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Tag: apps

  • Palm Pre App Count Builds – Now More Handsets?


    Palm must be hoping it can quickly build on estimated opening weekend sales of 60,000 Pre smartphones – not least because Apple has cranked up the pressure with the launch of a new iPhone.

    While Palm’s Saturday launch has largely been judged a success, it was hampered by supply constraints which saw most Sprint Nextel stores get less than 50 phones to sell.

    The limited supply of handsets meant that the Pre sold out in hours at most locations.

    Sprint’s flagship Manhattan store had 200 units at launch. Its store in Boston’s Back Bay area had only 55, while one in San Francisco’s Mission district had 60.

    Palm and Sprint strenuosly denied they were limiting supplies deliberately, instead the restrictions were put down to manufacturing constraints.

    As expected, between 80-90 per cent of the first buyers were already Sprint customers – while about 60 per cent were prior Palm owners.

    Meanwhile, while one of the major concerns for the Pre has been the lack of apps for the phone there has been a flow of new software being announced by developers since Saturday’s launch.

    Among them are the WHERE and Photobucket apps.

    WHERE is a location based application that allows users to find different content based on their geographic position.

    It also highlights local content including weather, news, movie times, restaurant recommendations. You can also perform selective searches through WHERE and find out things like where to find the cheapest gas. WHERE will also have the ability to integrate with the Pre contact and calendar data.

    Photobucket allows users to send and upload photos directly from the phone. You can send any photo taken on the phone to a Photobucket album and shared through the website. You can also open a new Photobucket account directly through your Pre.

    Other applications include Zumobi’s Today Show and Sporting News Baseball apps for on-the-go news and sports updates, and LikeMe, which offers personal recommendations for restaurants, attractions, etc, based on your location.

    Beeweeb and Agile Commerce have also announced their plans to offer services to help developers create apps for the Pre and Palm WebOS.

    These new apps join the dozen or so programs that were available in the Pre App Catalog at launch, including Pandora and Fandango.

    According to Palm, more than 150,000 apps were downloaded on the first day the smartphone was available.

    Currently, the Palm App Catalog is in beta and the Mojo SDK is only available to a limited number of developers.

  • Vodafone Plans App Store For 289m Customers


    Vodafone is joining the increasingly busy application store game by launching its own venture in a number of European markets later this year.

    The mobile operator will take a 30 per cent share of all app revenue – mirroring Apple’s App Store.

    Interestingly for developers, Vodafone is to supply a program that allows software to run on any Vodafone device.

    Previously, developers had to configure their apps to each handset – a lengthy process and one that restricted uptake.

    The new program will simplify that and give apps access to the operator’s 289 million customer base.

    Vodafone is to handle the billing for the apps that will be charged directly to a customer’s telephone bill.

    This could be a major advantage for the operator. Earlier this month, Nokia announced that it would have to drop operator billing from its US Ovi Store – a set-back for the venture.

    Vodafone will also provide developers and partners with access to "network capabilities," including location awareness.

    This will allow them to create apps that take into account a user’s current position.

    What is certain is that consumers will soon be spoilt for choice – although there may also be confusion over where to go first for apps.

    Vodafone has, however, said that a user with a Nokia phones on its network can chose which app store they want to use.

    The success of the venture will also hinge on the quality of the apps – and that will be influenced by whether developers feel drawn to Vodafone – and are willing to hand over a 30 per cent share of their revenues.

    The first apps are to roll out at the end of the year in the UK, Italy, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Greece, Portugal and Ireland with more territories added later.

  • Android Market Reaches 40 Million Downloads


    T-Mobile G1 customers have downloaded on average more than 40 applications from Android Market.

    With one million G1s sold that adds up to 40 million downloads in total since the first Android handset was launched six months ago.

    The stats, which come from an interview T-Mobile gave to mocoNews, also show that among T-Mobile customers who’ve purchased a G1 around half traded up from a basic handset.

    Other details include:

    • Approximately 80 per cent of T-Mobile G1 users browse the web on a daily basis
    • The majority of T-Mobile G1 owners use Facebook and Youtube at least once a day and access Wi-Fi on a daily basis
    • Four out of five G1 customers download applications at least once a week

    While the figures pall when compared to the iPhones 500 million plus downloads, but it’s early days for the G1.

  • Nokia, Vodafone and Adobe Help Kick-off Mobile World Congress 2009

    Nokia, Vodafone and Adobe Help Kick-off Mobile World Congress 2009


    This year’s Mobile World Congress is now underway and already there has been a flurry of announcements and launches from some of the big names lining up in Barcelona.

    Vodafone has unveiled a raft of new mobiles, including its first own-branded consumer GPS phone – the Vodafone 835.

    The 3G candybar handset is to be available across Europe from spring on contract.

    Other newcomers to the 3G range include the Vodafone 735 and Vodafone 736 – a candybar and slider version respectively of the phone.

    Hot on Vodafone’s heels comes Nokia, with the news that it is launching its own online app and media portal – the Ovi Store.

    The Finnish telecoms giant has made its N97 smartphone the first device to be "pre-integrated" with Ovi Store, but existing S40 and S60 customers will be able to download the service from May.

