Daily Mobile Industry Snippets!
Have you ever wondered which country is the biggest users of iPhone?
Well, it’s not the US, not China. It’s Singapore!
China has .05% penetration with 922,138 iPhones and Touches in a population of 1,338,612,968 while the US has 18 million devices in a population of 309 million for 3.45% penetration. Singapore with 480,950 devices – including 1453 iPads – with a population of 4 million for a penetration of 8.08%.
Source:
Daily Mobile Industry Snippets!
Mobile payments startup Square said that its iPhone and Android applications are live, and that it has begun to ship its first wave of credit card readers. They have created a small plastic credit card reader that plugs into an iPhone, an iPod Touch, an iPad, or an Android phone. If you don’t have the reader, you can also just enter your credit card number into the app. Other features include email and SMS receipts, and a photo identification system for users, so other people aren’t swiping your credit card. Both the app and the reader are free.
Sources:
http://gizmodo.com/5536145/now-anybody-can-accept-credit-card-payments-with-square
http://mobile.venturebeat.com/2010/05/11/square-launch/
http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/10/squares-iphone-app-hits-the-app-store/
http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/11/square-mobile-payment-system-goes-live-on-iphone-ipad-and-andr/
Daily Mobile Industry Snippets!
Apple questioned data showing smartphones using Google’s Android operating system surpassing iPhone sales in the United States, and said there are no signs that the competition is gaining in the smartphone market.
Apple said the NPD data didn’t provide a complete picture.
“This is a very limited report on 150,000 U.S. consumers responding to an online survey and does not account for the more than 85 million iPhone and iPod touch customers worldwide,” said Apple spokeswoman Natalie Harrison.
She said the iPhone far outsells Android on a worldwide basis, and pointed to a report from IDC last week which showed the iPhone with a 16.1 percent global market share, behind No. 2 RIM and No. 1 Nokia Oyj.
Source:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/11/apple-brushes-off-npds-smartphone-report-says-it-sees-no-sign/
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20100512/ttc-tech-us-apple-android-96247d2.html
Daily Mobile Industry Snippets!
Apple has clamped down on the software tools that developers can use to write programs for the iPhone, saying the change was made to improve the quality of applications appearing on its hugely successful App Store. Any application submitted to Apple that does not use the mandated tools will be rejected.
Before now developers have been free to use many different tools to create applications for the iPhone and iPad. Imminent changes to the way the iPhone software development kit is used will restrict these tools to just three. The move has brought protests from many software developers with some declaring they will no longer produce applications for Apple’s handset.
At the same time, Apple is also keeping ad networks and analytics companies at suspense with changes to their new legal agreement. Apple has yet to make any statement whether or not the changed legalese is meant to ban targeted ad networks such as AdMob in favor of Apple’s own iAd system. Nor has Apple specified how app use data can and can’t be collected by companies like Flurry and Motally.
Sources:
Daily Mobile Industry Snippets!
The latest version of Apple’s iPhone Developer Program License Agreement startled app developers when they found a new section that appears to ban apps converted from Flash to iPhone format. Another startling change appears to possibly ban third-party analytics tools such as Flurry, Distimo and Motally that track and report how an app is used by customer.
Will shutting down analytics tool put off app developers rather than attract more of them? Mobile analytics firms are seeking clarification from Apple at the moment.
Source:
http://venturebeat.com/2010/04/12/apple-changes-rules-on-iphone-app-analytics/
Daily Mobile Industry Snippets!
Apple has announced an iPhone OS 4 event on 8th April for a “sneak peek of the next generation of iPhone OS software.” The event, which comes just after the launch of the iPad, will showcase the new features coming with the latest release of the iPhone/iPad operating system, giving developers time to plan for and integrate the new features into their apps. It has been rumored that the new OS will support multi-tasking, giving the ability for certain third party apps to run in the background.
Sources:
http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/05/apple-holding-special-event-to-preview-iphone-os-4-this-thursday/
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20100406/ttc-us-it-telecom-company-internet-apple-0de2eff.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20001742-260.html
http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/05/apple-holding-iphone-os-4-event-april-8th/
http://mobile.venturebeat.com/2010/04/05/what-to-expect-from-apples-iphone-4-0-os-event/
Daily Mobile Industry Snippets!
In terms of both supply and demand, Apple’s app market is far and away the biggest. The latest report of Flurry mobile app analytics company tried to break down the profile of Apple app developers into categories.
From most to least populous:
Source:
http://venturebeat.com/2010/03/15/iphone-app-developers-where-do-they-come-from/
Daily Mobile Industry Snippets!
Sequoia-backed Bump Technologies Inc. is closing in on 10 million downloads for its nifty contact and data-sharing app. With iPhone and iPod Touch sales estimated at 80 million, this means the app is on more than 10 percent of Apple’s phones.
The app let you literally bump two phones together and pass contact information like phone numbers, names and e-mail addresses between them.
But it was a feature that was easy to duplicate, and hence, to overcome the risk of becoming a feature of someone else’s product, Bump opened up and became a platform by launching an application programming interface (API). The hope is that Bump can find a business model by providing its core technology to other companies to power all kinds of physical data sharing, whether it’s trading virtual coins in a game, contact information on a business card or even payments. The company recently launched a Facebook integration that lets users friend each other on the spot to take advantage of that. A Twitter integration that lets you follow a person will come shortly.
Source:
Daily Mobile Industry Snippets!
An AdMob survey of 963 total respondents consisting of 318 Android, 244 iPhone, 356 iPod touch and 45 webOS users in english speaking countries. According to the data collected between 5 February to the 16 February, men make up a whopping 73% of all Android device users. Even webOS, that smartphone OS from Palm that’s supposedly aimed at the ladies carries a 58% male to 42% female preference, almost exactly the same as the iPhone.
Also of interest is the Age by Platform data that shows 78% of iPod touch users are below the age of 25 compared to 25% of iPhone users and 24% of webOS and Android users. In fact, 65% of the platform are just 17 years of age or younger.
Daily Mobile Industry Snippets!
Apple’s campaign to shield iPhone and iPod touch users from what it deems to be “overtly sexual content” has entered a new phase. There has been reports that Apple has added a new “Explicit” option to the list of categories from which developers must choose when submitting an app through the iTunes Connect app-registration system.
Based on the addition of this sexually themed category, it appeared that Apple was perhaps preparing for an Adults Only department in the iTunes App Store. It might be possible to resubmit banned apps in the future, as long as they’re tagged as Explicit. Well, who knows?
