First off, Flurry’s numbers don’t account for webviews within mobile apps. On my site, Stratechery, 37% of my iOS traffic comes from webviews (Android doesn’t break out the difference), which on Flurry’s chart would fall mostly in the Twitter slice. More mass market sites likely take up some percentage of Facebook time, as well.
That said, it’s striking how little written content appears on Flurry’s chart; the only category that is primarily about written content is news, and even that includes video. And yet, pageviews on WordPress.com and Jetpack are up 27% year-over-year, new sites ranging from small blogs like Stratechery to huge sites like FiveThirtyEight continue to launch and grow, and multiple startups (and competitors!) continue to find writing something worth investing in.
So is the web dead or not?]]>
The single biggest slice in Flurry’s statistics is “gaming”, at 32%. Does anyone really think that mobile games would be better off written to run in web browser tabs? Lamenting today the falling share of time people spend in web browsers at the expense of mobile apps is no different from those who a decade ago lamented the falling share of time spent reading paper newspapers and magazines at the expense of websites.]]>
the inescapable fact is that when deploying on the web, from the user’s perspective, you’re probably starting with a disadvantage.]]>
The latter finding is in line with what the advocates of free-to-play have been saying for years: Players don’t have to pay anything to enjoy the game. But the former stat underscores the importance of big spenders, or “whales” in industry lingo, to the app ecosystem. In other words, 15 in every 10,000 generate half of the money. Another 135 in every 10,000 provide the other half. And 9,850 in every 10,000 never spend any money.]]>
So it isn’t rash to declare that we’ve reached the point where the reasonable conclusion is that market share alone is not the overriding factor.]]>
• Users that download only free apps will most likely not spend money on in-app purchases. Only 12.5% of users who download only free apps will spend money on in-app purchases; this represents 5% of the total number of smartphone owners in the US.
• Users that download paid apps are more likely to spend money on in-app purchases. 83% of users that download paid apps will also spend money on in-app purchases; this segment represents 26% of all smartphone users in the US.
We estimate that revenue from in-app purchases represent approximately one-third of that coming from paid apps.]]>
What I learned quickly made me re-think my entire mobile payments future. Whatever concerns I may have about data security, whatever confusion I have about payment platforms, nothing compares to the outrageous apps permissions demanded by the companies authorizing mobile payments. Just check them out below. This is what they demand in return for authorizing you to use their apps. Google Wallet needs access to your camera? Maybe these things need to explain why they want this stuff.]]>
Years ago (2005) I added a tabbed browser to NetNewsWire for Macintosh. I guessed that my most extreme user might have as many as 100 tabs, and I needed to make sure it scaled to that.
I released the feature and people liked it. After a while I started getting complaints about performance from people who had thousands of tabs. Some users had tens of thousands of tabs. I was way off in my estimate of what the most extreme user might do — and I’ve remembered that ever since. (The app remembered your tabs between runs, which was a fairly rare thing in 2005.)
So now I don’t try to guess what a reasonable extreme might be — I guess what an extreme extreme might be, knowing that there’s a good chance I’m still under-estimating.]]>
• Skype
• Mortar Melon Classic
• Netflix
• Google Search
• Network Speed Test
Spot the interloper.]]>
So, for example, your Facebook icon displays a little red number badge when you have new Facebook notifications, but you have to actually open up the app and wait awhile for it to call Facebook’s server before the app itself knows what those red numbers referred to and what those notifications are. That wait — those ubiquitous spinning wheels — at times seems interminable.
Background fetching in iOS7 lets an app wake up before you use it — just enough to present the data you’ll want at the moment you open it. It’s like one of those coffee makers that automatically brews your morning joe so it’s fresh and hot just when you come down to the kitchen.]]>
Here’s what you can expect with new Chrome Apps:
• Work offline: Keep working or playing, even when you don’t have an internet connection.
• More app, less Chrome: No tabs, buttons or text boxes mean you can get into the app without being distracted by the rest of the web.
• Connect to the cloud: Access and save the documents, photos and videos on your hard drive as well as on Google Drive and other web services.
