Posts Tagged “android”
As Android crowds the iPhoneThe market for mobile apps – be they for smartphones, less-capable “feature phones,” or carry-alongs such as Apple’s iPad – will swell to $17.5bn by 2012.…
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Report for app store GetJar forecasts number of downloads will rise from 7bn in 2009 to almost 50bn in 2012 Mobile app downloads are expected to increase from more than 7bn downloads in 2009 to almost 50bn in 2012, according to a report. The independent study, carried out by Chetan Sharma Consulting for Getjar, the world’s second biggest app store, forecasts that the global mobile application economy will be worth $17.5bn in 2012, more than CD sales, which it predicts will be $13.83bn. It says that market will continue to grow exponentially as mobile devices become as powerful as computers, and wireless networks deliver consistently higher bandwidths. “With the consumer appetite for mobile apps rocketing, the opportunities for developers are huge,” says the CEO and founder of GetJar, Ilja Laurs. The study says that initially the focus of making revenue from apps was based entirely on paid downloads or subscription-based models, but this is going to change. Today, advertising-based revenue accounts for about 12% of app revenue, but by 2012 this figure is expected to rise to 28%. For some platforms such as Google’s Android, advertising revenue is predicted to be even bigger than revenues from paid downloads. The price of mobile applications ranges from $0.99 to $999 but the average selling price in 2009 was about $1.90, the study says. Over the next three years this is predicted to decrease by 29% and apps will get cheaper; however, advertising revenue derived from apps is likely to stay relatively flat. By 2012, so-called “offdeck” apps that are offered independently from a carrier will be the biggest revenue generator, accounting for almost 50% of all app revenue. By comparison, in 2009, apps available from mobile operators still accounted for more than 60% of all app revenue, but this will fall to just under 23% by 2012. As the WSJ Digits blogger Jennifer Valentino-DeVries points out, the study will by no means be the last word on the subject, but it provides at least a look at why so many companies are excited about mobile.
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HTC Desire and Sony Xperia X10 launches lined upVirgin has become the latest mobile phone network to catch the Android bug – it has launched two smartphones based on the Google OS and will release two more next month.…
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• It’s been a while since we talked about Spotify, which has been putting a lot of energy into gearing up to launch in America. With co-founder Daniel Ek talking at South by South West yesterday, people thought the company might launch itself in the states – but no such luck. Ek • Has Google’s Nexus One phone been a flop or not? Flurry, a mobile analytics company, estimates that sales are at around 135,000 since launch – just a smidgen of the numbers shifted by other handsets like the iPhone and Droid over the same period. Ryan Block, formerly of Engadget and now with GDGT, says that’s not failure – after all, Google is only selling it online and not giving it the huge push other handsets get. Still seems like the company wouldn’t want to put in so much effort for so little payoff. One thing we do know for certain, though: Google has had its attempt to trademark the Nexus One name rejected, though it’s got nothing to do with Philip K Dick. • And… it’s almost a year since Microsoft took the great leap forward and introduced Internet Explorer 8. Now the company is forging ahead with IE9. You can see some demos and read more about what it can do in these guides. Some stuff in there about HTML5 support, CSS3 and SVG. One note – perhaps unsurprising – is that it will not support Windows XP. You can follow our links and commentary each day through Twitter (@guardiantech, @gdngames or our personal accounts) or by watching our Delicious feed.
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Mar
16
2010
 
Apple v Google: the gloves are starting to come offPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
When Apple decided to sue Taiwanese phone manufacturer HTC, it was hard to see it as anything other than a broadside at Google. After all, HTC makes Nexus One handset, and Steve Jobs has previously told staff that he’s angry because “We did not enter the search business… they entered the phone business”. The ever-growing conflict between the two is something I mentioned on Monday, and plenty of people have weighed in on the subject, including former Sun Microsystems boss Jonathan Schwartz, who said that any company launching a software patent lawsuit was basically undertaking an “act of desperation”. But most of the action so far has been from Apple’s side – the accusations about its rivals (including Nokia, which has in turn accused the iPhone maker of “legal alchemy”); the offended and aggrieved statements by Jobs and so on. So where’s Google in this fight? Is it just staying quiet? Step forward Tim Bray, the Canadian technologist best known for his work on XML. Bray – who has written eloquently on software patents before and who left Sun himself last month – announced over the weekend that he was joining Google’s Android team. Oh yeah, then he immediately poured fuel onto the fire with an extremely strong broadside about why he dislikes Apple’s approach:
Strong words, and proof that Googlers are prepared to fire back from time to time. It will be interesting to see how long Bray is allowed to speak his mind like this (staff commenting, even obliquely, on lawsuits is something most corporate lawyers dislike intensely) but it’s refreshing to see somebody on either side speaking openly and on the record.
