Facebook sees rise in Mobile apps integration

 Metrics Maid  No Responses »
Oct 082012
 

Facebook has revealed figures that show that an astounding 185,000 iOS and Android apps have Facebook integration, driving downloads through Facebook’s sharing and recommendation functionality.

The figures revealed that 55 percent of the top 40 grossing iOS apps are connected to the social network. The company added that the platform drives more than 170 million app referrals to Apple’s App Store and Google Play each month as users interact with the activities of their friends on various apps.

The social network’s app centre, which is home to both mobile and web apps, has more than 22 million monthly active users.

Micromax beats Samsung and Apple in terms of tablets sold in India

 Metrics Maid  No Responses »
Oct 082012
 

At times, it pays to be local. Micromax, the name behind super cheap mobiles and now tablets has emerged as a clear leader for tablets segments in India.

According to CyberMedia Research, Tablet shipment in India grew by 673 percent year-on-year and 59 percent over the preceding quarter to reach 0.55 million units. According to the report, Micromax had a 18.4 percent market share followed by Samsung at 13.3 percent and Apple at 12.3 percent.

The key factors responsible for these figures are an appetite for 7 inch form factor which is favored over 10+ inches and the price factor. While Tablets used to sell for around Rs. 25000 ($1=Rs 55) a year back, their prices have almost reached the Rs 12000-15000 mark, with a horde of vendors offering them for as low as Rs 6000.

We await the launch of the iPad mini and Windows 8 Tablets. Only then would be there some real competition for Micromax. Until  then, we should hail it as the king.

AMD bridges Android and PC gap

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Oct 052012
 

The computer processor company AMD has announced an app store to bridge the prevalent gap in smooth running of the Android apps on the computer. This store will showcase how the apps will be optimized for its processors. With this, we will be able to download and run popular Android apps on AMD based PC running Windows. The joint efforts of Blue Stack and AMD have enabled the AMS AppZone Player which in turn has led to such possibilities.

amdlogo AMD bridges Android and PC gap

This is expected to be a big leap to bridge the gap and enabling the Android apps to be run on AMD-powered devices. With this collaboration, the software developers will now be able to easily tap AMD’s products and keep the great expectations of the users satisfied. Manju Hegde, corporate VP of heterogeneous applications and developer solutions at AMD confirmed the news.

Further, users will be able to download featured apps directly from the AppZone Player or search for the AppZone store. This collaboration is a success already and they are now planning and working with leading OEMs to preload the player on the upcoming AMD-powered devices.

We are waiting fingers crossed for more surprises. Thanks to AMD for the good news!

Apple App Store phishing in Canada

 News  No Responses »
Oct 022012
 

When it comes to all things A, many an user turns off all ratio – which is why the fruit-named brand is often used for all kinds of shady stuff.

Sophos now reports the following scam:

Dear Apple Customer,

Apple is rewarding its long-term customers. Your loyalty for our products made you eligible for buying an Apple Discount Card. With this only 9 AU$ Discount Card you will have 100 AU$ credit at any Australian Apple Store or on http://www.apple.com/au/ .

To acquire your Apple Discount Card please download and complete the attached form.

100 AU$ Credit Bonus

( You will receive your Apple Discount Card via e-mail in the following 24 hours after your payment has been made.)

Should you receive such an email, just delete it – hell would freeze over before Apple gives you sth for free….

16% of European smartphone users scan QR codes

 Metrics Maid, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Oct 022012
 

The idea of using cell phones to interact with ads is not new – T-Mobile Austria deployed IR Kiosks all over Vienna about six years ago (see here and here).
anasta 16% of European smartphone users scan QR codes erram 16% of European smartphone users scan QR codes

As cameras in cell phones became better, QR codes replaced the now-unpopular IR booths. Accoding to ComScore, these codes become more and more popular every day:

