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May

Mobile Research Firm Predicts Android Market Will Surpass Apple App Store In Number Of Apps In August 2011

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Apps/Games, News

Analyst Egle Mikalajunaite of research2guidance has modeled the growth of the Android Market and Apple App Store, and based on his predictions, the former will overtake the latter in August of this year. While we're generally pretty weary of these sort of predictions, the short-term nature certainly makes this much more plausible.

The graph largely speaks for itself, but there's a bit more to be said in terms of specific numbers. First, according to their numbers, the Market has been adding more apps per month since October of 2010. Second, it's since continued to pick up the pace (notice that you can see it ramp up quite dramatically beginning in August of 2010).

Apr

Buy.com Releases Official Android App

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

To shopaholics' delight, Internet superstore Buy.com quietly graced us with its official Android app this evening. After playing with it for a few minutes, I found it to be quite similar to Amazon's shopping app, including a prominent search box, product listings, Buy buttons, account management, barcode scanning, and voice searching.

All in all, not bad for the initial release, but considering the account management is just a wrapper over their mobile site, it's nothing to write home about either. Still, Buy.com enthusiasts will find it a step above the mobile experience.

Have a look at the screenshots and proceed to the download links below.

Apr

Editorial: Google's Music Talks Aren't Going Well - Will Music Be Too Little, Too Late?

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Apps/Games, Editorials, News

To answer the question, briefly: nobody really knows at this point. But I do think Google is going to have to make some sacrifices in the short term if the Music service is going to get off the ground. And that's because the record labels won't play ball - at least not by Google's rules according to All Things D, quoting two apparently well-connected sources.

Of course, the words of a couple anonymous music industry insiders aren't definitively representative of the feelings of all the (presumably numerous) parties involved in Google's Music negotiations. For all we know, those persons could be part of some of the industry's historically more stubborn labels.

Mar

Amazon Appstore Doubles Down: Farm Frenzy And Newsweek Mobile Both Free Today

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, Deals, Games, News, Tips & Tutorials

That's right, Amazon's offering not one, but two free apps on the Amazon Appstore this morning! You can pick up the popular HeroCraft title Farm Frenzy along with the official Newsweek Mobile app from Amazon free of charge.

I don't know about you - but I can't tell which is which.

Newsweek Mobile offers Amazon's "Test Drive" in-browser emulation, so you can try it from your browser before making the 15 second commitment to put it on your phone. Anyways, load up the Amazon Appstore (if you can) and grab these freebies while the getting is good.

Update: We've gotten in touch with Herocraft, the developer of Farm Frenzy, about extra permissions that their game uses (such as access to contacts).

Mar

The Pros And Cons Of The Amazon App Store: A Promising Market Replacement?

Posted by Cameron Summerson in App Reviews, Applications, Editorials, News, Other Reviews, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

On March 22nd, the long awaited Amazon Appstore was released, bringing a whole new way to find, install, and share apps on Android. After its initial debut, we decided that this new Appstore was the real deal. In this post, we'll break down what Amazon's done right, and what it still needs to improve on.

Pros

1. Better descriptions and more in-depth comments

Most users will tell you that finding good Android apps is not an easy task. If you're browsing the Android Market looking for something specific, then the only bit of information that you have to work with is what the developer wants to say (which usually isn’t much) and one-line-comments from other users.

Mar

[Weekend Poll] Now That The Amazon App Store Is Here, What Are Your Thoughts?

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Apps/Games, News, Polls

Last Updated: September 3rd, 2011

This is the newest in our Weekend Poll series. For last week's, see AT&T Is Buying T-Mobile USA; As The Dust Settles, What Are Your Thoughts?

We saw it coming from a mile away (and knew all the details), and now it's finally happened: the Amazon Appstore officially launched on Tuesday, March 22. So far, with the exception of a minor hiccup, it looks like the launch has been fairly smooth. Now that you've had a few days to test the waters, we'd like to know what your thoughts are on the Appstore.

As always, you can vote in the poll below, and we encourage you to drop us a line in the comments to voice your opinion.

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

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.

Feb

[Weekend Poll] Can The Amazon Appstore Succeed Against The Android Market?

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, Apps/Games, News, Polls

Last Updated: September 3rd, 2011

This is the newest in our Weekend Poll series. For last week's, see Is The Nokia/Microsoft Alliance A Threat To Android?

A few days ago, we posted a rundown of the details found on the Amazon Appstore Developer Blog, and noted that the store will be very controlled compared to the nearly anarchistic Android Market:

On a subjective note, after reading through the details, I can’t help but wonder if Amazon is just going about it better than Google. I largely agree with David’s issues with the Market: it’s spammy, there’s no solid system for exploring new apps, and going further, there are tons of issues with fragmentation and poor quality.

Feb

Android Intervention, Part 3 Of 4: Google's Multimedia Problem And How They Can Fix It

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Android OS, Editorials

This is part three in a series of editorials addressing our editors’ biggest gripes with Android. Part one, which focuses on fragmentation, can be found here; part two, which is centered around cohesiveness and uniformity, is located here.

Let's be honest here: Android's current multimedia situation is a mess. For one thing, the included music/video players are seriously lackluster; for another, there's no officially sanctioned way to buy songs or movies from an Android device. Though such features are probably in the pipelines, I believe these are issues Google needs to address now - after all, the iPhone has had these features since its incarnation.