Find: Amazon’s Kindle Fire UI: it’s Android, but not quite
Find: Amazon introduces Silk: a cloud-based browser
Amazon introduces Silk: a cloud-based browser (update: video!)
In addition to heavily skinning Android, Amazon is rolling its own web browser for its new Kindle Fire tablet. They’re calling Silk a “split” browser, with half of the work [...]Find: Amazon Kindle Fire price and specs revealed: 7-inch IPS display, dual-core processor, $199
Amazon Kindle Fire price and specs revealed: 7-inch IPS display, dual-core processor, $199
The $199 Amazon Kindle Fire has gotten its announcement a little early, and not from Amazon at all. Bloomberg, citing Amazon executives, reports that the Kindle Fire is a 7-inch [...]Find: Kindle Fire tablet purportedly on tap for Wednesday, set to ship in November
Kindle Fire tablet purportedly on tap for Wednesday, set to ship in November
Viz: Android powered 56 percent of smartphones sold in the last three months
Android powered 56 percent of smartphones sold in the last three months
Find: One in Three Texters Would Rather Text Than Talk
One in Three Texters Would Rather Text Than Talk
Nearly three out of four Americans send text messages on the phone and among those who do, 31 percent prefer texting to talking, according to a study released Monday by the Pew Research Center.Find: I.T. Departments Lose Their Clout Over Phone Choices
I.T. Departments Lose Their Clout Over Phone Choices
A survey by Forrester Research found that 48 percent of information workers buy smartphones for work without considering what their I.T. department supports.Find: Windows phones creeping into consumer consciousness
Windows phones creeping into consumer consciousness
Find: Kal-El Has Five Cores, Not Four: NVIDIA Reveals the Companion Core
Kal-El Has Five Cores, Not Four: NVIDIA Reveals the Companion Core
Last week NVIDIA provided an update on its Tegra SoC roadmap. Kal-El, its third generation SoC (likely to launch as Tegra 3) has been delayed by a couple of months. NVIDIA originally expected the first Kal-El tablets would arrive in August, but now it's looking like sometime in Q4. Kal-El's successor, Wayne, has also been pushed back until late 2012/early 2013. In between these two SoCs is a new part dubbed Kal-El+. It's unclear if Kal-El+ will be a process shrink or just higher clocks/larger die on 40nm.
Find: Windows 8 In-Depth, Part 1: The Metro UI
Windows 8 In-Depth, Part 1: The Metro UI [Windows 8]
We've taken a first look at Windows 8, but this week, we'll be going in depth on some of the big, new changes coming in Microsoft's next version of Windows. Today, we're looking at the new, spiffy Metro UI.
Find: Google Wallet review: photos, videos, and availability
Google Wallet review: photos, videos, and availability
After a reveal back in May and the promise of a summer launch in New York and San Francisco, Google and its partners have started rolling out an update to [...]Dev: Recapping TimesOpen: Innovating Developer Culture
Recapping TimesOpen: Innovating Developer Culture
The second TimesOpen of 2011 on Innovating Developer Culture took place last Wednesday. The program was a departure from the usual code-heavy fare the meetings are known for. An expert on organization culture change, Jessica Lawrence, from the New York Tech Meetup, joined engineering manager, Ken Little from Etsy, and Foursquare co-founder, Naveen Selvadurai.Find: Windows 8 Metro-style Internet Explorer 10 doesn’t support Flash
Windows 8 Metro-style Internet Explorer 10 doesn’t support Flash (hands-on video)
Well the presence of two versions of Internet Explorer in Windows 8 is certainly making a bit more sense today — Microsoft has said that the Metro version of IE10 [...]Find: iPhone 4 demand remains strong while anticipation for iPhone 5 grows
iPhone 4 demand remains strong while anticipation for iPhone 5 grows
Find: Intel demos Android 2.3 on a Medfield smartphone prototype
Intel demos Android 2.3 on a Medfield smartphone prototype
Find: Report on tablet growth shows market is ripe for iPad competitor
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Report on tablet growth shows market is ripe for iPad competitor
Apple not only continues to dominate the global tablet market, its share of the market continues to grow while Android's slips. According to the second quarter numbers from market research firm IDC, the introduction of the iPad 2 combined with RIM's entrance into the market meant good things for overall shipments—which rose by 88.9 percent between the first and second quarters, or 303.8 percent year-over-year. The data shows that the market is ripe for a solid iPad competitor, too, possibly opening the door for Microsoft and its Windows 8 tablets.
