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Tag: app store

  • Apple’s App Store Goes Over 15 Billion Downloads, Despite the Confusion

    Apparently, the confusing and misleading name of the Amazon AppStore for Android hasn’t had much of an impact yet, because, according to Apple’s press room, the Apple App Store has exceeded 15 billion application downloads. Considering the gist of Apple’s lawsuit against Amazon, apparently, the company is willing to say anything to secure the rights to the “App Store” phrase, even if the evidence doesn’t support the claim.

    It’s hard to reconcile these two positions, but yet, here we are. Apple did announce their Apps Store eclipsed 15 billion downloads on the same day their injunction against Amazon was denied. While the lawsuit is still ongoing, Amazon can, for the time being, continue to use the phrase in question. As for the App Store milestone, considering the proliferation of Apple’s team of iDevices (iPhone, iPad, iTouch), eclipsing the 15 billion downloads mark was only a matter of time.

    Currently, the Apps for iPhone store has, according to Apple’s promotional material, over 425,000 apps available for the iFamily. Concerning the significance of these downloads, Apple had this to say:

    “In just three years, the revolutionary App Store has grown to become the most exciting and successful software marketplace the world has ever seen,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Thank you to all of our amazing developers who have filled it with over 425,000 of the coolest apps and to our over 200 million iOS users for surpassing 15 billion downloads.”

    So much for confusion and being misled. Apparently, that catch-all will be used to address future downloads and if they diminish? Beating a dead horse aside, PC World speculates the announcement is to counter Google’s boasts about the number of Android devices activated on a daily basis, as well as the amount of Android apps have been downloaded:

    The announcement comes a few weeks after Googlers started throwing out numbers at public events showing the Android Market is quickly approaching the 5 billion download mark, and that the last billion downloads were added in only two months.

    So. Is this just a case of two companies in a “whose is bigger” contest or is there real value in learning about the amount of downloaded apps each platform has had? From here, the main value received from Apple’s announcement is that the “confusing and misleading” arguments about Amazon’s use of the “App Store” phrase are bogus. Or is it their contention that if Amazon wasn’t using the phrase, the Apps for iPhone store would have more than 15 billion downloads? Or does Apple just want to have control of the phrase for marketing purposes?

    Clearly, there isn’t much confusion going on, especially if you go by their claims about their download numbers.

    Finally, Apple’s release indicated that over $2.5 billion has been paid out to application developers. Is that before or after they started denying certain apps, only to make a similar one themselves?

  • Apple’s Injunction Against Amazon Is Denied

    Amazon can keep using the phrase “App Store” in its Appstore for Android, which, according to Apple’s recently-filed injunction, it would cause confusion for consumers. This means that, according to Apple, people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between an iPhone and an Android phone when it comes to searching out apps for their devices. While it’s simply a battle for control for marketing purposes — the abbreviation “app” is an incredibly popular term in today’s vernacular — the reason Apple used is downright silly.

    Are iPhone users really not going to be able to tell the difference between these two services — “Amazon Appstore for Android” and “Apps for iPhone?” If so, these users have issues that extend far beyond getting confused by services that use the phrase “app.” As it stands, Apple’s injunction, which was seeking the immediate removal of the term from Amazon’s service.

    After reading Apple’s reasoning for the injunction, it’s easy to see Apple is using the terms “confusing” and “misleading” the same way ISPs use the “stifle innovation” catch-all whenever they’re backed up against a legal wall. Even though these “reasons” fall apart under the slightest bit of scrutiny, these entities continue to push their excuses on the public. Good thing not all judges are as gullible. According to a number of reports, including PhysOrg, Apple’s injunction was dismissed by US District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton because the company did not prove it’s confusion argument:

    “The evidence does show that Apple has spent a great deal of money on advertising and publicity, and has sold/provided/furnished a large number of apps from its App Store,” Hamilton wrote in her ruling. “However, there is also evidence that the term ‘app store’ is used by other companies as a descriptive term for a place to obtain software applications for mobile devices.”

    Essentially, Judge Hamilton ruled that the “app store” phrase was more descriptive than it was distinctive.

    While Apple’s injunction was dismissed, the suit filed against Amazon, which seeks damages from the online retailer, is still active. For what it’s worth, according to Reuters, Apple’s spokesperson is sticking to the “confusion” and “misleading” argument, even though Amazon’s app store clearly has the name “Android” in it.

