynch mob!
Just the other day an Apple developer was ticked when his app, Wobble iBoobs, was pulled from the app store without warning. The app didn’t contain any questionable content; all it did was modify potentially salacious images and that was enough for Apple to cut it loose.
The makers of the app spoke with Apple, and although the latter is notorious for doing things on a whim without an explanation, it actually laid down some new rules for third-party applications (and some that applied specifically to Wobble).
There you have it. Apple is coming out and saying, “We’ll have none of this, that, this and that and some more of that.” It’s too bad we all can’t be adults about this, or enjoy somewhat adult content on our iPhones, but there’s always the jailbreaking route.
[via Chillfresh]
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Over the last few days we’ve been tracking Apple’s recent decision to remove all sexual content from the App Store. It’s an alarming move on Apple’s part, if only because it shows that the company is willing to throw developers (and their livelihoods) under the bus without any notice at all. Now developers are left wondering: just what exactly is allowed on the App Store? As it turns out, the new policy may be even more restrictive than it first appeared.
Earlier this week, when Apple notified developers that their applications were being removed, it said that it was removing applications with “overtly sexual content”. That sounds like the ban only extends to apps that are little more than soft core porn. But we’re hearing from multiple developers that it actually means anything that could be even the slightest bit titillating in any way — including swimsuits and fitness outfits. In short, if your app has skin, it will probably be rejected.
One developer, who wished to remain anonymous, spoke to multiple App Store reviewers about the new policy. He was told, “there will be no more applications that are for any purpose of excitement or titillation”. He was told this included swimsuits — both bikinis and one-piece suits. Along with having dozens of his “sexy” apps removed, Apple also removed one that featured a popular fitness model in her workout clothes (the app was a marketing vehicle for the athlete’s line of protein powder). When he asked if the ban would also affect apps like Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit application, the Apple employee wouldn’t give a clear answer, but it was implied that the SI app would probably be removed as well.
Developer Jon Atherton, who is behind the popular application Wobble (which doesn’t actually include any sexual photos), also spoke to an Apple employee, and posted this list of rules to his blog based on what he learned:
1. No images of women in bikinis (Ice skating tights are not OK either)
2. No images of men in bikinis! (I didn’t ask about Ice Skating tights for men)
3. No skin (he seriously said this) (I asked if a Burqa was OK, and the Apple guy got angry)
4. No silhouettes that indicate that Wobble can be used for wobbling boobs (yes – I am serious, we have to remove the silhouette in this pic)
5. No sexual connotations or innuendo: boobs, babes, booty, sex – all banned
6. Nothing that can be sexually arousing!! (I doubt many people could get aroused with the pic above but those puritanical guys at Apple must get off on pretty mundane things to find Wobble “overtly sexual!)
7. No apps will be approved that in any way imply sexual content (not sure how Playboy is still in the store, but …)
As far as we can tell, Apple hasn’t spelled out its new policies anywhere (our request for more details has gone unanswered). Keep in mind that these rules may not be set in stone — Apple is purposely vague about its policies, and they’re probably still changing.
These moves are pretty ridiculous given the fact that the iPhone offers a full set of parental controls — Apple should have just blocked the applications from view of anyone who wasn’t old enough to see them. But the real issue with all this, as I outlined yesterday, is how callous Apple is being with regard to the well-being of iPhone developers. It’s easy to paint anyone behind a “sexy” iPhone app as a scumbag, but the fact of the matter is that a lot of young men have iPhones, and they’re willing to pay a few dollars for sexy photos — it’s business. There are magazine empires that are built around this very principle.
The developer who I spoke to says that he’s spent the last year regularly speaking to Apple representatives, attempting to tweak his “sexy” apps to accommodate Apple’s constantly evolving standards. He was told things like (paraphrased) “a woman can be pictured in a bathing suit, but she can’t have her thumb on the suit’s strings” — because that would have been too sexually suggestive. He’d make the modifications and resubmit, oftentimes only to have another photo get called out for an equally bizarre reason. During these back-and-forths he was told that things would get better when the iPhone’s parental controls came out. And that was true for a little while, until Apple changed its mind.
After making around $30,000 last year from the App Store, he’s essentially lost his income. And Wobble’s company, which was pulling in around $500 a day, is now making less than $10. Apple gave these developers the green light to build “sexy” apps, and now that they’ve built businesses around them, it’s tossing them aside without so much as an apology. To Apple, they’re expendable.
Source: Jason Kincaid – TechCrunch
There's no denying that 3D tvs have been making the rounds at CES 2010. Kevin Pereira and Alison Haislip tackle new television sets from Samsung, Sony and Panasonic to see what's in store for those planning on some 3D viewing fun at home. For more from Gadget Pr0n, go here: g4tv.com
PositionApp Helps Developers Track App Store Performance On The Go
Today, UK design firm ustwo has launched PositionApp, an iPhone application that provides data regarding the top 300 apps in the App Store from the last 6 months. The price of the app would have been $7, but AdMob (well, Google technically) is sponsoring the app so that it is free for the next two months.
Coupled with its launch, ustwo also provided MobileCrunch with some exclusive graphs showing which app categories have been most popular over the last 6 months. Unlike most App Store data, this data comes directly from scraping iTunes, which means that it is a 100% accurate assessment of the App Store. Anyone interested in the App Store should hit the jump and check out what PositionApp has found.