What is the point of this, other than giving Google more things either to support or abandon? The world isn't short of photo editors or to-do lists - two of the apps it touts here.]]>
Younger teen apps users ages 12-13 are more likely than older teen apps users 14-17 to say that they have avoided apps over concerns about personal information sharing (56% vs. 49%). Boys and girls are equally likely to avoid certain apps for these reasons. There are no clear patterns of variation according to the parent’s income, education level or race and ethnicity.
One in four teen apps users have uninstalled an app because they found out it was collecting personal information that they didn’t want to share. There's hope for the next generation yet. The report has some fascinating detail.]]>
So I just asked. I also included a simple question that any developer who was actively working on an update would be able to answer as a sort of CAPTCHA.
After a little over 24 hours, I had my answers:
An overwhelming number of developers are updating apps for iOS 7. Of 575 valid responses, 545 developers indicated that they were working on an update for iOS 7. That's an adoption rate of 95%!
Of those developers who were working on an update, I then calculated how many were going to require iOS 7 (and drop support for iOS 6):
Just over half of developers (284 of 545) were leaving the past behind. Initially I was surprised that this number was so high, but then I remembered how much time and effort I was putting into my own work :-) ]]>
Why? Because even though Google Play is obviously an inferior market for mobile apps in many ways, it is swamping the iOS market in sheer volume.
In the second quarter this year, Google Play passed the iOS market in app download volume by 10%. This surge is powered by emerging markets from Brazil to China. Those cheap $100 Android phones that may not yield any hardware margin are acting as conduits to Android apps for hundreds of millions of consumers who cannot afford an iPhone. Yup.]]>
“Disconnect Kids also actively blocks requests for data about your web-browsing and in-app activity from the biggest mobile tracking and targeting services. It’s the first (and only) iOS app that prevents this personal data from ever leaving your device.” Nice idea. (Via Stuart Dredge, who - disclosure - is a co-founder of Apps Playground.)]]>
Now, VLC is back on iOS [App Store Link] with a complete rewrite including AirPlay support, multiple ways to load files into the video app, realtime video filters, playback speed manipulation, subtitles and more. With those attributes, a must-have on iOS.]]>
Besides Windows 8, that is.
That’s aided, of course, by the fact that 71% of mobile developers are already developing for Android, and 56% are already developing for iOS.
Even so, the fact that 35% are planning to develop for Windows Phone in the third quarter of 2013 — more than the 26% thinking of iOS — is likely to have a significant impact on the number of Windows Phone apps. Lots of detail in the report. ]]>
I've also come to realise that business development is not my calling in life. I'm a maker, not a salesperson, and the challenge of bringing in enough work to keep a small team busy and profitable, in such a competitive and difficult app marketplace, is a very hard thing to do. Agant doesn't have VC funding – it's entirely owned and managed by myself – and so the risk of paying salaries and funding development is borne directly by myself. Sadly, this isn't something I can keep doing in the current app market. Is this a straw in the wind? If these sorts of apps can't be developed profitably, Apple has a problem. Addey has previously pointed out the problems with lack of trials in the App Store model; now that bird has come home to roost. He says that he will continue to support existing apps such as Train Times, though.]]>
The Fitbit exercise tracking gadget, for example. Or the Corsair Voyager Air wireless hard drive - almost inaccessible from Windows Phone (you can do it with a firmware update and DLNA). Or the Seagate Wireless Plus. Actually this one is better as it has a web UI, but no app. Same problem with bank apps - and of course Instagram (still waiting there for third platform still support - while the other two get video). What's the solution to this chicken/egg problem?]]>
The point isn’t that the built-in keyboard is or isn’t better. The point is that any given Android keyboard is better than the default iOS keyboard, because of this competition. I’ve used both, and there is just no comparison. An interesting take on the Android versus iOS battle. CEO Tim Cook hinted in a recent interview that Apple may consider loosening its restrictions on developers replacing core parts of iOS. Behrens provides food for thought on why that may be a good thing. ]]>
The update is beginning to be rolled out today in Germany, according to Samsung gossip site SamMobile, and will be available via the Kies PC software or over the air.