    Apparently, Kristin Huguet and the rest of Apple’s legal team don’t think iPhone owners can tell the difference between their phone and an Android device.

  • iOS App Coming for Google+?

    iOS App Coming for Google+?

    For those of you wondering where the iOS app is for Google+ is, you may finally have an answer, albeit a vague one.

    It appears as though the Google+ iOS app has been submitted to the App Store, sometime prior to yesterday, and is currently awaiting approval, according to a Mountain View employee via her own Google+ account. This should be good news for those of you worrying Google would limit Google+ to only having an app for it’s own in-house Android operating system, as one was available upon Google+‘s launch.

    There has been no word from Apple when the Google+ iOS app will appear in the App Store. This isn’t out of the ordinary, as Apple screens all apps submitted to them before ultimately approving well over 90% of them. There should be little concern about any holdups, and you should see a Google+ in the App Store fairly soon.

    Do you see yourself using Google+ more on a desktop or on your mobile device? Tell us what you think.

  • iOS Leads App Revenue Over Android

    Millennial Media released its latest Mobile Mix report, looking at the impact the Verizon iPhone has made, as well as the growth of tablets/connected devices. In addition, there is some data on apps, and a comparison of different platforms, based on app revenue.

    Following is a chart illustrating just that. Keep in mind this data is for the month of March:

    App Platform Mix

    Also interesting is the rate of Android market share growth, compared to that of iOS:

    Worldwide Android Market Share

    Here are some highlights:

    • The iPhone grew 17% month-over-month and iOS grew 11% month-over-month. This was largely tied to the growth of the Verizon iPhone (which accounted for 8.2% of iPhone impressions in March)
    • When breaking down app revenue by platform—iOS apps represented a 47% share. Android apps represented a 36% share.
    • Android remained the leading Smartphone OS for the 4th consecutive month with a 48% impression share. 14 of the current top 20 devices run the Android OS
    • Connected devices (non-phones—like the iPad, iPod Touch and Samsung Galaxy tablet) increased 21% month-over-month, and now make up 17% of the device impression share (compared to 64% for smartphones, and 19% for feature phones)
    • The BlackBerry Curve reclaimed the number 2 position in the Top 20 mobile phones, and the BlackBerry Torch grew 23% month-over-month. The RIM OS experienced a 29% growth month-over-month

    To put the firm’s data in context, Millennial’s network reaches 90.3 million monthly users in the U.S.

  • Windows App Store: Are The Screenshots Legit?

    Windows App Store: Are The Screenshots Legit?

    Several screenshots have begun to float around promising to be the first glimpse of the Windows 8 app store. Though the screeshots appear to be running in Windows 7, which some have speculated that they’re prepping legacy versions of Windows, while others are calling foul.

    Do you think these screenshots are the real deal? Let us know what you think

    The Windows App Store, as it’s being called, features Microsoft Software, along with third party software including Firefox, Angry Birds, and Opera to name a few. Personally, it seems a bit odd that Microsoft would want to promote their competitors on their app store home screen. Does anyone else find this a bit odd?

    The images were first noticed on Cnbeta, but the legitimacy of the images have have yet to be confirmed. With that in mind, some people have begun laying our reasons why these are clearly fakes.

    Some of the reasons they give are…

    • Won’t be available for Windows 7
    • Can’t use the App Store name, as it is trademarked by Apple
    • Microsoft wouldn’t abandon the Marketplace for an App Store

    It also looks like the screenshots first showed on the Neowin forums back in January, which would seem to definitely make them fakes. Take a look for yourself, and draw your own conclusions.

    Well, now that you’ve seen the screenshots, what are your thoughts? Real or Fake: leave a comment with your answer

  • Steve Jobs Turns Down Radiation Monitoring App

    You really know your iPhone app is rejected when Steve Jobs personally emails you in response to an appeal made regarding app store approval. Tawkon, the name of both the app and developer can be added to the list of app drama which has taken place this week.

    The radiation monitoring app is available on Blackberry, Android, and now jail-broken Apple devices. Tawkon has gone underground, and is now available on the Cydia store.

    Upon its release, Tawkon was rejected from the app store. This led to discussions with Apple execs, eventually leading to an email correspondence with Steve Jobs.

