Tag: apple app store

App Store Publishers Reportedly Earn 60% Higher Than Android Developers

According to a new report by Sensor Tower research group, a significant gap was observed in the revenues generated between iOS and Android app publishers. This income disparity was noticeable by a large margin. In Q1 of 2019, the top 100 application developers for Apple’s App Store on an average earned 64% higher than its Android counterpart Google Play.

Sensor Tower’s Store Intelligence uncovered App Store publishers earning an estimated amount of $83.8 million (approx. Rs.584 crores), whilst Android studios only garnered $51 million (approx. Rs. 355 crores). This survey was taken over the top 100 apps the Apple and Google platform. Both of these platforms have seen an annual growth of 12% from last years figures.

Gaming Apps

In the field of mobile gaming, the revenue gap was much smaller. However, App Store developers still held a large margin of lead with 48% over Android mobile game studios. Apple’s platform under this segment made $70 million (approx. Rs. 487 crores) to Play Stores $48 million (approx. Rs. 334 crores). This segment of gaming combined is still the largest revenue stream for the industry with the rise in popularity of mobile gaming.

Non-Gaming Apps

Furthermore, non-gaming apps paint a grim picture for Android. The gap between the App Store and Google Play app publishers is a massive 232% difference. Users from Apple spent an estimated $23.3 million (approx. Rs. 162 crores) in comparison to Android’s mere $7 million (approx. Rs. 49 crores). There is a revenue discrepancy of more than three folds. Notably, Apple does have a great advantage considering that Google services and Play apps are banned in China, the largest consumer of smartphone services

Also Read: Apple Recalls Older MacBook Pro Citing Battery Hazards

This essentially makes App Store a more profitable business venture regardless of the fact that Android is the more popular platform. It is reported that Android currently holds an estimated 75% of the OS market share whilst iOS holds just about 23%. Hence, although it should’ve been the other way around, various factors such as user preferences, demographics, and availability should be taken into consideration.

June 21, 2019
Hot Wheels Introduces NFC And Smart Tracks In New Cars

Many still remember the fun they’ve had with the widely popular Hot Wheels toy cars in their childhood. Mattel introduced kids across the globe with every possible kind of cool cars there is to know about. The company had a diverse lineup of real life and even futuristic cars to put in children’s hands. Now the popular pocket-sized car toys are receiving a digital refresh with NFC and Smart Track.

Hot Wheels id by Mattel introduced new NFC enabled cars on its latest Smart Track. The application that allows kids to scan their collection is available in the iOS App Store for free. This app acts as a virtual garage that allows children to measure track speeds and laps through infrared sensors in the Hot Wheels Race Portal. The portal scans the cars and it connects to the Hot Wheels tracks. Users can actually provide cold hard numerical proof of who’s car is faster, inculcating a sense of healthy competition.

Classic brands have tried remaining relevant in the current tech-savvy younger generations for a while now. The hope of keeping collectable toys alive is a dying breed in the current world and failed attempts at digitalizing do exist. Mattel’s launch of an augmented reality game is one such example, failing due to poor compatibility with most handsets and even lesser remote-controlled cars. Hot Wheels id will still keep the physical aspects of toys while incorporating technology into its diverse range of racing cars.

Mattel’s Hot Wheels will add-on to the classic experience through virtual challenges and mini-games with the companion app. Those that own Hot Wheels tracks can just use a smartphone or the Race Portal to scan the new id cars. What differentiates the new iterations from the bunch is the NFC chip housed on the bottom of these toy cars. The chips will store the car’s performance data.

Introducing #HotWheelsid, a completely new way to collect your favorite die-casts. Complete with a Spectraflame paint job, new wheels, and an NFC chip, your #HotWheels can now be digitized! Available at Apple and https://t.co/wMrq6pnNQP. https://t.co/fa4BN3Cjca pic.twitter.com/uv3iD4l3wW
— Hot Wheels (@Hot_Wheels) June 14, 2019

The app isn’t mandatory for the experience and children do not constantly require their parent’s smartphones or tablet computers as data can be stored locally and transferred later on. Hot Wheels Smart Track Kit brings the added benefit of a launch booster for the cars at the stars, making the toys the fastest and most powerful yet. Children can quantify the track distance and speed with the Smart Track’s 16 USB-connected pieces.