IDC says that Apple's share of the global tablet market was 68.3 percent during the second quarter of 2011, up from 65.7 percent in the previous quarter. RIM entered the market during the second quarter as well, placing its initial market share at 4.9 percent with the PlayBook. Android-based tablets, which previously held 34 percent of the market during the first quarter of the year, fell to 26.8 percent in the second quarter.
Dev: Windows 8 Download, Developer Preview
Windows 8 Download, Developer Preview
Find: More Mobile Internet Users Than Wireline Users in the U.S. by 2015
IDC: More Mobile Internet Users Than Wireline Users in the U.S. by 2015
Find: HTC may be looking to buy its own mobile operating system
HTC may be looking to buy its own mobile operating system
Find: The Updated Tegra Roadmap: Kal-El+ in 2012, Wayne in Late 2012/Early 2013
The Updated Tegra Roadmap: Kal-El+ in 2012, Wayne in Late 2012/Early 2013
Find: August browser stats: Safari dominates mobile browsing
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August browser stats: Safari dominates mobile browsing
Our browser stats post is late this month. The source we normally use, Net Market Share, has changed the way it reports its data. This is good and bad. Mostly good, but it took extra time to retrieve the data and then decide what to do with it.
The good part is that we now have separate statistics for mobile browsers and desktop browsers. This answers long-standing demands to break this information out to take a closer look at that small but increasingly important market. The bad part is that the new figures are much harder to compare to historic ones; Net Market Share has completely separated mobile usage from desktop usage.
Viz: Have Our Email Viewing Habits Changed?
Find: Smartphones Outstrip Feature Phones for First Time in Western Europe as Android Sees Strong Growth in 2Q11, Says IDC
Smartphones Outstrip Feature Phones for First Time in Western Europe as Android Sees Strong Growth in 2Q11, Says IDC
Western European feature phone shipments continued to decline sharply in 2Q11 as consumers increasingly move to smartphones, according to the latest European Mobile Phone Tracker from International Data Corporation (IDC). Feature phone shipments were down 29% to 20.4 million units in 2Q11, while smartphone shipments increased 48% to 21.8 million units from a year ago. The total Western European mobile phone market, however, declined 3% year on year to 42.2 million units in the quarter, according to IDC.Find: NVIDIA Announces "Grey", First Tegra SoC with Integrated Baseband Due in 2012
NVIDIA Announces "Grey", First Tegra SoC with Integrated Baseband Due in 2012
Find: The Future Is Calling, AT&T, And It’s Not T-Mobile
The Future Is Calling, AT&T, And It’s Not T-Mobile
The proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger is shaping up to be an iconic business case saga and a judicial milestone. Who would have thought that nearly 40 years after the U.S. Department of Justice convinced a judge to break up “Ma Bell” that the DoJ might be able to convince another judge to tell that same company you can’t get too big again?
But of course AT&T can get big again, and become so dominant again that it is a feared monopoly that must be dealt with — if it should be so lucky. But getting there will take build, not buy.
Getting so large that you could control a market to the real or potential peril of the consuming public happened a lot in the industrial age, with railroads and oil, and even the movie business, which was ordered in 1948 to divest itself of theaters. But that was at a snail’s pace. These days eyebrows are raised by the Microsofts and Apples and Googles of the world who manage, in what seems like a blink of an eye, to provide goods or services so many people want that competitors have a hard time keeping up.
Unlike the industrial age, it seems like anyone with the right idea and execution (and garage) can do it. Who could have imagined Apple would become the most significant handset maker in the world. Frankly, who could have imagined Apple at all?. Or that Google would come up with mobile phone software that now sets the pace? Or even that Microsoft, when it decided it wanted to, would choke investor-beloved Netscape to death in no time?
Mergers can be a fast way of taking the lead or getting back on track. But they seem better suited for a zero-sum game, as when Sirius and XM radio tied up so satellite radio wouldn’t die because there wasn’t really room for two players at that stage of the tech’s evolution. Or when Thompson and Reuters combined to become as big as Bloomberg had become.
On the Internet, we are at the leading edge of a land grab, a gold rush, oil mania [insert cliche here]. There is absolutely no doubt that wireless is going to be the most important medium in the history of this world. There is already an insatiable appetite for it among the haves, which are largely in the Western world and concentrated in urban centers, and who will only be wanting more/faster/cheaper.
And then there is the rest of this planet which isn’t nearly there yet but will have to get there. It just will have to.