PositionApp is a simple application: ustwo crawls the App Store on an hourly basis and collects data from the top 300 apps across all categories and geographies. They’ve been doing this for 6 months and have now launched an application which enables you to see, in graphs and numbers, what apps have been successful for the last 6 months and what rankings they’ve held. The user interface is slick, but I found that I actually wanted even more data than this app had.
The app is kept up-to-date in real-time so PositionApp will provide you with the ability to check how your app is doing (should it be in the top 300) compared to others. Of course, it is a niche application and likely won’t ever be in the top 300 itself (ironic, isn’t it?), but developers will find it as a good on-the-go resource to tracking App Store successes and failures — or more accurately, successes and near successes.
PositionApp comes with more in-depth features such as country-by-country tracking so you can see how your favorite apps do in different markets. It also lets you see who the biggest movers are, which is a good way to get ahead on
The data that ustwo has been scraping also provides additional insights into the App Store. They put together some graphs to show MobileCrunch readers what app categories are the most popular, both free and paid. The graphs (shown below) show clearly that the App Store is dominated by games (over 50% in paid and 40% in free). Next up is Entertainment applications, followed by Utilities.
After that, it gets dicey. On the free side, Lifestyle and Music applications are clearly doing well (each with about 5% of the top 300). However, there is no clear winning category on the paid side after games, Entertainment and Utilities.
Perhaps equally as interesting are the categories doing the worst. Sports, Navigation, News and Travel are all doing fairly poorly among other paid categories. In free, Weather and Finance can be added to that list as well.
It’s important to remember that many apps go into the top 300 simply because of low price points (Games) and that high-priced applications don’t tend to get enough sales to make it to the top 300 (Navigation). That said, the numbers are surely interesting.
You can download PositionApp on iTunes here.
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Apple & Google clash over “Android” in the App Store
And the Apple-Google war continues. This time, instead of just bad-mouthing each other, Apple is running with a strategy that they’re no stranger to: censoring words in the App Store. Instead of just “boobs” and “booty”, which they don’t seem to have a problem with anymore, Apple’s new target is the word “Android”.
Now, Apple only seems to be looking for the word used within a particular context. A quick look through the App Store reveals a decent number of apps with “Android” in the title that have gone totally unscathed. However, at least one developer in particular has had their app held up pending removal of an Android reference. In its preview Tim Novikof’s Flash of Genius SAT app made mention of the fact that it was a finalist in Google’s Android Developers Challenge, and Apple had him remove the offending snippet before it could go live. Apple’s justification?
“providing future platform compatibility plans or other general platform references are not relevant in the context of the iPhone App Store.”
Novikof reportedly didn’t mind having to pull the reference, but it’s crazy that a developer would have to remove a recommendation (and a weighty one at that) just because Apple doesn’t like who it came from.
[via AppScout]
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Part two of my 10 picks for best free ipod touch/iphone games from the app store. I will be picking a new top 10 every month or two. So be sure and check back often. Titles include: (not in any specific order) * Sway lite * Light Bike lite * ishoot lite * deluxe tower 3D free * zombieville USA lite * tapdefense * heavy mach lite * bounce on lite * edge lite * brickbreaker revolution 3D free
My 10 picks for best paid ipod touch/iphone games from the app store. I will be picking a new top 10 every two months. So be sure and check back often. Titles include: (not in any specific order) * The Price Is Right * Space Monkey * Dropship * Topple * Burning Monkey Casino * Zombie Attack * Crazy Tanks * Rolando * Billy Frontier * Enigmo
Sorting through the 6000+ games one in the itunes App store one by one is a tedious and frustrating process. With literally every single genre of game represented, lite or full versions offered and thousands of copycat titles, who has the time to play them all? Well, not me. I actually have a life. I have played a lot of the games in the App store, though and lucky for you I’ve made a list. These games are the cream of the crop, according to yours truly. Here is my “Top 7 iphone Games You Need To Play.” Why 7? Because I said so. Check out my other reviews at Kokugamer.com. 7. Wolfenstein 3D 6. 1112 5. Rise of Lost Empires 4. Hero of Sparta 3. Zenonia 2. Let’s Golf 1. Rolando
We have heard a ton of speculation about the Nexus One coming to additional carriers and Engadget just spied the superphone with a new FCC ID containing AT&T 3G bands. The new ID NM899110 (pictured above) has support for 3G on WCDMA Bands I, II, and V (2100/1900/850) which are the ones needed for AT&T.
The Nexus One has full support for HSPA 7.2 and AT&T announced they just completed their rollout of the faster standard and will spend an additional $2 billion to improve their network backhaul.
AT&T recently announced their support of the Android platform with at least five devices, but Google did not mention the carrier when it held its own gathering to launch the Nexus One earlier this month. The only other carriers (besides T-Mobile) to announce future support for the Nexus One include Verizon and Vodafone who will join the Google phone store in spring 2010.
I started the rumor that Walmart might partner with Google to sell their phones direct to customers and I’m not ready to let it die yet. We recently spotted the Nexus One with AT&T 3G bands on the Walmart Wireless store, but the company responded the listing was a “technical error” and they didn’t plan to carry the phone “at this time”.
Many analysts have criticized Google for not placing the Nexus One in a retail store and I believe the Walmart partnership could still happen. Google is trying to provide customers with additional purchasing options and this would be another choice for them. Is it really that crazy of an idea?
View full post on Android and Me
A game i made while i was waiting for my HTC magic. Tetris is now banned from app store and android market so i won’t be able share it, i guess that’s too bad. it’s still beta, but works pretty well, full touch interface (no virtual button crap), pieces are in 3D (opengl es) but you won’t notice it on the video (you would if you were playing)
