market - 29/43 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Mar

Amazon Is On A Roll: Today's Free Premium Android Appstore App - SwiftKey Keyboard

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Deals, News

Without taking a break from yesterday's free Shazam Encore deal, Amazon is continuing its daily giveaway of awesome premium Android apps with another one of our favorites - SwiftKey Keyboard.

SwiftKey normally costs $1.99 in the Android Market ($1.79 in the Amazon Appstore), but for the next 24 hours, U.S. residents will be able to download it to their Digital Lockers for free, thereby claiming it forever. Even if you are not a fan of SwiftKey just yet, there is no reason to pass on this deal if you can get it - just do it now, then think and decide later.

Mar

Gameloft Turns To Amazon To Distribute Games On Android

Posted by Brad Ganley in Games, News

In a recent interview with Reuters, Gameloft stated that they will be focusing their attention on the Amazon App Store to distribute their games on the Android platform. The company's games are already insanely popular on Android (and iOS, for that matter), despite being actively opposed to Google's Android Market. Their Android offerings have thus far only been available on their website, so their move to a Market isn't so surprising.

Their reasoning for choosing the Amazon App Store? Consumers are already comfortable making payments through Amazon, and it provides a better ecosystem for game distribution. More importantly, though is that Gameloft sees Google's DRM to be wildly inadequate.

Mar

Hide Your Squares, Hide Your Rhombi: PewPew 2 Hits The Android Market

Posted by Zak Stinson in Games, News

PewPew, a beautiful retro style shooter (think Geometry Wars), was released for Android early February of this year and has found a rather receptive market. With its chaotic gameplay, attractive visuals, great frame rate and $0 price tag, it managed to bag a well deserved 1 million+ downloads in less than two months.

Yesterday, Jean-François Geyelin released PewPew 2, a follow-up to the popular game, onto the Android Market. While it is a little pricier at $2.81, it looks to be definitely worth it. This upgrade to the polygon-slaying good time of the original comes with many enhancements, including an increase in the number of game modes from 4 to 7, 5 unlockable ships, and multiple difficulty levels.

Mar

Verizon, Sprint Rule Android Market Share Among US Carriers. AT&T? Downright Embarassing

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Carriers, News

According to the latest from ad network Chitika, Android market share is far more lopsided than you probably imagine. That Verizon is the largest is perhaps not surprising, given the data we've seen time and time again. What is surprising is just how much of a lead they have: the company accounts for a whopping 51.4% of the market. Sprint comes in at second with 25.3%, while T-Mobile pulls up third with 16.8%. Meanwhile, AT&T checks in with a measly 3.6% - embarrassingly low, to say the least.

Given how much of a push T-Mobile has made with Android, it's perhaps surprising to see that they only have 16.8%; then again, they are the smallest of the four, and it's understandable that their market share would suffer commensurately.

Mar

Official Formula 1 App Crosses The Android Market Finish Line, Puts You At The Heart Of The Action

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Applications, News

The 2011 Formula One season is set to start this Sunday, and what better way to kick it off than with the introduction of the official F1 timing app for Android.

There have been a number of F1 apps available in the Android Market, however they have all had their shortcomings. Some have been slow, some have prematurely crashed, some have had cumbersome and ugly interfaces, and some just plain did not work. So, I am ecstatic that Formula1.com have finally decided to launch their own app, and I can't wait for the Australian Grand Prix this weekend to test it out.

Mar

Apple Sues Amazon Over Use Of 'App Store' Name

Posted by David Ruddock in Apps/Games, Development, News

Amazon's upcoming Android Market competitor, the Amazon Appstore, is in hot water for its namesake. On Monday, Apple filed a lawsuit in a California federal court claiming Amazon had infringed on its trademark of the phrase "App Store." Apple applied for a trademark to this name way back in 2008, but it wasn't approved until January of 2010. Since then, Microsoft has filed a dispute with the trademark office alleging that the grant was improper. That complaint's outcome is still pending.

In the meantime, Amazon may have a difficult time asserting that its use of "Appstore" (as opposed to "App Store") doesn't violate Apple's trademark - it's hard to deny that Apple's App Store is a well-know name in the mobile world.

Mar

Rovio (Of Angry Birds Fame) Valued At Over $200 Million, Has Already Raised $42 Million In Funding

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Apps/Games, Games, News, Off-Topic

The success that the Angry Birds games have brought to Rovio is stunning, really: the company was reportedly on the verge of bankruptcy when it released the game, and today, revenue is estimated to be between $50 and 70 million annually. It's perhaps no surprise, then, that the company raised $42 million in funding earlier this month, and they enjoyed the luxury of picking and choosing their investors. They even reportedly determined the terms of investment - quite the reversal of roles.

Rovio's valuation is estimated to be over $200 million already, but the company hopes that's merely the beginning.

Mar

Wank-O-Meter For Android - Yes, There Is An App For That; No, Steve Jobs Would Most Definitely Not Accept It In The App Store [WTF x100]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News, Off-Topic

This morning, I got a new app tip in my inbox with an inconspicuous subject "New android app." Not knowing what to expect, I opened it up and read the following, followed by the app's description:

Good news! We just launched a new essential android application: the Wankometer.

At this point, I stopped reading, experiencing conflicting feelings that can only be described as a mix of extreme WTFness, curiosity, and preliminary pride for the Android platform (I had a feeling that Steve Jobs would not let this app into the iOS App Store, and I was right).

I was not let down.

Mar

37 Best (And 3 WTF) New Android Apps, Games, And Live Wallpapers From Last Week (3/9/11 - 3/15/11)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Best Apps/Games/LWPs Of The Week, Games, News

Last Updated: April 13th, 2011

Welcome to the weekly roundup of the best new Android applications, games, and live wallpapers that went live in the Market or were spotted by us in the previous week or so.

One thing I'd like to point out this week - the apps are just getting prettier and prettier. They are no longer those ugly ogre-like beasts we used to see so much, but polished, pretty flowers (I mean, muscle cars, beer, bench press, aww, it's too late now).

Please wait for this page to load in full in order to see the AppBrain widgets, which include ratings and pricing info.

Mar

Amazon Accidentally Posts Android Apps, Reveals Pricing - Similar, But Sometimes Cheaper

Posted by Will Shanklin in Applications, News

Well look what we have here: it appears that the site androidnews.de has stumbled upon some (apparently accidentally) posted apps from Amazon's upcoming Android app store. What were the site's daring investigative journalistic practices that led to the discovery? According to Frank from the site, "This morning, just for funzies, I entered http://www.amazon.com/apps in the address bar and found myself on a site with a horizontal slider. 48 apps were shown there. Clicking on one of them doesn’t lead anywhere but the Amazon.com home page. It doesn’t matter, if you try it on a desktop or mobile browsers." While the links didn't take him anywhere special, the apps listed were all priced.