"Samsung UK will announce software updates for the Galaxy S4 in due course," a company spokesperson told me. (Thanks @beardyweirdy666 for the link.)]]>
Skype, Formspring and WhatsApp: All three have suffered this fate. Casey still uses Snapchat, but less than she did last year, and in the span of three months, she's joined, quit, and rejoined Twitter. She’s collected banished apps into a folder on her phone labeled “Stuff Nobody Likes.” And she’s thought about deleting her Facebook account because she checks it so frequently. Remember being 14? Alternatively, looking forward to being 14?]]>
- Mobile has had a big effect on b2b software. People want to use their personal iOS/Android devices at work, and many people now have computers with them all the time who didn’t before. This has created opportunities for 1) traditional b2b software that is mobile friendly, 2) companies that support mobile devices for businesses (e.g. mobile security, compliance etc), 3) brand new categories of software for users who previously used pencil and paper for various business tasks. As is pointed out in the comments, if you're an app developer in India, you're already going to be Android-only. Part of the problem about (the extremely tedious) "winning" arguments is that they don't take account of regional variation.]]>
“The sheer weight of Android units will generate more downloads, but on a per device basis the iOS devices do seem to consume more apps,” said Horace Dediu, mobile industry analyst at Asymco, in a recent note, “and the gap is not narrowing”.
Mr Dediu estimates that more than 80 apps are downloaded per Apple device sold, compared with fewer than 55 for Android. A minor quibble is that nobody in the story says that the approaching parity is eating into developer loyalty to iOS; the example given of Minecraft (24% of iOS players buy the premium version v 7% of Android) suggests the opposite.]]>
Both Apple and Google tabulate unique downloads of apps per user account. This means that they count only one download of an app no matter how many devices that you install that app on after you purchase it. Neither company counts updates in its app download numbers. These are purely single downloads from their stores. So their app download figures are directly comparable.]]>
You might think this is just a banking problem, but it is anything in finance. Windows Phone has apps for Zero of the Top-10 Mutual Fund companies. Seven of those companies provide apps for the iPhone. How about if you just want to do research on mutual funds? Sorry, you’ll need an iPhone, Android Phone, or Blackberry for that.
Moving on, how many of the Top-10 US Airlines have apps for Windows Phone? Three. For the iPhone it is eight.
Now the truth is I was going to do this for several more categories but it is too depressing for me to continue. Like to see the stats for banks, airlines and so on in the UK.]]>
Now, BlackBerry makes BBM.
Apple, by contrast, makes precisely nothing for Android, Windows Phone, or BlackBerry. Not even iTunes. It would be fascinating to see this as a grid. (Also perhaps "platform competitors" would be better.)]]>
But PC-class pricing would fundamentally change iOS buying habits, and we may not like the results.
Browsing the App Store and getting new apps, often spending a few bucks along the way, is a form of casual entertainment for a lot of people. This role used to be filled by movies and music. Today, it’s filled by browsing the internet and playing with mobile apps. Usually, they’re games, but not always — modern mainstream culture, especially among younger people, seems to be more interested in media and social apps than games.
This apps-as-entertainment market falls apart if app pricing rises above casual-disposable levels for most people.]]>
One of our developers, Amy Worrall, suggested a very neat way to implement this kind of time-limited trial for apps. This is a really important post; Addey is pointing to a really big flaw in the iOS (and, arguably, Android) app store. Windows Phone allows time trials of apps - a huge, unsung advantage. If - big if - iOS 7 introduces time trials for apps, that will be a huge step forward.]]>
Google keeps telling developers exactly how to build their app to take advantage of the real estate on a tablet, but because there weren't that many out there, nobody listened. Sure, there are some really great applications done "right" and look fabulous on our tablets, but most of them are just the phone version blown up to fill the seven or ten inch screen on your tablet with unused white space. Have a look at iPad apps, and you'll know exactly what I mean.