It seems unthinkable now, but we didn’t really know that the Internet would resonate. It had been around for more than two decades before AOL started minting customers. Then the World Wide Web provided an “aha!” moment to the indifferent masses. We didn’t really know that “expensive” broadband would be so widely adopted. But we absolu...
Find: Nvidia CEO: mobile chips to be a $20b business by 2015, new processor coming for Windows 8
Nvidia CEO: mobile chips to be a $20b business by 2015, new processor coming for Windows 8
“If you don’t have a mobile strategy you are in deep turd.” That’s how Nvidia’s CEO Jen-Hsun Huang ended a meeting this afternoon with a few select members of the [...]Find: Samsung quad-core Windows 8 tablet ready for BUILD giveaway?
Samsung quad-core Windows 8 tablet ready for BUILD giveaway?
The first Windows 8 tablet looks set to be revealed with the help of Samsung at Microsoft’s BUILD developers’ conference next week. And if we had to guess, it’ll likely [...]Find: Netflix now supports all Android 2.2 and 2.3 devices
Netflix now supports all Android 2.2 and 2.3 devices
After some months of only supporting a few select Android devices, Netflix has rolled out a new update that should work on all Android smartphones running Froyo or Gingerbread. According [...]Find: Designing for Metro style and the desktop
Designing for Metro style and the desktop
We thought it would be good to take a moment to talk about where we are heading in terms of the user interface of Windows 8.Event: iPhone Design and User Experience with Josh Clark
iPhone Design and User Experience with Josh Clark
Early bird pricing - $50.00 for members. Register by September 16, 2011 From idea to polished pixel, learn to create an iPhone app that delights. Discover how to
conceive and refine your app’s design in tune with the needs of a mobile audience—and their
fingers and thumbs. This course teaches participants how to “think iPhone” to plan and create
app interfaces in tune with the psychology, culture, ergonomics, and context of an audience on
the go.
Experienced designers and newcomers alike will uncover the shifts in mindset andtechnique required to craft a great app. This course isn’t (only) for geeks. It’s for everyoneinvolved in the app design process—designers, programmers, managers, marketers, clients.Participants will equip themselves to ask the right questions (and find the right answers) tomake aesthetic, technical, and usability decisions that will make their apps a pleasure to use.
Data: CIA World Factbook
App Smart Extra: CIA World Factbook Apps
The Central Intelligence Agency's World Factbook, a free global reference book, is available on smartphones through a variety of apps.Data: Excavating Your iPhone's Past
Excavating Your iPhone's Past
After a glitch erased my iPhone, I found a way to extract all my old text messages.Find: Mobile > Web Soon in Ad Spend
Smartphones app usage, facilitated by explosive iOS and Android device adoption, has created among the fastest-growing media channels in the history of consumer technology. Flurry estimates that, worldwide, over 600 thousand apps are available for over 350 million iOS and Android devices. On average, consumers have downloaded over 65 apps per device.
While micro-transaction models, largely associated with free-to-play games, have proven the most lucrative business model for iOS and Android apps, there have been big bets placed on advertising. In addition to its own iAd initiative, Apple acquired Quattro, a mobile ad network, for $275 million in January 2010. This was shortly after Google announced its intention to acquire Admob, a rival ad network, for $750 million in November 2009.
In June 2011, Gartner projected that mobile advertising revenue would double to $3.3 billion worldwide in 2011, and grow from around $300 million to over $700 million in 2010 in North America. eMarketer, a research firm, predicts that U.S. mobile ad spending will top $1.1 billion this year.
In this report, Flurry focuses on the size and growth of available advertising inventory within iOS and Android applications. We used data from over 100,000 applications tracked by Flurry to estimate the size of this media channel. The chart below shows that U.S. app inventory is not only growing at a staggering rate, but also poised to absorb the equivalent of the entire U.S. Internet display advertising spend by the end of this year.
Reviewing the chart, we see that U.S. mobile app inventory has grown aggressively over the last year. With its growth trajectory, it will be able to absorb the entire U.S. online display ad spend by the end of the year. Another way to look at this is that, in approximately two years, mobile app inventory is growing so aggressively that it could easily meet the demand of a mature, 15-year-old form of online advertising.
To arrive at these figures, we first tracked the average number of ads shown per application session, which we found to be 4.3. The average application session is 4.2 minutes. For reference, the average session length of a website is just under 1 minute. We then looked at the number of sessions. Flurry tracks about 20% of all sessions in the market, and so we grew our numbers accordingly to come up with a market size.
