ios - 6/9 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Mar

Number Of Apps In Android Market Rapidly Gaining On Apple's App Store, But Android Tablets Aren't So Lucky

Posted by Will Shanklin in Android OS, Applications, News

If your Apple fanboy friends (surely you have at least one somewhere) like to taunt you with the old "iOS has more apps than Android" spiel, then you may not have to grudgingly agree with them for much longer. Business Insider published data this week that shows the Android Market's number of apps continuing to rapidly approach the amount of apps in Apple's marketplace. While the Market's trailing of the App Store by 100,000 applications would not, at a casual glance, appear to be encouraging, the rate of growth is clearly in Android's favor. In October that same gap was 185,000.

Mar

Love For Android! Portions Of $100 Million Fund Set Aside To Help Indie Devs Port From iOS To Android

Posted by Will Shanklin in Applications, News

If you are an indie developer who has had success with iOS apps, your prospects of porting your work to Android may have just improved. Social gaming platform OpenFeint and Chinese game operator The9 have committed unknown portions of a staggering $100 million fund to help move things along. The two companies will review games based on quality, downloads, and the strength of the game developer to determine who the lucky beneficiaries will be.

It was reported elsewhere that an entire $100 million was being allocated exclusively for porting from iOS to Android, but that was a misinterpretation: the $100 million Fund9 also supports "mobile app, game engine, and platform technology developers around the world." It is currently unknown exactly what portion of this will be devoted to Android development, but we certainly welcome any of it as good news.

Mar

Apple Envy Begone! Pocket Legends Is More Profitable On Android Than On iOS

Posted by Will Shanklin in Applications, Games, News

Calling all Android fanboys: we have some news that might make you puff your chest out a little bit more than usual today. Spacetime Studios, developer of the popular cross-platform game Pocket Legends, says that they make more money from Android than they do from iOS.

The studio claims that daily activity on Android is double that of iOS - in fact, they say the online RPG is downloaded about 9,000 times a day on Android, compared to 3,000-4,000 times per day on iOS. Android users play the game about three times more than Apple's gamers (which is a major statistic considering the majority of their profit comes from in-app purchases).

Mar

ZeptoLab Releases Video Teaser Of Cut The Rope For Android - Coming Soon To The Market Near You

Posted by Will Shanklin in Games, News

While we Android users seldom admit to jealousy of any kind when it comes to iPhones, one of the more popular games for iOS, Cut The Rope, can really turn us green with envy. Back in October, we pined to have an Android version and were given a vague hint from the developer that it would be coming eventually. That day may be finally approaching soon, as it was revealed on developer ZeptoLab's Twitter account today that the incredibly fun game is headed to Android.

The clever puzzler involves cutting ropes, blowing bubbles, and other tasks in order to deliver candy to a cute little monster named Om Nom.

Feb

Zynga Releases Words With Friends For Android

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Words With Friends, the wildly popular iOS game by everyone's favorite company Zynga, has come to Android, after weeks of anticipation. WWF is one of the most addicting and well made word games on the planet, and as of a few hours ago, you can download it for free from the Android Market.

Here's the best part: Words With Friends is cross-platform, so you can play up to 20 simultaneous games and kick your iOS buddies' butts all at the same time. In-game chat and push notifications that tell you when it's your turn will help keeping you addicted. According to Zynga, the game looks great on both Android handsets and tablets, so fire up all your brain cells - you're going to need them.

Feb

Android, iOS and BlackBerry In A Three-Way Tie In The US In Q4 2010

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Android OS, News

According to Don Kellogg from the Nielsen Company, 31% of all mobile phone users in the U.S. own some type of a smartphone. More interestingly, it appears that the race for market share in the U.S. by the leading smartphone platforms - Android, iOS and BlackBerry - is in a dead heat.

We have already learnt from analysts at Canalys that shipments of Android-based smartphones globally commanded a 32.9% share of the market, followed by devices running Nokia's Symbian OS at 30.6%, Apple's iPhone OS at 16%, and RIM's BlackBerry OS at 14.4%. Nielsen's report today shows that RIM and Apple are still fairly popular in the US, being on equal terms with Android in terms of market share.

Jan

Google Hiring Android Developers To Create Apps In-House

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Android OS, Apps/Games, News

Although, the Android Market has exploded recently, it is no secret that apps on the iOS platform consistently look and perform better. With revenues from mobile apps set to triple this year, Google is going on a mass hiring spree to find developers to create quality apps for the Android Market, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Google, like Apple, takes a 30% cut for every app sold in the Market. However, with paid app sales failing to live up to expectations, Google is hoping to increase its revenue stream by improving the overall quality of the apps available in the Market.

Jan

Remember The New Toshiba Tablet Site? This Is What Happens If You Visit It On An iOS Device

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in News, Thrive / Regza / Antares / AT100, Toshiba

Last Updated: April 16th, 2011

You didn't think Toshiba would let Motorola take jabs at Apple without throwing one of its own, did you?

^{Motorola called the iPad a giant iPhone back in December}

Remember the Toshiba Tablet teaser site we found yesterday? Here is what happens when you visit it from an iOS device:

Such a Shame.
Add this to the list of the interesting places on the internet you can't see on your device. Of course, if you had a Toshiba Tablet you would enjoy the entire internet. Yep, Flash sites too.

Nicely done, Toshiba, besides the fact that, you know, nobody has the said Toshiba Tablet because it hasn't been released or even given a name yet.

Jan

Android Now #1 US Smartphone OS On Millennial's Network, Chitika Is All "LOLWUT"

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, News

Every month, mobile advertiser Millennial Media releases their Mobile Mix, a report detailing where things stand in the mobile industry. This month marks a significant first, as well as some all-around good news for Android. Their highlights:

For the first time, Android surpassed iOS as the largest Smartphone OS on the Millennial network, with an 8% increase month-over-month and 46% impression share on our network in December. The iOS currently has a 32% share
Android ad requests grew 141% from Q3 to Q4 and since January, Android has grown 3130%
Android devices represented 16 of the top 30 mobile devices on the Millennial network
When breaking down the revenue generated by apps in Q4—Android had a 55% share as opposed to 39% for Apple.