Hopefully, with more Android tablets being sold than any others, developers will take notice and change this. Only if they can monetise those apps. If they can't, then all that happens is that people have some cheap Android tablets and some blown-up apps, because why bother? (Thanks @modelportfolio2003 for the link.)]]>
My data was intact save for the last thing I’d worked on–a spreadsheet containing a client’s account numbers and passwords. It seems that Google’s engineers determined this single document violated policy and locked down my entire account. My request to get that document back is still pending.
I returned to the Google fold with eyes wide open to my responsibilities as a user. In relationship terms, I am no longer monogamous. "Dependence on one supplier" is the new monoculture.]]>
As of Friday, the "Dangerous Products" section of the Chocolate Factory's Google Play Developer Program Policies - which prohibits such things as Trojans, viruses, and spyware - now includes an additional sentence:
An app downloaded from Google Play may not modify, replace or update its own APK binary code using any method other than Google Play's update mechanism.In other words, apps sold through Google Play must also distribute all future updates through Google Play, which in turn ensures that the updates will be subject to the Chocolate Factory's security and other policies. Seems reasonable: stops hacked apps updating silently in the background to install malware.]]>
[Kirin] Prasad [LinkedIn sr director for mobile engineering]: There are a few things that are critically missing. One is tooling support — having a debugger that actually works, performance tools that tell you where the memory is running out.
If you look at Android and iOS, there are two very large corporations that are focused on building tools to give a lot of detailed information when things go wrong in production. On the mobile web side, getting those desktop tools to work for mobile devices is really difficult.
The second big chunk we are struggling with is operability, runtime diagnostics information. Even now, when we build HTML5, we build it as a client-side app. It’s more of a client-server architecture. … The operability of that, giving us information when we’re distributed to a large volume of users, there aren’t as many great tools to support that, as well. Hard to see how HTML5 will get those tools before native apps, and how native apps won't get improved versions of those tools before HTML5.]]>
This depends a lot on the use case. We know that Office is a huge product with a collection of extremely rich features. Really, there isn’t anything that Office can’t do — especially when you look at complex operations available within Word and Excel in particular. ]]>
This change coincides with the leading Android smartphone vendor, Samsung, pulling decisively ahead of Apple in smartphone volume sales and Google‘s attempts to improve the Google Play user experience in order to attract more high-value customers. As the Android market has consolidated around Samsung, the splintering problem that has been plaguing the ecosystem has shrunk.]]>
The Article 29 working group, which is made up of data protection authorities from across the European Union, has issued fresh guidelines for mobile phone applications. The overall principle of data minimization - only collecting the data strictly necessary for the app to operate - is the cornerstone of the group's recommendations.
However, according to Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch, there is much confusion in the market, and in February, Christopher Graham, the U.K.'s Information Commissioner, said that some app developers had a "cavalier" attitude to personal data protection. The principal aim is to stop people being tracked by "advertisers and any other third party". Not sure where Google fits into that.]]>
But does it follow that the government should also be investing heavily in mobile apps?
No.
Our position is that native apps are rarely justified.]]>
Like the platypus, Android is a complicated beast, a bizarre combination of two very different animals. But unlike the platypus, Android is slowly taking over the world.
Here's what we've found at GroupMe: there are two Android markets.
As a developer you need to build for both, and they're not at all like each other. That's the paradox. Read the very telling differences between these two groups - from their expectations of what the back button will do onwards. Another key trend he points to: Android phones being sold without data plans, and/or outside the US. In Q4 2012, the US was only 10% of global Android sales. That's a challenge for developers.]]>
Something fascinating has happened in the app industry over the past two years; download volume performance has decoupled from revenue performance almost entirely. A few years ago, the original Angry Birds spent 22 months in the Top 20 chart of biggest revenue generating apps in America. The latest Angry Birds game struggled to stay 2 months in the Top 20.
The app industry revenue generation is now utterly dominated by free downloads that lure consumers into paying for in-game features month after month.]]>
Magazine Apps provide users with only a singular user experience. People in 2012 have been gravitating away from dedicated apps and moving in the direction of aggregators. These are news sources that compile all of the information from various news sources. We have really seen the rise of Flipboard, Pulse, Zite, and Google Currents that take all of your favorite websites, blogs, and news sites and puts them all in one place. People tend to like this direction better because all of the news is produced daily, rather than you having to wait until the end of the month.