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Mar
15
2010
Ex-Sun man Bray takes on paranoid Android role at GooglePosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
Disses Apple iPhone’s ‘Disney-fied walled garden’XML co-inventor and languages expert Tim Bray has taken a job at Google just a month after he left
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Mar
15
2010
Ex-Sun director Bray joins Google’s Android teamPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
The former Sun Microsystems’ employee Tim Bray has left the company to join Android’s opposition to Apple’s iPhone
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Legend and Desire coming to networkVodafone has flagged up the forthcoming release of HTC’s Android-based smartphones Legend and Desire on its network next month.…
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Mar
14
2010
Google forced to delay British launch of Nexus phonePosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
Setbacks with the internet group’s first handset will see competing products arrive on the market first Google’s attempt to break into the mobile phone market has hit serious problems in Britain with the launch of its flagship Nexus One device understood to have been delayed until the middle of next month. The setback means that by the time Google’s first own-branded foray into the market this side of the Atlantic is available to consumers, its local network partner Vodafone will have launched a competing product, which analysts say is better, called the HTC Legend. While Google has been working with the industry on the Android mobile phone software for several years, the Nexus One, made by Taiwan’s HTC, is the first handset over which the search engine group has had complete control. But launching a new phone has proved more difficult than Google expected. It was released in the US in January, but Google’s decision to sell it solely through its website immediately came in for criticism as buyers struggled to get help with technical problems, and Google, which has traditionally relied on email for consumer contact, was forced to introduce telephone helplinessupport and the problems it has experienced in the US has given it reason to pause over the phone’s launch outside the US, to make sure it has its customer service operations in place. Last week Goldman Sachs slashed its estimate for Nexus One sales this year from 3.5m units to 1m worldwide. In the UK, Google will not only sell the phone at full price to any customer who wants to put their existing sim card into it, but it has also teamed up with Vodafone, which will offer the device free to anyone willing to sign a £35 monthly contract. But the delay in the launch of the Nexus One, which under Google’s original plan would have been available earlier this month, means that it will come after the launch of rival Android devices that analysts reckon are at least as good, if not better. Vodafone, for instance, will be offering the HTC Legend in April which has the same operating system as the Nexus One but is more stylish: being built from a single piece of milled aluminium. Orange and T-Mobile, meanwhile, will both be stocking the HTC Desire – which is exactly the same as the Nexus One, but has an optical trackpad instead of a trackball – from next month. The delay also means the Google device will be available in the UK only weeks before another hotly anticipated gadget, Apple’s iPad. Several of the UK’s mobile phone companies are finalising deals with Apple to sell the tablet computer to British consumers. Unlike its last mobile device, the iPhone, which was offered through just one exclusive partner for the first two years, the iPad is expected to be available through multiple network operators from the start. Apple will ship two versions of the iPad in the UK, one that can access the internet using short-range wi-fi networks and one that can also access 3G mobile phone networks. But Apple needs to sign deals with at least one UK mobile network, because the iPad makes use of micro-sims, meaning that buyers cannot just put the sim card from their existing handsets into it. In fact, it will be the first device launched in the UK that uses micro-sims. Apple said earlier this month that the device will go on sale in the UK towards the end of April but the mobile phone companies believe that the 3G version of the iPad will not be available until May. Orange, T-Mobile, O2 and Vodafone all expect to be selling the iPad to customers and they are all locked in talks with the Californian company. Apple, however, has made it plain that it does not want iPad users to be tied to long-term contracts with any mobile phone operator. Instead it wants users to be able to pay for mobile network access on a pay-as-you-go basis.