We compared this inventory with the net spend on display advertising in the US. The US market currently spends a little over $12bn per annum on online display advertising. We assumed a conservative CPM (cost per 1000 impressions) of $2.50 for mobile application inventory. As a point of reference, a typical 30 second video on a large video streaming website such as Hulu has a CPM of $10-$15.
We at Flurry see four reasons why the market is growing at such a fast rate:
1) Smartphone growth – over a million smartphone devices are currently being activated on a daily basis
2) Publisher growth – The App store now has over 400,000 apps in the market and Android, with over 200,000, is catching up quickly
3) Session use growth - Flurry has previously found that smartphone users now spend more time in mobile apps per day than the average Internet users spends online.
4) Publisher integration of ads – with larger screens, targeting, and increased adoption of mobile applications, more publishers are integrating ads into their apps
Not only is inventory growing, but Flurry has also found that the average user of a smartphone is a very attractive target for advertisers. With a sample of more than 60,000 app users, we used location data and zip code statistics available from the U.S. Census Bureau to understand their demographics. On average, smartphone users are better educated and earn higher household incomes than the average of the U.S. population.
Additionally, looking at age and gender, we find that U.S. smartphone app users cluster into younger age groups and trend slightly more female.
In 1994, Hotwired.com was the first company to start selling display advertising in large quantities on the Internet. Back then, it took over six years for advertisers to embrace this model. For mobile apps, less than four years into their growth cycle, a critical mass of highly attractive consumers has been achieved. With growing awareness by brands and advertising agencies, we now expect digital advertising on mobile to take off in earnest.
Find: Rent Out Your Toilet with Cloo'
Rent Out Your Toilet with Cloo' [Video]
CLOO' is a service designed to help city dwellers make some spare cash by renting out their bathrooms to people who are desperate to find a clean place to pee. Hey, times are tough, and, where there's a need, there's a market.
You can see how the service works in the video above. In their own words:
CLOO' is based on one simple truth- we all have to pee. Though in urban cities finding a clean, available restroom is difficult & frustrating. That's where CLOO' comes in.
CLOO' is a community of registered users who choose to share their bathrooms and make city-living easier, while earning a small profit. Using social media connections, CLOO' shows what friends you have in common with the host, turning a stranger's loo into a friend of a friend's loo.
The next time you're desperate to find a bathroom near you, you can use CLOO' and the power of your social networks to find friends of friends who will let you use their bathroom for a buck or two. I didn't see the app downloadable on CLOO's site yet, but you can follow them on Twitter to get updates and find out when you'll be able to profit from your bathroom.
You can follow or contact Melanie Pinola, the author of this post, on Twitter or Google+.
Find: Will RIM’s Blackberry run Android apps?
Will RIM’s Blackberry run Android apps?
Finds: Want to save gas? There's an app for that
Want to save gas? There's an app for that
Find: As Networks Speed Up, Data Hits a Wall
As Networks Speed Up, Data Hits a Wall
Cellphone plans that let people gobble up unlimited data are disappearing as new data-heavy services catch on.Find: Will Consumers Benefit if T-Mobile Stands Alone?
Will Consumers Benefit if T-Mobile Stands Alone?
Find: Mobile Apps Make It Easy to Point and Identify
Mobile Apps Make It Easy to Point and Identify
Find: Why Feds Are Right to Block AT&T, T-Mobile Merger
Interesting perspective on the merger. I haven't found many who defend it. At some point, the government may have to act further to avoid the braking effect service providers have on our economy. Eg bandwidth caps.
Singel-Minded: Why Feds Are Right to Block AT&T, T-Mobile Merger
ANALYSIS – The feds unexpectedly walked into a federal court Wednesday to file a lawsuit seeking to block AT&T from buying T-Mobile for $39 billion.
Find: HP splits webOS GBU: keeps software, leaves hardware with PSG
HP splits webOS GBU: keeps software, leaves hardware with PSG
Find: Microsoft Reveals Details About Windows 8′s User Interface
Microsoft Reveals Details About Windows 8′s User Interface
Metro UI; That’s the name of the new user interface that Microsoft plans to ship with the Windows 8 operating system when it comes out next year. What we did not know until now was how the interface would be integrated into the operating system, especially so on desktop PCs. Many users suspected that the new UI would only be turned on by default on tablet and touch based devices, and that desktop users would get the standard interface instead.
That is not the case according to Steven Sinfosky. Windows 8 will ship with a dual user interface. The main interface is Metro UI which gets loaded when the operating system starts. Desktop UI, which Microsoft basically sees like another app on the system, is not loaded until the user needs it.