17
Apr
2013-04-17_16h28_43

AppAnnie: Play Store Downloads Reach Nearly 90% Of App Store Levels, iOS Still Bringing In 2.6x Revenue

Posted by in Android OS, Google, News
Last Updated: April 19th, 2013

Back in January, we learned that if you want to be a developer and avoid leaving money on the table, you need to be on both Android and iOS. One or the other isn't going to cut it. However, according to AppAnnie, if you have to choose just one platform, Android is still struggling to prove it's the one you should go with.

According to the report, Play Store downloads are nearing App Store levels, reaching close to 90% as much as the iOS store. Unfortunately, equal exposure isn't quite translating to equal revenue. As it turns out, Apple's platform is still bringing in about 2.6 times as much revenue as Google's counterpart.

03
Apr
CyanogenMod-logo1

[Update: Never Mind!] CyanogenMod Will No Longer Allow Opting Out Of CM Stats – Cyanogen Says To Chill

Posted by in News

Update: So, scratch all that. Steve Kondik took to G+ today to say that CM will return the opt-out option and will not require users to share data. Though it's with a heavy heart, it seems. Expressing some exasperation, he had this to say on the matter:

It's incredibly frustrating that a handful of incredibly vocal users are ready to "fork" over the issue. News flash: there are already a hundred forks of CM... In the end though, we should respect everyone's wishes here.

CyanogenMod is one of the most popular Android ROMs as far as anyone can tell. It's actually hard to know for sure.

02
Apr
nexusae0_1_thumb5

Google Releases Android Platform Distribution Numbers For March With New Collection Method – Gingerbread Down To 39.8%, Jelly Bean Hits 25%

Posted by in Android OS, Gingerbread 2.3, Google, Jelly Bean 4.1, Jelly Bean 4.2, News

Well, it's that time again – time for the monthly update to Android's Platform Distribution Numbers. Each month, Google publishes the latest figures, letting developers know what versions of Android are currently dominating active devices.

This month, we're seeing a familiar pattern – Gingerbread is continuing its slow descent, hitting 39.8%, down from 44.2% this time last month. Meanwhile the latest and greatest – Jelly Bean – accounts for exactly 25% of the overall distribution, meaning it's finally hit one quarter of all tallied devices. That, for those interested, marks a nearly 9% jump from last month's 16.5% figure.

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Ice Cream Sandwich is still strangely climbing, hitting 29.3% up from 28.6% in February.

19
Dec
2012-12-19_17h29_28

Millenial Media: Samsung Ad Impressions Market Share Doubled In Last Year While HTC And Motorola Halved

Posted by in Android OS, News

If you needed any clearer indication that Samsung basically owns the Android world while HTC and Motorola are in trouble, maybe this will help. According to Millenial Media, a mobile advertising firm, ad impressions on its platform from Samsung handsets shot up from 23% to 46% in the last year. Meanwhile, HTC plummeted from 32% to 16%, while Moto dropped from 22% to 11%. This is a massive change.

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Now, before we go getting bent out of shape over this, let's clarify a couple things. First off, this is coming from ad impressions. What that means is that it has no tangible relationship to units sold or profits made by a company.

06
Dec
google logo

Google+ Is The 'Fastest Growing Network Thingy Ever': 500m Users Upgraded, 235m Active Across Web, 135m In The Stream

Posted by in Google, News

As if the news out of Google couldn't get any hotter today, the company decided to just casually announce that it has over 500 million users with Google+ accounts, 235 million of whom are active "across Google" which means anything from +1ing things in various Google products to "connecting with friends in Search"...whatever that means. The most important stat, though, is 135 million users are active in the stream. That means, if we can assume past definitions are still true, those users either visit plus.google.com or use the mobile app to view content.

In other words, it's time to stop pretending that Google+ is a ghost town.

04
Dec
2012-12-04_11h41_24

Google's Knowledge Graph Expands To Several New Languages Including Spanish, French, Russian And Japanese

Posted by in Google, News

Under the hood of Google Now, powering all those beautiful cards that pop up when you search for certain things, is Google's Knowledge Graph. In what might be the company's most ambitious project ever, Google aims to categorize and classify all information so that when you search for, say, Jeff Goldbum, the search engine knows you might also be interested in information about Chaos Theory or survival tips for raptor attacks. Today, the company announced an extension to this already-huge product: availability in Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Japanese, Russian, and Italian. Pretty huge.

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As Google briefly explains, this endeavor is about more than just translating words ("'football' means something quite different in the U.S.

02
Oct
crownbugdroid

New Marketshare Numbers Show Android Holding Its Lead Worldwide, ComScore Says US Smartphones Will Soon Become Majority

Posted by in News

Every so often, with all the new device releases, lawsuits, feature scandals, and scathing editorials that fly back and forth across the tech world, it's nice to step back and take a look at the state of the industry from the comforting safe haven of numbers. ComScore's recent round of stats shows an unsurprising yet telling look at the US mobile industry. Predictably, Android remains the top dog with iOS following closely behind. For the period from May to August, gains made by both platforms were much higher than they were between February to May. Obviously summer is a pretty big time to buy smartphones, especially given the late-June launch of the Galaxy S III in the states.

05
Sep
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Latest Android Distribution Stats Now Available – Jelly Bean Reaches 1.2%, Gingerbread Still Dominates At 57.5%

Posted by in Android OS, Gingerbread 2.3, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, Jelly Bean 4.1, News

With the end of another month, we now have another set of Android platform distribution numbers to look at. Updated today, the stats reveal that Gingerbread is still dominating by quite a large margin, with Ice Cream Sandwich climbing and Jelly Bean making its own gains. Take a look for yourself:

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First up is Gingerbread. While its stranglehold on the distribution chart is still going strong, it has dropped off just a little bit since the last cycle, sliding from 60.3% of all devices to 57.5% last month. Ice Cream Sandwich, meanwhile, has climbed from 15.8% to nearly 21%, which definitely sounds promising.

03
Sep
wordpresstiny

WordPress For Android Gets A Small Update, Now Supports Featured Images And Has A New Stats View

Posted by in Applications, News

Good news for you independent bloggers out there! WordPress just issued a small update to its mobile app. The biggest change is that you can now add featured images to a post. Featured images, of course, are treated differently in WordPress entries than in-line images and are often used as thumbnails, so it's been a bit of a problem that the app hasn't made it easy to add them until now.

Here's the full changelog:

What's new in version 2.2:
- Featured image support
- New stats view
- Performance and reliability improvements

Unfortunately, WordPress doesn't get updated quite as much as one would like.

30
Jul
yahoosportstiny

Yahoo! Sports Beyond Gold 2012 Provides Mobile Olympics Coverage, Just Like You'd Expect

Posted by in Applications, News

The games are underway in London and the whole world is watching. If you'd like to follow the course of the events without spending the next couple weeks glued to your television, Yahoo! may just have you covered. The app is decidedly slick-looking, though some users have reported some trouble with the app, however in our test runs, it's worked adequately. Your mileage may vary.

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The app has sections for news, photos, and quick access to which countries have won what medals for which events. Because, really, isn't that why we all watch? The app seems fully featured for the casual viewer, though it lacks any video streams, so it's not quite the complete experience, but it should be plenty to keep you update while you're away from the telly.

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