Big Momma Apps

Android dominates global growth but slows in the US

admin — Tue, 15 May 2012 14:14:25 +0000

An interesting post by Ingrid Lunden on Techcrunch suggests that phones build on the Android platform continue to sell at a fierce pace in global markets, but have slowed in the US. Of the 7 markets (England, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, US and Australia) surveyed by Kantar in the study, Spain had the greatest surge of Android phone sales, with 72% of the all smartphone sales. Whereas in the US Android accounted for 47.6% a decline of 6.6% over the same 12 week period last year in 2011. What does this mean? To me it suggests that Apple is still pretty darn popular in the US. Furthermore, it suggests that first time smartphone users may opt for Android devices simply because they are cheaper. It raises the question that has been batted around in the media for some time…. whether Apple will suffer (if or when) carrier subsidies go away. For now it is too soon to take an either or mentality, it is still the smart bet to build apps for both platforms.

Nielsen’s latest analysis on Smartphone Marketshare

admin — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:13:56 +0000

A new study published by Nielsen supports what we already know (with updated figures of course. Here are three key details:

1). 49.7% of all cell phone users in the US have smartphones (up from 36% this time last year).

2). Android now accounts for 48% of all smartphones in the US, up from 40%

3). iPhone now accounts for 32% of all smartphones in the US, up from 28%

The increases point to big declines for the “other” category: Blackberry, Nokia, Windows, etc.

Skype Founder trying to provide free web access for smartphone users

admin — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:21:23 +0000

Check out this interesting post on Techcrunch… sounds like Skype founder Niklas Zennstrom’s is attempting to revolutionize web access for smartphone users by providing free web access through an iPhone case that will act like a hotspot. The project called freedomPop project will provide 1G of free access. It appears that they will make their money on the sale (or deposit) of the phone case, additional services, and on users who elect higher bandwidth plans. Pretty interesting! Given Zeenstrom’s grandslam with Skype – I imagine he has plenty of resources at his disposal to make this happen. How cool would it be if he were able to disrupt traditional web access and deliver free access to smart phone users!

A little evidence to support the theory that Mobile use is spiking…

admin — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 04:37:15 +0000

According to a study published by Chitika Mobile web traffic has spiked 35% since July of 2011 and now accounts for 10.55% of all web traffic in the US. While the remaining 89% (+ /-) can still be attributed to traditional PCs – this study is the first that we’ve seen, that provides clear evidence to back up what everyone has believed to be true. Other signs that support the migration to mobile include: Mobile app downloads (at record highs), mobile device sales (also record breaking). All in all this is merely another bit of evidence to confirm that if you aren’t thinking Mobile – it’s time to start!

Apple goes bananas….

admin — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 22:09:09 +0000

It was hard to miss this news, as it was front page on most major journals: just prior to the release of the “new iPad” Apple CEO Tim Cook discussed the numbers. In short, Apple has sold a total of 315 million iOS devises (iPhones, iPads, iPod touches) since inception. Most incredible about these numbers is the fact that Apple sold 62 million devices in the 4th quarter of 2011 alone. Wow. We keep hearing about the fast growth and saturation of droid devices – but these 4th quarter results are FLAT OUT IMPRESSIVE. 15.4 million of the 62 million were iPads, which suggests that 40+ million were iPhones. What does this mean for those who are considering an app for their business? Apple ain’t going anywhere. When you consider the likelihood that people will stick with Apple once they buy Apple, developing apps for the Apple ecosystem should be a great play for many years to come.

Android Apps Surge to 1 Billion Downloads every 30 days

admin — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:28:36 +0000

On December 6, Google announced a major milestone, one that might be making Apple a little nervous… and more importantly one that may give incentive to developers to start prioritizing Android

While Apple is winning the platform war on the ‘total download’ front with 20 Billion estimated total downloads, Android is setting a blistering pace. Consider this, as reported by Jason Kincaid of Techcruch here in July of 2010 Android reached 1 billion downloads, one year later in July of 2011 the total reached 6 billion, but as of December 1st they were at 10 billion. The current pace is projecting out at 1 billion downloads every 30 days. This is in part due to number of Android phones that are being activated on a daily basis (550,000) and the projected number of Andorid phones that are aimed at middle and low price points.

This surge in the Android market further suggests that law firms and small businesses should develop apps not only for the iPhone but for Android as well.

Trevor Eckhart raises privacy concerns about CarrierIQ

admin — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 15:57:45 +0000

This past week on Android Security Trevor Eckhart raised privacy concerns about CarrierIQ the diagnostic tool installed on an estimated 150 million Android phones on the Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile networks. Google indicated that the software was installed at the carrier level and was not build into Android. In short, CarrierIQ allows carriers to track every single key stroke, text, and the URL of every website a person visits from their phone, including websites that use encryption designed to prevent that kind of tracking. While the software does not “report back” the information it gathers it is stored on the phone) it nevertheless raises serious privacy concerns. The primary question is whether the data collected could be used by a hacker who obtained your phone. The secondary concern is how and why the carriers would use the data if they were to access it. The issue is succinctly covered on CNN and with more background / detail on InformationWeek. Hopefully, the carriers respond to the ground swell of demands (including a demand letter by Senator Al Franken) by removing CarrierIQ and other like apps to eliminate such risks.

Attention all Kids – Google / NORAD release updated Santa Tracker App

admin — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 16:23:45 +0000

NORAD and Google released an updated Santa tracker! Visit their website here, download the iPhone App here or the Android App here.

The updated app utilizes google earth and allows you to track Santa’s movement across social media including google+. Awesome!!

Great Checklist of Legal Considerations for Building an App

admin — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 17:02:23 +0000

I stumbled across this article by Attorney Alysa Hutnik – originally published in May 2011 – it provides a good succinct checklist of legal considerations that are important for building an app; read the article here on Mashable.

Android the front runner in Smartphone market share

admin — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:10:20 +0000

Yesterday Marketresearch.com announced that Android has attained 32% of the smartphone market share, up from a mere 13% in 2010. All projections suggest that the Google powered Android platform will continue to dominate the mass market as the fastest growing sector is the mid-tier, lower priced segment of the smartphone marketplace. If we were to liken the smartphone market to the auto market, iPhone seems to be a niche luxury brand, much like BMW, whereas Android is positioned to be the transmission that powers all the major mass market vehicles: Ford, Chevy, Toyota, Honda and all the smaller up and coming niche makers. This can be seen in the adoption of lower priced smartphones coming out of vendors based in China and India that will utilize the android operating system. With Google’s acquisition of Motorola they gained much needed ammunition for any legal defenses related to patient infringement – as they acquired over 24,000 current and pending patents.

Great. So what does this mean for mobile app development? We recommend that they you position yourself for both markets. If your considering building an app, build two: one for iphone and one for droid marketplace.