Smartphone Audience Scanning QR Codes via their Devices
3 Month Average Ending July 2012 vs. July 2011
Total EU5 (DE, ES, FR, IT and UK), Age 13+
Source: comScore MobiLens
  Smartphone Audience (000) YoY Growth % of Smartphone Audience YoY Percentage Point Increase
EU5 17,390 96% 14.1% +4.0
France 2,843 71% 12.5% +1.9
Germany 5,084 128% 18.6% +6.1
Italy 2,765 75% 11.9% +3.2
Spain 3,381 218% 16.0% +9.0
UK 3,316 43% 11.4% +0.6

The result of most of the queries is the obtaining of product information – this is broken down further in the table below:

Result of Scanning QR Codes by Percent of Smartphone Scanning Audience
3 Month Average Ending July 2012
Total EU5 (DE, ES, FR, IT and UK), Age 13+
Source: comScore MobiLens
  Penetration (%) of QR Code Users
EU5 France Germany Italy Spain UK
Product information 71.7% 65.4% 77.9% 69.2% 71.1% 70.1%
Event information 31.8% 32.7% 28.9% 36.4% 36.5% 27.0%
Charity/cause information 12.1% 9.5% 10.0% 18.6% 13.4% 10.8%
Coupon or offer 19.4% 20.3% 19.6% 17.6% 22.2% 17.0%
Application download 13.4% 17.5% 11.4% 14.8% 13.7% 11.2%

Not much to add here…

TechCrunch on changes in the Apple iTunes store

 News  No Responses »
Oct 012012
 

When iOS 6 was released, the App Store was redesigned. For some developers, this has caused significant benefits – others lost a lot of sales.

TechCrunch has now done a pretty detailed analysis which also contains an interesting presentation from AppCod.es. Their findings read as following:

Although it can be a challenge to get the keywords right, doing so can actually mean a boost in discovery as users begin to craft more targeted search queries. For example (see below), an app that ranks low on the charts for “poker” might be in the number one position for “poker casino.”

Find out more via the URL below:
http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/29/five-big-changes-in-the-ios-6-app-store-and-what-developers-should-do/

FireFox OS to grab 1% marketshare by 2013

 Metrics Maid  No Responses »
Sep 302012
 

We started covering FireFox OS when it was still called Boot to Gecko – the webOS “imitator” is also based on HTML5 and will use the “browser” as an app runtime.
1 FireFox OS to grab 1% marketshare by 2013

Mobile Business Briefing now claims the following:

Mozilla’s mobile platform, Firefox OS, will take a 1 percent share of the global smartphone market by the end of 2013, as it carves out a niche in the entry-level phone space currently dominated by Android.

Strategy Analytics forecasts that the open source, low-cost platform which supports HTML5 apps, will benefit from the interest it has gained from hardware vendors and operators.
…

Hit the link below to see our MWC coverage:
http://tamspalm.tamoggemon.com/2012/02/29/mozilla-boot-to-gecko-webos-reloaded/

On FaceBook for marketing

 Metrics Maid  No Responses »
Sep 292012
 

The recent political turmoil has given FaceBook a lot of attention – after all, many popular uprisings have been started on FaceBook. This has caused mobile developers and operators to think about using FaceBook for marketing – the question is if this makes sense.

The Danish research firm StrandConsult has now provided us with an except of their analysus on why FaceBook is not well-suited to carrier marketing. Some of the points also apply to smaller houses, which is why the most important ones are right here:

2. Facebook boasts a “free” and open platform. This misleads operators to think that Facebook is an inexpensive medium for marketing. To control its costs and force companies to pay up, Facebook limits the distribution of a company’s message to its fan base, so only a fraction of the fans see the company’s posts. Facebook is not interested to talk to you unless you are already a major brand and are willing to invest hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars in advertising. The dirty little secret about Facebook is that you have to pay to play.

7. Facebook doesn’t build brands; it reflects brands. The biggest brands on Facebook already have a large presence outside of Facebook, and they have large advertising/marketing budgets both online and offline. Almost no companies have been able to build a brand on Facebook from scratch.