Also Read: Huawei Pushes Back The Launch Date Of The Mate X To September

The entire set is available at the US version of Apple websites and Apple stores. An Android version of the app is scheduled to launch on Google Play on June 10th. Individual Hot Wheels id toy cars cost $6.99 (approx. Rs.500) while the Race Portal, including two of the aforementioned cars, is up for grabs at $39.99 (approx. Rs.2,800).

June 15, 2019
Apple To Focus On Devices Other Than The iPhone In The Future

Apple, in a bold step of decentralizing focus, has decided to shift its vision towards the ‘peripheral’ products with more operational independence. Since the dawn of the iPhone, each new generation of the handset saw the inclusion of new technology within or alongside it. Products made by Apple were only in rare cases focused on providing an entirely standalone experience overall.

The iPad serves as a great example, marketed as a laptop replacement with more freedom in mobility while not sacrificing power. In most other cases devices developed like the Apple Watch only seemed to exist for the sake of supplementing the iPhone and its user experience.

Apple’s upcoming developer conference seeks to draw a road map for the company’s plans on moving away from the iPhones glory, around which products were based. The keynote presentation will have the upper echelon of the tech giant showcase the latest generations of Apple devices and software in San Jose. Going forward Apple seeks to make the Watches more independent, iPads that will actually reduce the needs for laptops, and cross-platform applications to run on every Apple products.

Future Of Apple Watch

Made to be the next great leap in innovation after the iPhone in 2015, the device has yet to reach the level that the handset has achieved years prior. Apple Watch which had the potential to push computing to even smaller frames while still providing the functionality to users had ended up relying on the iPhone.

However, with the inclusion of cellular connectivity support to the device two years ago and the upcoming software update with watchOS 6, the company will further branch off the Watch and the iPhone. The new update will bring features like an on-board App Store with calculator and voice recorder alongside new messaging capabilities.

iPad’s Potential

As brought up previously, the iPad has been marketed often being tagged as the worthy replacement for laptops. Apple has a more than capable hardware lineup which has beaten laptop grade processors in the past in performance but lacks severely when discussed by the software aspects.

The company seeks to improve on the OS that’ll give users more functionality and not something that would seem like a tweaked version of the iPhone iOS. Planned updates to include features like using multiple apps simultaneously and a refreshed Home Screen have been announced.

Also Read: Alphabet’s New AI Defeats Human Players In A Multiplayer Game

Cross-Platform App Ecosystem

Seeking to aid developers, Apple will soon provide tools for iOS applications to be made available to other platforms within the company’s ecosystem. Applications will now be ported over to the Mac desktops and MacBook laptops, following the example of the iPad receiving its own versions of Apple’s News, Voice Memos, Home, and Stock apps from the Mac. This points towards a future with a single version of an App being available across every platform by Apple.

June 1, 2019
This Might be the Easiest Way to Tell Your Friends You’re ‘Free’ to Hang Out

On an odd Friday night, when you decide you’d rather spend the night in, you want some company to watch a movie or grab a quiet meal. What do you do? You don’t want to spam the handful of close buddies who might already have their plans set for the evening. Nor can you put up a status on a social networking site, lest a creepy acquaintance accepts your invitation and lands up to your door.

Well, here is a solution to that: the ‘Free’ App. This app shows you a list of your friends who are free. It will allow you to share your availability to coordinate easily and make plans with friends. Developed by Danny Trinh, a former lead designer at Path, a social app, he explains:

With smartphones, we’re more connected than ever—there’s Gchat, WeChat, Snapchat, Facebook Messenger, and more—but as connection has become the default, we’ve lost ways to announce, “I’m up to hang.” In a world where everyone’s online all the time, what’s the actual availability signal on top of that? That’s what we’re trying to build. Put another way, now that we carry chat on us at all times, the green dot is assumed.

Once downloaded, the app asks you to enter your number, register an account and provide your name, a username and your email address. You can set up your photo and use a given list of filters. The app then syncs your contacts.

You can let your friends, who might be nearby at that time, know that you are ready to go out (green), flexible (yellow) or busy at that moment (red). However, for the app to work, you must enable location services on your phone. You can also attach a message, tag friends you are with and select a place and time, just like Facebook. Once you set up your first status, you have the option to choose which buddies to send it to and for how long they can see the message or status. These statuses go into Free’s feed that you can quickly flick through to all your friends’ plans, and disappear the next morning.

