AppsArabia invests in the best app ideas from throughout the MENA region, helps get them to market and assists in promoting them to maximise revenues for their creators.
BGR reported that it looks like more Android apps are now being downloaded than iOS apps. This insight came from a press release from ABI Research.
It could well be true but the press release does make the point that “despite leading in total mobile app downloads, Android’s app downloads per user still lag behind Apple’s by 2-to-1″.
And I’m pretty sure that Apple is way ahead in terms of paid downloads too … Apple’s ecosystem is far more profitable (for Apple and for app entrepreneurs) than Android’s.
September saw the Andoid Market pass half a million published apps according to mobile app market intelligence firm research2guidance, but they pointed out that 37% of apps have been removed for various reasons.
The Apple App Store has had over 600,000 apps published to date with 24% of apps having been removed.
This is a very interesting metric from David Barnard, founder of App Cubby: developers who build and sell apps for Apple’s iOS platform will collectively earn more money over the next year than Google will earn from its entire mobile business.
Google expect to earn $2.5 billion
Apple will pay app publishers $2 billion
Include third party ad revenue from the likes of AdMob and indie app developers will make more than $2.5 billion
Today is a very sad day. Steve Jobs has died after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Geeks and creative people all over the world frankly worship Steve and what he has created at Apple. I think he was a genius – not only was he responsible for products that changed our lives but he also changed the way people do business and run companies.
I believe the single greatest skill he had was knowing what products people wanted before they knew they wanted them.
I’m sure everyone’s thoughts are with Steve’s family, particularly his wife and four children.
Apple CEO Tim Cook shared some interesting stats when he took the stage recently (via Mashable):
Apple has six stores in China, bringing Apple’s total to 357 stores in 11 countries.
More than 6 million copies of Lion have been downloaded since it launched in July. This is 80% more downloads than Snow Leopard.
Macbook pro and iMac are the best selling noteboook and desktop in the U.S.
There are 60 million Mac users around the world. Apple has sold 45 million iPods so far this year (ending in June).
iPod marketshare in the U.S. is above 70%.
iTunes users have downloaded more than 16 billion songs.
iPhone has 5% of the Worldwide Mobile Phone market.
More than half of all iPhones that have been sold were iPhone 4s.
Apple has sold more than 250 million iOS devices.
There are 500,000 apps in the app store, 140,000 of them are iPad apps.
1 billion apps are downloaded every month.18 billion apps have been download in the past three years.
Apple has paid $3 billion to developers (while keeping 30% of revenue on their apps).
And ThingLink created this cool infographic charting the history of iPhone which helps to explain some of Apple’s successful stats. (Infographic via Mashable)
According to a survey by UBS, Apple’s iPhone has an 89% retention rate – the highest of all smartphones and more than double its nearest rival HTC (39%). Wow!
Gartner says that Apple’s iPad will account for 73.4% of tablet sales worldwide this year and will continue to have more than 50% of the tablet market until 2014.
I simply had to publish this great article by Natasha Stokes at Mobile Choice because it perfectly summarises the new iOS from Apple – it isn’t ground breaking but it will be a huge success because of its simplicity.
In my view, Apple now need to look at consumer payment mechanisms – their competitors are busy rolling out operator billing … but will Apple every do this?
Arab Business Machine (ABM), the Apple Authorised Distributor, are running an iOS app development course from 29th May to 2nd June at Zayed University’s Media City Campus in Dubai. This is a special, invitation only, event and ABM have offered 2 places for free to AppsArabia.
I think it is only right that I offer these places to local iOS app developers who are active AppsArabia members … and the fairest way to do this is via a mini competition
we must receive your email no later than midnight on Monday 23rd May
Obviously, we’re keen for you to use your app development skills to actually build apps, perhaps funded by AppsArabia?
The trainer will be coming from Atlanta’s Big Nerd Ranch Co., a company that works closely with Apple (and previously NEXT).
You will learn how to …
create iPhone applications that use Core Location (GPS, Cell Tower Triangulation, Wifi Access Point Location) to pinpoint a user’s location
localize applications for international use
swap out different interfaces (windows) with animation
display data in tables
create applications that can record audio and play short sounds and full audio files
store data as files or SQLite databases
handle warnings from the phone so applications don’t get shut down
handle touch and complex multi-touch sequences
draw with Core Graphics
animate user interfaces with Core Animation
create an application that can access the user’s photos or use the camera to take new photos for use within the application
use the accelerometer to detect changes in the device’s orientation
pull data from a web service for use in an application
create applications that access and modify the user’s Address Book through a standard or customized interface
maintain a preference file for an application
use Instruments to profile an application
ABM is the Apple Authorised Distributor in the region and one of the very few companies that are able to provide such courses. This is a wonderful opportunity – you’ll learn new skills and how to improve your existing development talents.
Many thanks to our friends at ABM and Apple for providing us with this opportunity!
We’re very pleased to announce that our first project, Kalimat, is now live in the App Store. Click here to get it.
Kalimat is an addictive multiplayer word game with a difference. Click here to find out more about the game and see the video of how Kali & Mat’s dinner date was disrupted.
Please post comments on this blog post to let us know what you think of the app!
We announced at the Dubai World Game Expo that our first app would be launched later this month.
It’s called Kalimat and it is an addictive multiplayer word game with a difference!
Just to clarify that it is *not* Scrabble – Kalimat is unique as it includes additional functionality that other similar games do not have!
available in Arabic & English language
Normal & Remix modes (timer, Ali Baba, etc.)
name labels in Pass & Play
local word validation
word definitions
Kalimat will be available for download in the Apple App Store at $2.99 – the same price as the apps it competes against.
We’re just polishing the game further to make sure our users will be able to have a flawless experience of the game and then we’ll be submitting to Apple for approval. We hope the app will be available for you to download very soon. Please be sure to follow @AppsArabia on Twitter to be notified when the app goes live.
Do you have anything to add? Please join in the dialogue by posting your comments.
UPDATE: Research in Motion have recently announced that BlackBerry App World will be coming to the MENA region. Hooray! So there are now three viable platforms in this region … AppsArabia will consider investing in app projects for Nokia, Apple or BlackBerry.