10. Facebook can change its terms of service for any reason at any time and with no warning. These changes can have material and negative impacts to operators. One example was when Facebook announced its change to the Timeline format. All those tabs and apps the mobile operators developed, the mini-websites within Facebook so to speak, were made nearly invisible. . Collectively, companies spent hundreds of millions of dollars to customize their Facebook page, and thousands of independent Facebook developers and agencies sprung up in the process. With one announcement, Facebook effectively and instantly rendered operators’ investment on their platform worthless.

Did your company see success on FaceBook?

Opera on cell phones in Latin America

 Metrics Maid  No Responses »
Sep 282012
 

When it comes to localizing applications, developers profit a lot from having access to top-lists for the various countries. Opera makes these available from time to time.

Of course, this list contains only J2ME-Capable devices (and the iPhone) – nevertheless, it could be more than useful for determining which locales to target:

Antigua and Barbuda

Top 10 handsets
1. Nokia C3-00
2. BlackBerry 8520
3. Nokia X2-01
4. Apple iPhone
5. Apple_iPod
6. BlackBerry 9700
7. BLU Magic
8. BLU
9. Motorola XT502
10. BlackBerry 9780

Argentina

Top 10 handsets
1. Nokia C3-00
2. Nokia 5130c
3. Nokia 2220s
4. Nokia C2-01
5. Nokia N8
6. Alcatel OT-802A
7. SonyEricsson E15a
8. Nokia X2-01
9. Samsung GT-I5500L
10. Samsung GT-S5830L

Bahamas

Top 10 handsets
1. Nokia C3-00
2. BlackBerry 8520
3. Apple iPhone
4. Nokia X2-01
5. Apple_iPod
6. SonyEricsson W800i
7. Apple iPad
8. Samsung GT-S5360L
9. BlackBerry 9800
10. BlackBerry 9550

Barbados

Top 10 handsets
1. Nokia C3-00
2. Alcatel OT-606
3. BlackBerry 8520
4. Nokia X2-01
5. Apple iPhone
6. Nokia 5130c
7. Nokia C2-01
8. SonyEricsson W200i
9. BlackBerry 9700
10. Nokia 2690

Belize

Top 10 handsets
1. Alcatel OT-800
2. Nokia C3-00
3. BlackBerry 8520
4. Alcatel OT-880
5. Nokia 2690
6. Nokia 2700c
7. Nokia 2730c
8. Alcatel OT-606
9. Apple iPhone
10. SonyEricsson W800i

Colombia

Top 10 handsets
1. Nokia C3-00
2. BlackBerry 8520
3. BlackBerry 9300
4. Samsung GT-S3350
5. Nokia 2220s
6. Samsung GT-S5830L
7. Nokia 5130c
8. Nokia C1-01
9. Samsung GT-S5260
10. Apple iPhone

Chile

Top 10 handsets
1. Nokia C3-00
2. LG T310
3. Samsung GT-I5500L
4. Samsung GT-S5570L
5. Samsung GT-S5830L
6. SonyEricsson E15a
7. LG P500h
8. LG P350g
9. BlackBerry 8520
10. Samsung GT-I9100

Costa Rica

Top 10 handsets
1. Nokia 2730c
2. Nokia C2-01
3. Nokia C3-00
4. Nokia X3-02
5. Nokia 7230
6. SonyEricsson E15a
7. Nokia C1-01
8. Nokia 5130c
9. Nokia N8
10. Nokia 2690

Dominica

Top 10 handsets
1. BlackBerry 8520
2. Nokia C3-00
3. SonyEricsson W800
4. BlackBerry 9700
5. BlackBerry 8900
6. BlackBerry 9550
7. Nokia C3
8. BlackBerry 9300
9. Samsung SGHi600
10. BlackBerry 9000

Dominican Republic

Top 10 handsets
1. Nokia C3-00
2. BlackBerry 8520
3. Alcatel OT-802A
4. Apple iPhone
5. Alcatel OT-800
6. BlackBerry 9700
7. Alcatel OT-807
8. BlackBerry 9300
9. Alcatel OT-710
10. BlackBerry 8530