True, there are so many social networking apps right now, like Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter. But the reason Free might win is that it cuts out the clutter to focus back on in-person communication. For now, the app is available only for iOS devices.

June 22, 2015
This App ‘Shuffles’ the Spam Out of Your Life

Tired of picking up spam calls and receiving undesired emails? We’ve all had unwanted calls and emails. As a solution, a new mobile app has been developed by Shuffle Ventures, Inc. for filtering out such problems.

This app, called Shuffle, lets you create additional and temporary phone numbers that is directly integrated with your iPhone and can be used to call, text or receive voicemails. The virtual number works in harmony with the native phone number, thus allowing you to call or text from both without any hassle.

If a phone number became discredited by spammers or telemarketers, you could just delete it, and no one can reach you on that number again.

The newest update of this app is the ability to create your email aliases that can filter your spam mail from your main inbox. The ID can easily be used for public mail subscriptions.

Primarily, you can set up different “shuffle” numbers and emails for your personal and social connections, work colleagues, other secondary businesses, dating services, job searches, social networking sites, etc.

Charges for a single number per month are $1.99, and you have the option of renewing it. If yes, then the number is charged per call transaction.

For now, this app can be downloaded on iTunes, and we can expect an Android version in the coming few months. Worth the wait!

May 16, 2015
Apple CEO Speaks Up About iPad’s Disappointing Sales Figures

The recently released statistics by Apple establishes the fact that the iPhone is the most popular smartphone in the international markets. The world’s most valuable company made public the three months earnings of this year’s second quarter, which speaks of 61 million iPhones being sold. This leap is incredible as this is the second biggest quarter for the iPhone. Apple managed to sell as much as 43 million iPhones last year in Q2 2014.

The CEO of the company Tim Cook spoke about the achievement –

We are thrilled by the continued strength of iPhone, Mac and the App Store, which drove our best March quarter results ever. We’re seeing a higher rate of people switching to iPhone than we’ve experienced in previous cycles, and we’re off to an exciting start to the June quarter with the launch of Apple Watch.

Apple set a record in China by surpassing the overall sales of US. For the first time in the history of iPhone, China contributed $160 million with the iPhone sale, whereas it remained $120 million in its home market Europe. The increase of 71% put Apple’s revenue in the Asian country to $16.8 billion, a major chunk mostly attributed to festivities around the Chinese New Year.

However as iPhones, Macs, and the App Store has gained numbers, iPad are continuously fading in the background every passing year. Once again, the iPad sale shrunk this year and closed at 12.6 million. The newest iPads to hit the market this year were the iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3.

For the lackluster sales of iPad, Tim Cook says –

We have never worried about that, it is what it is, and at some point it will straighten out.

Meanwhile, there are many estimates by analysts about the Apple Watch sales, but the company hasn’t come out with an official announcement. Seeing the present report, Apple is likely to take a leap from $46 billion to $48 billion in revenue in Q3 this year.

April 28, 2015
Apple Watch Already Has More Than 3,500 Apps Available in the App Store

The Apple Watch is the first smartwatch by the Cupertino-based giant, and the company is extremely proud of it, especially its apps. Yesterday the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook while disclosing about the total earnings of the company, boasted about the massive amount of apps ready for the Apple Watch. Tim stated that over 3,500 apps were available.

Cook further elaborated how significant this figure is as the iPad had only had 1,000 apps ready at its launch in 2010, and iPhone App Store had just 500 apps when it first debuted in July 2008.

Cook briefed in a meeting –

We’re far ahead from where we expected to be from an application point of view. We had an internal goal of beating that 1,000 [that the iPad had] and we exceeded that.

As Apple allowed the third-party apps to make their presence on its Watch, developers have been submitting the ready apps for approval since March 31. The creation of apps wasn’t an easy task for developers as Apple limited the access to functional hardware. Most of those apps have been approved, and Apple Watch users can install any tool from the plethora of apps. Some of the Indian apps for the Apple Watch include NDTV News, HDFC and Cleartrip.

This seems like an important announcement, however we need to keep it in mind that the presence of apps was considerably less in 2010, when the iPad was first introduced. It would not be fair to compare the iPad with the Apple Watch. Recently, it was also learnt that developers are also creating a set of games for the wearable, which is a challenge. Know more about the Apple Watch games here.