    Not to mince words, here’s the email Tawkon posted on their blog…

    The reaction to Tawkon’s exclusion from the app store has led to a wide variety of opinions. Ranging from “Apple needs to stop deciding what I can and cannot download” to John Brownlee of CultofMac.com, who states “Tawkon’s launching on Cydia instead, which is fine, but I’m with Steve on this one: given that the iPhone has no native radiation-detecting mechanism (and therefore isn’t accurate), combined with the fact that there is no medical basis for fearing cellphone radiation exposure and the heightened fears about radiation both domestically and abroad, this just isn’t an app that needs to be on the App Store.”

    Brownlee provides an interesting point, as Tawkon doesn’t directly monitor radiation. However, Tawkon explains how their app works with this YouTube video:

    The argument between radiation exposure in cell phones has been going back and forth for as long as the devices have been available. One group points to research to validate their claims, while the other group has their research as well. Unfortunately, there’s no long term research available to validate or refute either claim. CNet has a great report, providing information about what we do know concerning cell phone radiation.

    Though they’ve been rejected, Tawkon isn’t giving up on the fight. They have a petition posted on the front page of their site, which let’s people email Apple to let them know they want the app.

    Depending how you feel in regards to cell phone radiation will more than likely determine your stance in the Tawkon app dilemma. Was Jobs and Apple justified in turning down Tawkon, or does the developer have a valid monitoring app?

    Whatever your opinion, there’s no denying the humor of Job’s short and to the point email response.

  • Apple Introduces Subscription Service On The App Store

    Apple Introduces Subscription Service On The App Store

    Apple has introduced a new subscription service on its App Store for magazines, newspapers, video and music.

    This is the same subscription service that Apple recently launched with News Corp.’s “The Daily” app. Read the review here.

    Steve-Jobs-Apple Publishers set the price and length of the subscription (weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, bi-yearly or yearly). Users choose the length of the subscription and are charged based on how long they subscribe.  Users can manage all of the subscriptions from their personal account page. Apple keeps 30 percent of the revenue from subscriptions, the same as it does for other in-app purchases.

    “Our philosophy is simple — when Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30 percent share; when the publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100 percent and Apple earns nothing,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO.

    “All we require is that, if a publisher is making a subscription offer outside of the app, the same (or better) offer be made inside the app.”

    People who buy a subscription through the App Store will have the option of providing personal information based on the publisher’s privacy policy instead of Apple’s.
     

  • ‘Friends’ App May Become Your New Contact List

    How much time do you spend trying to keep with all your friends on the various social platforms? Chances are it’s quite a bit. Most of your friends are probably on Facebook, some are hard die heard Twitterers, and some won’t let go of MySpace.

    Enter the Friends app from Taptivate for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The official blog states, "Friends gathers everyone you care about from all the major social networks into one place".

    Brian Chen of Wired recently got some hands-on time with Friends, "I enjoy the detail and simplicity of the design; I’m probably going to be using this app to quickly check on some people while riding the elevator or standing in line at a grocery store." Friends isn’t available just yet, but it’s rumored to be hitting the App Store within the next few weeks with a price tag of $2.

    How successful do you think the Friends app will be? Let us know.

  • Apple Fans Get All Kinds of Good News Today

    Apple made a series of announcements today, including a new MacBook Air, a sneak peek of Mac OS X Lion, the Mac App Store, a public beta of FaceTime for Mac, and the introduction of iLife ’11 with upgrades to iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand.

    The New MacBook Air

    The new MacBook Air gives up the physical hard disks in favor of Internet services and solid state flash storage. "We’ve taken what we have learned with the iPad—solid state storage, instant-on, amazing battery standby time, miniaturization and lightweight construction, to create the new MacBook Air. With its amazing responsiveness and mobility, it will change the way we think about notebooks," says CEO Steve Jobs. 

    This ought to compete directly with machines running Google’s Chrome OS. 

    The New MacBook Air - It's thinner, so it must be better.

    FaceTime Comes to the Mac

    FaceTime for Mac lets Mac users video call iPhone 4 and iPod touch users (with iOS 4) as well as other Macs. It requires Mac OS X Snow Leopard, and can be downloaded here. 