Ecuador

Top 10 handsets
1. Nokia C3-00
2. Nokia 5130c
3. BlackBerry 8520
4. Nokia X3-02
5. Nokia 2690
6. Samsung GT-S5830B
7. Nokia X2-00
8. Nokia C1-01
9. Nokia 303
10. BlackBerry 9300

El Salvador

Top 10 handsets
1. Nokia C3-00
2. Maui E800
3. BlackBerry 8520
4. Nokia 5130c
5. Nokia X2-01
6. Alcatel OT-802A
7. Nokia 2220s
8. Samsung GT-S3350
9. Alcatel OT-710
10. Nokia 2730c

Grenada

Top 10 handsets
1. Nokia C3-00
2. BlackBerry 8520
3. SonyEricsson W800
4. Nokia C3
5. BlackBerry 9700
6. Apple iPhone_ver1
7. BlackBerry 8900
8. BlackBerry 9300
9. BlackBerry 9000
10. BlackBerry 9800

Guatemala

Top 10 handsets
1. Nokia C3-00
2. Alcatel OT-606
3. Maui E800
4. BlackBerry 8520
5. Alcatel OT-880
6. Alcatel OT-800
7. Nokia C1-01
8. Nokia 2220s
9. Nokia 2730c
10. Alcatel OT-799

Guyana

Top 10 handsets
1. BlackBerry 8520
2. Alcatel OT-606
3. Nokia C3-00
4. Samsung SGH-A517
5. Motorola_MOT-Z3
6. Apple iPhone
7. Alcatel OT-800
8. BlackBerry 9300
9. Nokia 2690
10. Nokia 2700c

Haiti

Top 10 handsets
1. BlackBerry 8520
2. SonyEricsson W800i
3. Samsung SGH-A437
4. Nokia C3-00
5. Nokia C1-01
6. Samsung SGH-A737
7. Samsung SGH-A707
8. BlackBerry 9700
9. BlackBerry 8900
10. BlackBerry 8310

Honduras

Top 10 handsets
1. Nokia C3-00
2. BlackBerry 8520
3. Alcatel OT-606
4. Nokia 5130c
5. Nokia 2220s
6. Nokia 2730c
7. Alcatel OT-800
8. Apple iPhone
9. Motorola EX108
10. BlackBerry 9300

Mexico

Top 10 handsets
1. Nokia C3-00
2. BlackBerry8520
3. Alcatel OT-808A
4. Samsung GT-S5830L
5. LG GM360
6. Alcatel OT-800A
7. Nokia 5130c
8. Samsung GT-S5233T
9. Nokia 303
10. Alcatel OT-802A

Nicaragua

Top 10 handsets
1. Nokia C3-00
2. Nokia 2730c
3. BlackBerry 8520
4. Nokia 7230
5. SonyEricsson W205a
6. Alcatel OT-606
7. Nokia 2220s
8. Nokia X3-02
9. Nokia 5130c
10. Samsung GT-S5233T

Panama

Top 10 handsets
1. Nokia C3-00
2. Nokia C1-01
3. Nokia 2220s
4. Nokia 2690
5. Samsung GT-S5830L
6. BlackBerry 8520
7. Samsung GT-S5830M
8. Samsung GT-S5570L
9. Nokia X2-01
10. Samsung GT-S5360L

Peru

Top 10 handsets
1. Alcatel OT-606
2. Alcatel OT-710
3. Nokia C3-00
4. SonyEricsson W800i
5. Samsung GT-S5570L
6. Nokia 5130c
7. Alcatel OT-800A
8. Nokia C1-01
9. BlackBerry 8520
10. Nokia 2330c

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Top 10 handsets
1. Nokia C3-00
2. BlackBerry 8520
3. BlackBerry 9700
4. SonyEricsson W800
5. BlackBerry 9550
6. Nokia C3
7. BlackBerry 9800
8. BlackBerry 9780
9. SonyEricsson W800i
10. BlackBerry 8900

Saint Lucia

Top 10 handsets
1. Nokia C3-00
2. BlackBerry 8520
3. Apple iPhone
4. BlackBerry 9700
5. Apple_iPod
6. BlackBerry 9780
7. BlackBerry 9300
8. BlackBerry 9800
9. SonyEricsson W800i
10. BlackBerry 8900

