Amazon’s entry is only rumored but I think the description of it is detailed enough to be credible. The day after the scoop with Amazon, Baidu announced the Yi platform. Baidu is the sixth most visited site in the world, so it’s not a bit player and it makes as much sense for Baidu to have a mobile platform as it does for Google.
Mike Bostock visualizes mobile patent lawsuits, improving on a graphic from Thomson Reuters that wasn't so good. Dashed lines are resolved suits and green ones are licenses to the company.
A new Trojan virus that targets Android smartphones covertly records users' phone calls. Unfortunately, this malicious software is just one part of a new trend in hacking that targets Android and Apple iOS devices.
A new Android virus records users’ phone calls without their knowledge, reports Network World.
To cover all bases, it is important to recognise that consumers are not using these channels in a mutually exclusive manner. They are using both native applications and browser-based apps, so the best strategy is to develop both types.
The decision to invest in an app or in a mobile website depends on the company’s target audience and the functionality of the app. Companies also need to consider time, budget and resources to develop each solution.
Native, web or hybrid mobile app development?
Source: Worklight
An inherent trade-off
Source: Worklight
One unique feature offered by the updated SDK from Fortumo is the addition of a "fallback" method for customers whose mobile operator does not support direct carrier billing. In these cases, Premium SMS will be used instead. And both options can be implemented with one integration.
Besides the fallback to Premium SMS, the new SDK also offers the following features:
- 1-click payments, no login or registration required
- Built-in support for consumable and non-consumable single items as well as virtual currencies
- A native Android look & feel
- "Offline" payment when a data connection is unavailable
- 61 countries, 22 languages and 42 currencies
97% of Android Downloads were Free
Paid Downloads on iOS Increased 3.8%
During this past month, 97% of all Android downloads throughout its search properties were free apps, and that number has increased by 2% over March, the company says.
Google Wallet is a key part of our ongoing effort to improve shopping for both businesses and consumers. It’s aimed at making it easier for you to pay for and save on the goods you want, while giving merchants more ways to offer coupons and loyalty programs to customers, as well as bridging the gap between online and offline commerce.Because Google Wallet is a mobile app, it will do more than a regular wallet ever could. You'll be able to store your credit cards, offers, loyalty cards and gift cards, but without the bulk. When you tap to pay, your phone will also automatically redeem offers and earn loyalty points for you. Someday, even things like boarding passes, tickets, ID and keys could be stored in Google Wallet.
According to a report published late Tuesday from Reuters, sources close to the Internet search giant say Google will unveil a new mobile payment system this week.
The mobile payments system will run on the Android operating system and be available on phones from Sprint Nextel Corp.
Akbank's Para Gönder (translation: Send Money) Android Application
Send money from:
Send money to:
In Gartner’s latest mobile market report, the research firm indicated that over 428 million mobile devices were sold in Q1 of this year, representing a solid 19% year-over-year increase.As usual, the growth is attributed to the continued spike in smartphone sales– which Gartner pegs at 100.7 million for Q1, up 85% year-over-year. Android remained the top dog, which soared past Symbian to capture 36% of the market. Nokia’s Symbian is in second place with 27.4%, followed by Apple’s iOS with 16.8%, RIM’s BlackBerry with 12.9% and Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 with 3.6%.
PC still beats tablet for web and email, but tablet wins for book reading, streaming music and video, casual gaming, etc.
Image: Jefferies tablet report
check out the other charts at the source..
Global mobile statistics 2011: all quality mobile marketing research, mobile Web stats, subscribers, ad revenue, usage, trends…
March 2011: The essential compendium of need-to-know statistics. Beware of media hype and mobile myth – put your mobile strategy on a sound footing with the latest research from credible independent experts. Global mobile subscribers, handset sales, mobile Web usage, mobile apps, mobile ad spend, top mobile operators and mobile financial services.
LATEST UPDATE (March, 2010): Adds: forecasts for smartphone operating share. Android booms as Nokia dumps Symbian.
UPDATE (February, 2011): Reorganizes categories and adds: 1) mobile phone and smartphone sales figures for 2010 - Nokia still dominant in both, but other vendors are gradually eating into its lead; 2) top three mobile phone brands in US, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Spain, Italy; plus smartphone penetration 3) when profits will run out for mobile operators; 4) How mobile subscribers use their phones, plus how the mobile app didn’t kill the mobile Web; 5) payment by phone in Japan; 6) eBay’s $2 billion in m-commerce; 7) 200 million mobile users of Facebook; 8) mobile apps - downloads, average prices and failure rates.
Check out the link for some mind blowing stats..
CLEMMER: Between 40m and 100m NFC phones will be produced this year
"NFC continues to bounce around," the CEO of NFC chip maker NXP has told analysts during an earnings call. "Every time we talk to our friends at Google, they tell us to double the numbers for the Android expectations."
"If the low end happens," he explained, "maybe it doesn't get to be greater than 40 or 45 million units this year."
Tag photos of friends with your phone
Want to tag photos from your phone? SocialCamera is the only way to tag the mobile photos that you want to send to friends. Download SocialCamera in the Android App market for free!
SocialCamera works with the Android camera, so you can take photos with built-in, instant tagging! It uses Viewdle’s advanced face recognition technology to identify the people you take photos of the most, and tag them for you.
Automatically share your photos
It only takes 1 click to share your tagged photos with friends. Share your mobile photos through Facebook, Flickr, MMS, or email.
As you take photos, SocialCamera will create a faceprint of your friends, so you can automatically match their social contact info to their picture – your camera will know who to send your photos to.
Sharing photos on Facebook will automatically add them to a new album for your friends to see instantly.
Looking to the Future
As much as native and Web are pitted against one another in this debate, the likely outcome is a hybrid solution. Perhaps we'll see computing as inherently networked and (this is my sincere hope) free for anyone to access. We already see signs of a native Web: WebGL recently proved that in-browser 3D gaming is possible, even running Quake III!
In the meantime, software makers must balance the Web-vs.-native debate based on an application's primary objectives, development and business realities, and the opportunities the Web will provide in the not-so-distant future. The good news is that until all of this technology makes it into the browser, hacks such as PhoneGap can help bridge the divide. I encourage developers not simply to identify software development trends but to implement them! If the Web doesn't fulfill a capability your particular application requires, you're presented with an exciting opportunity to contribute and close the Web/native chasm in the process.
This is just the last paragraph of a very comprehensive article.. Highly recommended reading..
Samsung's Nexus S smartphone using Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Photograph: Albert Gea/ReutersAbout half of the world's smartphones will be using Google's Android operating system by the end of 2012, according to the research firm Gartner.
Google will lead the race with Apple, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) and Microsoft by the end of this year and take 49.2% of the market in 2012, Gartner forecast on Thursday.
Nokia's tie-up with Microsoft's new Windows Phone 7 operating system would also be a success, Gartner predicted, with a 19.5% share of the smartphone market by 2015 – leapfrogging its rivals to the number two spot. That finding concurs with forecasts from analysts IDC and Ovum.
Worldwide smartphone sales are expected to reach 468m units in 2011 – a 57.7% increase on 2010. The explosive growth in affordable smartphones will see annual sales top 1.1bn by 2015, Gartner said. Sales of PCs, by comparison, will reach 387m this year, a 10.5% increase on 2010, the research firm predicted last month .
