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.
This neat infographic from Pew Research Center demonstrates how tablets are changing consumer behaviour (all since Apple redefined the tablet category in March 2010):
now 11% of consumers in US own tablets
77% use their tablets daily
average usage is 90 minutes per day
53% use their tablets to read news each day
67% use their tablets for general web browsing
54% use their tablets for emailing
39% use their tablets for social networking
30% use their tablets for gaming
17% use their tablets for reading e-books
13% use their tablets for watching movies and videos
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
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!
The latest report is available from Distimo and it is essential reading!
The major findings are:
iOS downloads in Asia grew significantly in the past six months but downloads in Western countries decreased during the same period. China recently became the second largest market after the United States.
South Korea downloads is remarkably high despite the relative small size of the country’s population. Moreover, because the Games category is absent in the South Korea Apple App Store, all downloads are allocated to non-Games, while in other countries the Games category is without exception, the largest. This makes South Korea an especially interesting country for publishers and developers in the non-Games categories.
Asia downloads increased in general, however, the proportion of paid downloads and the overall revenue still lag behind that of the United States and Europe. Moreover, while in-app purchases became an important monetization method over the last year in many countries, it has not yet in Asia. Thus, developers have to look for other ways of monetization such as advertising.
A comparison of the most popular categories between the United States and Asia revealed that there are no significant differences between content preferences. Hence, developers could offer the same type of apps in both Asia and the United States.
Most of the popular iOS apps in Asia are only popular in Asia, but in some Asian countries worldwide popular apps prevail. Examples of regional popular only content are KungFu Food-Panda, and Birzzle. In general, localization appears to be key to becoming popular especially when considering countries like China, South Korea, and Japan. In countries like India and Indonesia, localization appears to be less important.
Here’s hoping that, as we put the MENA region on the map, Distimo will start providing some useful insight for our region
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?
Our friends at SAE Institute have kindly offered 2 free places on their one day iPhone app development training on 4th June.
During this One-Day training you will:
Learn the fundamentals of Objective-C programming.
Learn how to use the Xcode IDE.
Be taught how to make different view/window/tab bar/etc based applications.
Learn how to work with table views.
Learn how to access Accelometer to recognize device’s orientation.
Learn how to use image views to make image galleries.
Learn how to pack your applications and send it to App Store.
Be introduced to marketing tools for iPhone applications.
Be introduced to alternative iPhone/mobile application development platforms.
Be introduced to iPhone application development industry and its potentials.
Fees:
AED 500 online registration (Inc free software installation + snacks, coffee and lunch).
(Registering for iPhone shortcourse during the one day training will waive AED 1,500 off the course’s fee).
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!
Here’s a great article on Mashable which gives some insight into what the global smartphone market might look like in 2015, courtesy of insight from Gartner.
Key points are:
Microsoft Windows Phone 7 will overtake Apple iOS market share by 2015
Android will control nearly 50% of the mobile smartphone market within two years
iOS will actually peak in market share this year at 19.4%, then drop to 18.9% next year and 17.2% by 2015
BlackBerry is destined for a slow decline, dropping from 13.4% this year to 11.1% in 2015
Via cnet News I spotted this report from IHS iSuppli which tells us that combined revenues from the four major mobile application stores (Apple App Store, Google’s Android Market, Nokia’s Ovi Store and Research In Motion’s BlackBerry App World) will leap nearly 78% in 2011 to $3.8 billion, with the Apple App Store projected to achieve 75% of the total market.
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!
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.