In the digital realm, 2013 will be the year in which dedicated magazine apps see their demise. That's a bold claim.]]>
That meant removing movies, sound, interactivity and content. But even then we had to deal with frequent crashes, a less intuitive interface and a platform that is even more fragmented than iOS.
Then there was the content. See, we pick movies from the iTunes store that people can download right to their iPads. We pick music the same way and books too. Producing for Android meant that we had to redo all that work because all our content was restricted to the iOS platform. That isn’t Android’s fault, of course, but because the platform is just less developed and robust we had started out with iOS and optimized for that.
All of that wouldn’t have been a problem if we had seen a market for our magazine on Android…We tried an Android magazine, and found out it just isn’t worth the effort. Does that mean that Android sucks? Ehm, no, and there is no reason to tell us how cool Android is in the comments, because we understand it is. Still waiting for those examples of developers who have given up developing for iOS because Android is so dramatically rewarding.]]>
In short, at this point, a hobbyist developer building an app for Windows Phone is not going to affect the market share of the platform at all. It's too late.]]>
I also believe “apps are dead” because the end-user value proposition is no longer based on some piece of code a user buys in an app store on their device, but an entire experience they choose to use that spans all of their devices.]]>
In parallel with the analysis, the security vendor surveyed a 139 IT security decision makers responsible for the mobile policy of more than 400,000 employees.
According to the report (PDF), 26% of apps in the Google Play Store can access personal data such as contacts and email, whist 76% of businesses said they did not know which mobile apps access their networks. "By clicking you agree that you have read the licence agreement."]]>
The answer is hardware access. HTML5 applications are treated by mobile hardware developed for iOS and Android as second class citizens and don't get access to the parts that allow for peak performance. A web view in iOS is hindered by the operating system to perform as fast as a native App although it uses the same principles. On Android both Chrome and Firefox show how fast browsers can perform whereas the stock browser crawls along in comparison.
The stock browser on Android reminds us of the Internet Explorer of the 90s which threatened to be set in stone for a long time and hinder the world wide web from evolving – the very reason Mozilla and Firefox came into existence.
In essence HTML5 is a Formula 1 car that has to drive on a dirt road whilst dragging a lot of extra payload given to it by the operating system without a chance to work around that – for now. Of course, the reason why the browser doesn't get the same trusted access to the OS tends to be because its content isn't, well, trusted. (Thanks @sputnikkers for the link.)]]>
Paying developers to target your platform is a sign of desperation. Doing so means developers have no skin in the game. A platform where developers do not have skin in the game is artificially propped up and will not succeed in the long run.
The Windows Phone 7 team was in a very, very desperate situation. Thoughtful post by ex-Microsoftie Kindel about the dynamics now in the smartphone, tablet and PC marketplace.]]>
However, our analysis of the iOS and Android versions of the same application showed that it’s not an SMS worm but a Trojan that uploads a user’s phonebook to remote server. The 'replication' part is done by the server - SMS spam messages with the URL to the application are being sent from the remote server to all the contacts in the user’s address book. Kaspersky says it's the first malware they've ever seen in the App Store; it was also seen on Google Play. Apple has removed the app, though it had been there since 13 June. The developer apparently claimed the behaviour was a "bug" - though you'd think they'd have noticed that "bug" quite soon.]]>
But in the battle between Apple’s police and the cheaters who employ automated bots or cheap Chinese labor to boost their rankings, some innocent startups are finding themselves banned from the marketplace — collateral damage in a high-stakes war with real money on the line.
Now a few of the castoffs are raising their voices to complain about Apple’s secretive policies.
“It’s hard to tell who is doing this ethically and who isn’t,” said one source familiar with the cheaters who asked to remain anonymous. “It’s hard to believe the big guys aren’t manipulating their ranks and that Apple is treating everybody fairly here.” Question: to what extent does this happen in other app stores, and to what extent does it matter?]]>