    Not surprisingly, a developer site has been launched offering a 70 per cent revenue share.

    Adobe announced this morning that Flash Player 10 – the full version of Flash that runs on PCs – is to be available on smartphones running Windows Mobile, Google’s Android, Nokia S60/Symbian, and the new Palm operating systems.

    Devices with Flash Player 10 are expected to hit the market starting in early 2010.

    Obviously, the glaring exception to the list of applicable devices is the iPhone – though Adobe executives do promise that it’s coming.

    Earlier, Carl-Henric Svanberg, CEO and president of Ericsson, told delegates at MWC that 2008 had been a year of establishing mobile broadband.

    He talked about the impact investment in telecom infrastructure can have on societies and their prosperity – even in the current economic climate.

    "Mobile phones have had a profound impact on peoples’ lives all over the world," he said.

    "The mobile industry is now on the verge of another significant wave of investment, which will bring affordable mobile broadband services to all."

    Svanberg finished by stressing that the fundamentals of the telecoms industry were sound, as was demand.

    "The operators are generally in good shape and the networks are fairly loaded," he said.

    "As we move further into a financially turbulent 2009 our focus will be to manage our company for value creation. In this market environment there will be opportunities to strengthen our position and I am convinced that we are uniquely positioned to capture them."

  • Paid Apps Imminent For Android Market


    Google’s Android Market is expected to begin accepting paid applications this week for the first time.

    The move could provide a much-needed boost to the platform, which currently has around 800 applications.

    This is far below what Apple’s App Store had achieved in its early months. Incidentally, the App Store has just passed the 20,000 mark for apps, with over 500 million downloads.

    While Android Market’s position can partly be attributed to the G1 not being as popular as the iPhone, that’s not the whole story.

    Another key element could be the fact developers haven’t been getting paid to come up with shiny new apps for Android.

    With the incentive of remuneration thrown in, the desite to create software for the G1 and soon-to-be launched handset additions to the Android platform is likely to be much stronger.

    Interestingly, Google is deviating from Apple’s revenue model in that it receives nothing from the downloading of paid apps.

    Both app stores will give developers 70 per cent of the revenue, but whereas Apple pockets the other 30 per cent Google is passing it on to the carriers and to pay settlement fees.

    Anything that gets the Andoid Market rolling has to be welcome, expecially as others – including RIM, Microsoft and Palm – are expected to launch their own app stores very soon.

  • Android App Developers Get AdMob Option


    AdMob has announced that it has launched its first advertising unit for Android applications.

    The move by the world’s largest mobile advertising marketplace will give developers an option for monetizing their applications on the open source device platform.

    The first developers to leverage AdMob’s new Android ad unit in their applications include AccuWeather, Jirbo, and TapJoy.

    AdMob’s presence will add another dimension to Google’s Android Market.

    While it now has more than 800 applications, that figure is dwarfed by Apple’s App Store, which has more than 15,000 apps.

    One reason for the gulf – aside from the fact Android only launched three months ago – is that Apple has the ability to offer paid apps.

    So the flood of developers rushing to the platform following the launch of T-Mobile’s G1 last October never happened.

    This is despite Google being seen as far less restrictive with regard to what apps could be created for Android.

    Android Market’s lack of a payment system is one reason.

    AdMob’s new Android ad unit will also allow brand and performance advertisers to reach consumers engaging with applications on their Android device.

    Advertisers will be able to use these ad units to drive customer actions such as going to the Android Market to download an application.

    AdMob already serves ads on mobile Web sites on the Android platform and received more than 27 million requests in December 2008.

    Building on the initial success of the G1 device, several new devices expected to come to market in 2009.

    More than 6,000 mobile sites and 450 iPhone applications are a part of AdMob’s publisher network worldwide.

  • Nimbuzz Strikes Deal With Spice Mobile


    Nimbuzz has agreed a distribution deal with Indian telecoms company Spice Mobiles.

    As a result Spice Mobile handsets will now have the Nimbuzz application pre-installed.

    Nimbuzz is a mobile instant messaging, (geo) presence and VoIP provider whose software allows users to chat, message and send files on the go.

    The deal also includes Spice Mobiles becoming a major distribution partner to join Nimbuzz’s global Manufacturer Affiliate Program.

    Spice Mobiles has approximately 25,000 retail outlets.

    Nimbuzz CEO, Evert-Jaap Lugt, said they had subscribers in over 200 countries and were growing at a rate of 20,000 new users per day.

    Nimbuzz CEO Evert_Jaap Lugt

    The Spice Mobiles deal is a global contract. In addition to India, pre-installed Spice Mobiles devices will be sold in other APAC territories.

    "This deal ensures significant market penetration for Nimbuzz across the APAC territories and we will be working closely with Spice Mobiles to encourage future shipment of new handsets,” said Lugt.

    Gartner expects India’s mobile user base of around 300 million to reach 737 million by 2012.

    Price Waterhouse Coopers reports the Indian mobile VAS market will reach USD $2 billion by the end of 2008 and expect it to account for 18 per cent of operator revenue by 2010.

    Spice Mobiles CEO, Kunal Ahooja, said the Indian market was experiencing soaring mobile usage and penetration.