    "FaceTime makes video calling to or from mobile devices easy for the first time," says Jobs. "We’ve sold more than 19 million FaceTime-ready iPhone 4 and iPod touch devices in the past four months, and now those users can make FaceTime calls with tens of millions of Mac users."

    The addition of FaceTime to Macs will no doubt inspire plenty of iPhone users to switch to Mac if they are currently using PCs. The feature has been one of the most popuar of the latestr iPhone release. It’s certainly been the main selling point from the company’s marketing campaigns. 

    Apple says there are over 19 million iPhone 4 and iPod Touch users with access to FaceTime. 

    FaceTime Comes to Mac

    Mac OS X Lion

    The new operating system is Apple’s 8th major OS X release. The company says it’s inspired by many of the iPad’s software innovations. It comes with the Mac App Store for desktop apps, Launchpad, which serves as a home for the user’s apps, and Mission Control, which provides a new way of viewing everything that’s running on the machine, and to instantly navigate anywhere. 

    "Lion brings many of the best ideas from iPad back to the Mac, plus some fresh new ones like Mission Control that Mac users will really like," says Jobs. "Lion has a ton of new features, and we hope the few we had time to preview today will give users a good idea of where we are headed."

    Mac App Store

    The Mac App Store is like Apple’s existing App Store for Max OS X. You can still purchase apps with an iTunes account and they will download and install in one step. App updates will be delivered through the store. It will actually be available for Snow Leopard in the next ninety days, and will be included as part of Lion. 

    iLife 11

    The new iLife gives iPhoto a new look, makes it easier to edit videos in iMovie, and provides new features for GarageBand, which helps users improve playing and create songs with "Flex Time" and "Groove Matching".

    Apple Announces iLife 11

    "iLife is widely regarded as the best suite of ‘Digital Life’ applications in the world, and iLife ’11 makes them even better," says Jobs. "iLife now makes it easier than ever to create books and letterpress cards, make amazing movie trailers from your personal videos and post them online, and make your band sound far better or teach yourself piano or guitar."

    The suite is free with all new Macs, and costs $49 for an upgrade.

  • Apple to Publish App Store Review Guidelines

    Apple released a statement today regarding its App Store Review Guidelines. The company says:

    The App Store has revolutionized the way mobile applications are developed and distributed. With over 250,000 apps and 6.5 billion downloads, the App Store has become the world’s largest mobile application platform and App Store developers have earned over one billion dollars from the sales of their apps.

    We are continually trying to make the App Store even better. We have listened to our developers and taken much of their feedback to heart. Based on their input, today we are making some important changes to our iOS Developer Program license in sections 3.3.1, 3.3.2 and 3.3.9 to relax some restrictions we put in place earlier this year.

    In particular, we are relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code. This should give developers the flexibility they want, while preserving the security we need.


    Apple App Store

    In addition to these changes, Apple will publish its App Store Review Guidelines so that developers can see what all is taken into consideration before submitting their apps. Apple says it hopes this will make it more transparent. 
     

    Apple has had a reputation for being pretty stingy with app acceptance. In fact, the company has caused a lot of controversy in this area, particularly around apps that it deemed to be adult-oriented, while still allowing other apps from bigger brands that appeared to be more adult-oriented than some of the ones rejected. More on that here. 

  • Apple Letting App Store Users Test Drive Apps

    Apple has added a new section to its App Store aimed at letting users try out apps before paying for them. The section is appropriate called "Try Before You Buy".

    As Jolie O’Dell at Mashable notes, not all paid apps are available for a free trial period, and it is unclear whether or not this will be the case going forward. Still, it can’t hurt for developers looking to gain more exposure for their paid apps. Many people are leery of paying for apps when there are so many free ones available.

    Try Before You BuyIn other iPhone app-related news, an Apple patent filing has raised something of a stir, though it may be for no real good reason. Om Malik points to a patent for "Systems and Methods for Accessing Travel Services Using a Portable Electronic Device".

    The filing includes drawings that are identical to existing third-party apps, which has put some developers on edge – as if Apple is trying to patent their apps. However, as a commenter on Malik’s story points out, "After reading the claims, it’s clear that the spinning wheel image stolen from the 3rd party app was not part of the claimed invention at all and was just an illustration. You see this a lot in patents, where a an exemplar device such as a Dell laptop is used in a drawing but is not part of the claims."