April 28, 2015
Apple Might Play Spoilsport to Facebook’s Audacious Plans For Messenger

At the Facebook F8 developers conference recently, the social media powerhouse announced a slew of new updates for the Messenger app to make it a formidable messaging tool. The addition of third party apps to the ecosystem is the most prominent upgrade to the new Messenger platform. But Apple might prove a major hindrance to Facebook’s plans.

Facebook inducted third party apps on its Messenger platform to make it a more powerful messaging tool.

Apple, the makers of iOS devices, have strict policies in place for apps on its App Store. Section 2.25 of the App Store Review Guidelines, states, “Apps that display Apps other than your own for purchase or promotion in a manner similar to or confusing with the App Store will be rejected.” The addition of support for third party apps on the Messenger platform puts it directly in conflict with the above app store policy.

The gist of the policy is that Apple doesn’t allow apps to set up their own app store on their ecosystem. If the policy is enforced against the Messenger platform, it will be a major downer for Facebook. As of now Apple has given no indication about its policy towards the new messaging platform. But we might get to hear something soon as Apple might still be studying the situation. Considering the massive market for Apple devices, Facebook is likely to get a deal sorted out to prevent a rejection from the App store.

March 27, 2015
Facebook Brings Out an App for Anonymous Chatting Called ‘Rooms’

Facebook seems to be in the mood for experimenting with mobile applications. After bringing out Mentions, Slingshot, Paper and most recently, their independent messaging app, they’ve now brought out ‘Rooms’. Although they’re sticking to their key philosophy of connecting people, this time they’re going to be keeping their identities discreet.

We had earlier reported that Facebook was working on building a standalone app that will let its users interact and communicate under the cloak of anonymity. This was said to be the outcome of recent criticism for Facebook’s stance on real names. Facebook’s policies require verified email addresses. Those policies clashed with drag queens, some of whom had their profiles removed from Facebook by algorithms.

On the other hand, Rooms doesn’t require the user to reveal any personal information and allows them to create chat rooms based of common interests (think fashion, photography, automobiles, gardering etc.) These chat rooms can be made public or private. The private chat rooms are then made invite only, requiring a QR code that can be scanned with a smartphone. These Codes can also be shared on social media or via e-mail. Facebook’s new app doesn’t even allow you to import your contacts, it is entirely independant. Chat room creators or chosen moderators can customize the look, ban people from the room or set the room to be 18+.

Currently the app is free and available on the app store, you can download it here.

October 24, 2014
Apple Paid A Record US $ 8 Billion To iOS Mobile Developers

Apple has announced it has paid out a total of $8 billion to developers since the inauguration of the App Store in 2009.

This is an increase of $1b since January 13th, when Apple last reported the numbers, and a milestone for an industry that increasingly relies on developer interest to beckon customers to a particular platform. While Android has proven successful for developers in usage numbers, recent statistics cite iOS developers as earning four times the amount, on average, for paid apps.

The App Store reached 775,000 apps back in September, with some apps becoming multi-billion dollar businesses. Cook couldn’t resist pointing out the lack of tablet-optimised apps in rival’s stores, saying: “We have over 300,000 apps custom designed for the tablet. The other guys have a few hundred.” This taunt is not dissimilar to one that Steve Jobs used during one of his WWDC keynotes a few years ago.

With iTunes bringing in a sizeable amount of money, too, Apple’s online services are definitely paying off.

Speaking also about what Apple would and would not do to earn cash, specifically with “affordable” products, Cook let it be known that the company’s “North Star” is “a great product.” Cook continued speaking about how they’d actually tried to make cheaper products, but found that instead of creating a Mac for under $500, it made more sense to make the iPad. Thus that product ecosystem was born.

February 13, 2013
Apple Launches ‘Get Stuff Done’ Promotion For Mac App Store

Apple on Thursday kicked off a three-week promotional campaign offering discounts on a number of productivity apps in the OS X App Store, with each week featuring a new section and a different batch of titles from which to choose.

New discounted Apps will be made available every week, under the categories of “Prioritize”, “Organize” and “Utilize”. This week, Apple is focusing on the first category, offering certain To-Do apps for way less than they would generally be sold for, some as much as 50% off. Many well-known apps are on offer, namely Things 2 (available for $24.99), Todo (for $6.99), Due ($4.99), The Hit List ($24.99), BreakTime ($2.99), TaskPaper ($11.99), 2Do ($14.99) and Clear ($6.99).