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Mar
12
2010
Microsoft plants Bing on Google-free Chinese AndroidsPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
Google apps ‘postponed’ on China carriersMotorola will soon push Microsoft’s Bing search engine onto Android phones in China, after announcing an alliance with the Redmond software giant that will see Bing appear on Androids across the globe.…
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‘gis a job – there’s an app for thatThe UK’s Jobcentre Plus service is now available through an iPhone application and Android, providing a vital service to the jobless-but-gadget-obsessed.…
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‘No decision’ on Opera MobileOpera has released an Opera Mini 5 beta for Google’s Android platform.…
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Mar
09
2010
Smartphone app botnet experiment blows up a stormPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
WeatherFist shows phone vulnerability, devs claimSecurity researchers fooled nearly 8,000 iPhone and Android users into joining a mobile smartphone “botnet” under the guise of installing an apparently innocuous weather app.…
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Mar
09
2010
Android adds strong authentication from VeriSignPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
The identity protection company has released an Android version of VIP Access for Mobile, which adds extra security for logons made on mobile phones
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Mar
04
2010
Big Phone’s first Google Android defaults to…Yahoo!Posted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
Yahoo! goes where Ballmer fears to treadThe first Google Android-based handset offered by the iPhone-hugging AT&T will not use Google as the default search engine. It will use Yahoo!.…
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HTC won’t fix, blames OrangeThe latest update to Orange’s Hero handset, manufactured by HTC, is blocking access to the Android marketplace again.…
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Mar
03
2010
Most smartphone users are disappointed, claims FanfarePosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
People are buying increasing numbers of smartphones, but are they living up to the media hype? Fanfare thinks not…. Smartphone sales are growing fast, but “57% of smartphone users are disappointed with handset and application performance,” claims a report from Fanfare (PDF: registration required). However, the results reflect a very small sample: “155 members of the public” and “the survey was conducted online and filled in anonymously,” so don’t bet your lunch on its applicability to the Great British Public. Most of the issues appear to be internet related, with streaming media, web browsers and social networking applications causing the most problems. And then there’s the part that could be important to Fanfare, which offers automated testing services:
Dissatisfied smartphone users typically tell their friends and family (57%) and social networking sites (58%), which could have a negative effect on sales. Indeed, it makes social networks much more of an influence on purchasing than “traditional media” (by 64% to 40%). Fanfare marketing man David Gehringer says: “The Apple App Store and Android Market have served up billions of app downloads, giving smartphone owners the ability to use their phones in new and exciting ways. But now that the novelty is wearing off, users want their applications to be more reliable.” The report says:
I’d like this to be true, but I can’t really see much evidence. It seems to me there’s a big fashion element to smartphone sales and (based on a much smaller sample than 155) people like being one of the first to own a sexy new gadget. How well they can make it work it is another matter. Nor is this a criticism of media darlings such as Apple’s iPhone, HTC and Google Android phones, various BlackBerry handsets and the odd Palm. All of these seem more reliable and usable than what I remember of the Nokia 7110 or 8110 (The Matrixphone), while disappointed iPhone owners seem to be a very rare breed indeed. So, are you happy with your smartphone, and if not, is the backlash about to start?
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Mar
03
2010
Apple sues HTC over multitouch and other patentsPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
Taiwanese mobile-phone manufacturer backing Google’s Android OS is accused of infringing 20 Apple patents Apple is suing the Taiwanese handset maker HTC, alleging that it has infringed 20 patents relating to “the iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture and hardware”. Among the patents that Apple alleges have been infringed are a number relating to touchscreen interfaces – for which the iPhone has become the best-known, though it was not the first, mobile device. “We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, in a statement. “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.” It is thought that a key element that triggered the lawsuit is that in February HTC released handsets which use “pinch-to-zoom” functionality resembling that of the iPhone. Apple has filed the suit in the US courts in Delaware, Maryland, but also with the US International Trade Commission (ITC), which has the power to halt imports of products. That would stymie HTC and Google, whose free Android mobile operating system is built into a growing number of HTC phones, and has made significant inroads into the burgeoning smartphone market in recent months. But the move was received with surprise in the technology community. “I don’t fault Apple for acquiring patents. They have to, for defensive purposes, given the current laws,” noted John Siracusa, a journalist at Ars Technica who has followed Apple closely for years. “But using them offensively sucks.” The use of the ITC could be key for Apple. A recent analysis found that where lawsuits are filed both with US district courts and the ITC, plaintiffs succeed in the latter more often than the former, by 58% to 35%. That means Apple is roughly 50% more likely to win the case with the ITC – and so could block HTC imports of newer handsets. HTC indicated that it was completely surprised by the case, and had not even received the formal complaint from Apple when the American company announced it publicly. Apple has submitted more than 700 pages of exhibits relating to its patents to the court in Delaware, Maryland, where it is filing the case. It cites a number of handsets, including the Nexus One handset powered by Google’s Android mobile operating system, and also other handsets which use Microsoft’s Windows Mobile system. HTC has in the past been the largest manufacturer of Windows Mobile handsets – although it has recently shifted its allegiance to Google’s Android, which is free and has captured significant market share since being launched in 2008. Apple has specified 10 patents in the Delaware filing, and a different 10 in the ITC filing. The case is thought to be the first in which Apple has taken the first step in suing a rival mobile phone company. Although it has an ongoing patent dispute with Nokia, the Finnish mobile handset maker, the first move there was by Nokia. Apple has since countersued. The case is ongoing.
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Mar
01
2010
DARPA wants military iPhone and Android appsPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
Pentagon boffins spit on Windows phonesBandwagon-bothering boffins at everyone’s favourite military tech hothouse DARPA have announced that they would like some apps written for the iPhone or for handsets running Google’s Android OS – “with potential relevance to the military specifically and the national security community more generally”.…
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