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Top 10 handsets
1. Nokia C3-00
2. SonyEricsson W800
3. BlackBerry 8520
4. Nokia C3
5. Nokia N72
6. BlackBerry 9700
7. BlackBerry 9800
8. Nokia E63
9. BlackBerry 9300
10. BlackBerry 9000

Suriname

Top 10 handsets
1. BlackBerry 8520
2. Nokia C3-00
3. Nokia 5130c
4. SonyEricsson W800i
5. BlackBerry 9700
6. Nokia 2690
7. Alcatel OT-880
8. Nokia C1-01
9. Alcatel OT-800
10. Nokia 2700c

Trinidad and Tobago

Top 10 handsets
1. Nokia C3-00
2. BlackBerry 8520
3. Nokia 2690
4. Nokia C1-01
5. Nokia 2220s
6. BlackBerry 9300
7. Nokia C1-01
8. Nokia 5130c
9. Apple iPhone
10. SonyEricsson W800i

Uruguay

Top 10 handsets
1. Alcatel OT-606
2. Nokia C3-00
3. Alcatel OT-710
4. Alcatel OT-808
5. SonyEricsson W800i
6. Alcatel OT-660
7. Samsung GT-S5230
8. BlackBerry 8520
9. Nokia X3-02
10. Nokia X3-00

Venezuela

Top 10 handsets
1. Alcatel OT-606
2. Nokia C3-00
3. Alcatel OT-880
4. Alcatel OT-800A
5. Huawei UM840
6. Nokia 2730c
7. Nokia C1-01
8. BlackBerry8520
9. Alcatel OT-606
10. Nokia X2-01

Get the full PDF with population information here:
http://media.opera.com/media/smw/2012/smw082012.pdf

iPhone 5 torn down

 News  No Responses »
Sep 252012
 

When it comes to figuring out what’s inside a handset, very few sources are as useful as iFixit.

They recently got an iPhone 5 into their hands and scored its repariability very favourable:

Good news for all the phone droppers out there: the front glass/display is the first thing that comes off the iPhone 5! Replacing a cracked front panel is significantly easier than the iPhone 4/4S.

And the further we delved, the more excited we got — even though we had to remove two pentalobe screws to get inside. The oft-broken and hard to repair home button now sports an integrated metal support bracket that should reduce the chance of failure, and the battery comes out just as easily as in last year’s model. Overall, the iPhone 5 received a very solid 7/10 repairability score!

In addition to that, the press release contained the usual list of interesting stuff – some of which is below:

* Because the iPhone 5 is opened front-to-back, replacing a cracked screen is going to be easier than ever. Thank you, Apple! Compare this to the iPhone 4S, where it took 38 [repair guide] steps to isolate the display assembly, and this iPhone may be the most repairable iPhone we’ve seen in a while.

* Unlike the iPhone 4S, which used a linear-oscillating vibrator, Apple has gone back to a rotational motor with a counterweight. We praised Apple in the past for going with the quieter and less annoying linear oscillating vibrator, but now we’re scratching our heads as to why they went back.

* Apple’s newest iteration of its classic home button sports an integrated metal support bracket, which we hope will greatly strengthen the oft-used switch. Many iPhone 4 and 4S users have experienced the woes of worn out home buttons, which are somewhat involved to repair. This new design should not only increase longevity, but also make replacing the home button a lot less of a hassle.

* Apple is very proud of their decision to use a sapphire crystal in their new-and-improved camera. Sapphire would be a sensible choice to use as the outermost camera element because it is remarkably hard — a 9/10 on the Mohs hardness scale. We tried scratching the clear cover with a pair of steel tweezers and the lens remained scratch-free. While this doesn’t confirm that the protective cover is made from sapphire crystal, it does mean that it is quite hard and scratch resistant.

For all those of you interested in pictures, the URL below might be interesting:
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone-5-Teardown/10525/1

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