As reported by TUAW, if you are looking to snap up a good deal, you should hurry, since these offers are expiring on January 31^st. If you to-do lists are not your thing, worry not, since Apple will offer more discounted apps starting next week, first under the “Organise” category and “Utilize” the week after.

January 25, 2013
Apple Updates App Store Screenshot Rules To Kill Scam Apps

Have you ever been scammed into buying an app because of a screenshot that falsely represented the app you were buying? If you have, then there’s some good news for you.

Apple today announced on its Developer Portal that screenshots added to app descriptions will be locked in place once an app has been approved.

[quote]Beginning January 9, app screenshots will be locked in iTunes Connect once your app has been approved. New screenshots may be uploaded when you submit a binary for an update to an existing app or a new app.[/quote]

Before the new policy went into place, app developers would often upload legitimate game screenshots to accompany the app description, then switch them out for screenshots that resembled more popular games once the app was approved. The switch often snagged unsuspecting victims who assumed they were downloading a different app.

For example, in one instance, an unofficial Pokemon Yellow app was uploaded to the App Store. The app snuck by Apple using an unobtrusive set of screenshots, and then switched them out with photos from the Nintendo game, which thousands of people then purchased.

While this presumably means that scamming developers will no longer be able to game the App Store, it also hobbles legitimate developers trying to keep their app descriptions up to date.

[CNET]

January 10, 2013
Apple App Store Crosses 40 Billion Downloads, 500 Million Active Accounts

Apple announced on Monday that the App Store has surpassed 40 billion downloads. That’s unique downloads excluding re-downloads and updates. Nearly half of that came in last year alone. The company also says it has over 500 million active users, and surpassed over 2 billion downloads during the month of December.

There are over 775,000 apps available in the store, for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices. Apple says it has paid the developers of those apps over $7 billion.

[quote]”Developers have made over seven billion dollars on the App Store, and we continue to invest in providing them with the best ecosystem so they can create the most innovative apps in the world,” says Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, in a statement.[/quote]

Apple launched its app store in 2008. The store hit the 10 billion downloads mark in early 2011. In March 2012, Apple announced that more than 25 billion apps have been downloaded.

The last valuable figure Google gave for its Play Store was 25 billion downloads, encompassing 675,000 apps. Google’s marketplace launched after the App Store, but the search giant does not disclose how much money it has paid to developers.

January 7, 2013
Google Play Revenues Leap 311% In 2012, But iOS Apps Still More Profitable

Google Play seems to be going on one heck of a growth spurt. According to new stats, the Android app store is catching up to iOS fast.

Even though the Apple App Store is four times more profitable than Google Play, iOS can’t match Android’s revenue growth of 311 percent since January and 17.9 percent in the last month. These numbers are misleading, however, since Google started the year with next to nothing in its Play Store coffers, while Apple had already earned $4 billion from App Store revenue.

Most app revenue, on both platforms, unsurprisingly came from game publishers. Zynga and EA, along with Gameloft and Halfbrick (makers of Fruit Ninja) were among the top 10, but Japan and Korean owned eight of the top ten places for app revenue sorted by publisher on Google Play. iOS was more Western-focused, with Electronic Arts leading the way, though with over 950 titles on the App Store their lead is anything but shocking.

Though Apple still outstrips Google in terms of free app downloads by 10%, it’s interesting to see developers such as Go Launcher, makers of the insanely popular launcher alternative for Android, sitting at number four, ahead of big names like Twitter, Skype and WhatsApp.

Overall, the situation doesn’t look as grim for Google as it did a year ago. Users are paying for apps, although most are games, and total numbers of downloads are approaching App Store territory quickly. People are beginning to understand that Google has built itself a versatile and potentially profitable portal for app developers, and users are beginning to see the value in investing their money into it.

December 2, 2012
200 Million Devices Running On iOS 6 : Apple

Apple CEO Tim Cook, during his keynote presentation today in San Jose, announced that 200 million devices are now running iOS 6, which is the fastest operating system update in history.

Apple has also announced that 300 billion iMessages have been sent, 100 billion received (interesting…). There have been 35 billion app downloads, with $6.5 billion paid out to developers.

Also, the Apple App Store now has 700,000 apps.

Developing…

October 23, 2012