    The concern might be overblown. Still, as Alexia Tsotsis at TechCrunch points out, developers may be getting the wrong message from such diagram inclusions in patent filings.

  • Apple Launches Apple Store App

    Apple has introduced a free mobile application, the Apple Store App, that allows users in the U.S. to buy Apple products including the new iPhone 4, directly from their iPhone or iPod touch.

    Apple-Store-App

    The new Apple Store app allows users to find an Apple retail store in their local area and make reservations for retail services including free tech support and advice at the Genius Bar, personal shopping appointments and personal training sessions through Apple’s One to One program.

    Users can also shop the selection of more than 1,000 products and accessories available from the Apple Online Store, get Apple product news, read customer reviews and get answers to their product questions.
     

     

  • NYT Doesn’t Want Its Feeds in Paid Feed Readers

    Pulse News Reader, an iPad app that Steve Jobs himself showed off in his keynote at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference was kicked out of the App Store later that day, because the New York Times sent Apple a notice that the app was using its content without license.

    Kara Swisher at All Things Digital says the app’s developers planned to contact Apple and take steps to remove NYT content. "It is not immediately clear why they need to, since Pulse draws from publicly available Times RSS feeds as many other apps do and does no scraping," she writes, adding that Pulse is little more than an RSS reader.

    The whole thing has led to speculation that the New York Times may be "declaring war on News Aggregators." That may be the case, at least with aggregators that require payment from users. Swisher references the notice from the NYT’s lawyer, saying, "The Pulse News Reader app, makes commercial use of the NYTimes.com and Boston.com RSS feeds, in violation of their Terms of Use*. Thus, the use of our content is unlicensed. The app also frames the NYTimes.com and Boston.com websites in violation of their respective Terms of Use."

    Matthew Ingram, writing for GigOm, elaborates on that framing part: "What may have contributed to the complaint is that Pulse also has a view that shows the newspaper’s website inside a Pulse frame. Although there is no obvious advertising in the app, such framing of a site’s content has led to legal challenges against news aggregators in the past, including a high-profile case launched in 1997 by the Washington Post, CNN, Reuters and a number of other media entities against a site called TotalNews, which embedded news content from other outlets inside a frame."

    Clearly not all of the NYT’s staff felt threatened by Pulse, as Brad Stone writing for the publication’s Bits blog last week said, "News organizations still puzzling over their iPad strategies can perhaps derive some hope from Pulse’s success."

    It will be interesting to see, A: will the New York Times continue a crusade against aggregators (even if only paid ones)? B: Will the Pulse News Reader app be back in the App store after getting rid of the New York Times feeds? C: Will other publications follow the Times’ lead?

    Under any of these options, it appears readers will lose.

     

  • Google Rumored to Be Working on Apps Store

    According to unnamed sources cited by the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, Google plans to launch a store where it will sell online business software for use with its own Google Apps products. The Times cites "a person familiar with the project" and the Journal cites "people briefed by the company."

    "These people said the store will sell business software designed by outside developers to integrate and add capabilities to Google Apps, such as enhanced security features or the ability to import contacts," the WSJ reports, later adding, "Google eventually plans to allow customers to purchase its partners’ software through the site, taking a cut for itself and sharing some revenue with the developers, these people said. Google will allow users to quickly access their purchased applications through the menu at the top of their screens within Gmail or Google Docs, they said."

    Both publications refer to a statement from Google in which the company said, "The Google Solutions Marketplace makes it easy for our customers to connect with an ecosystem of products and professional services. We’re constantly working with our partners to deliver more solutions to businesses, but we have nothing to announce at this time."

    The Google Solutions Marketplace is described by the company as a place that links customers to vendors whose solutions integrate and extend Google’s communication, collaboration, and enterprise search products.

    Google Solutions Marketplace

    The rumored product would presumably be separate from this, operating as a standalone store for consumers and businesses to purchase apps that meet their needs, not unlike they can do with Apple’s app store or Google’s own Android Market.

    If the rumor turns out to be true, it could mean some very interesting things for Google Apps and the businesses that use them. It could also give Google more of an edge in the competition for office software dominance.

    Related Articles:

    > Google Apps Goes Live In L.A.

    > Google Apps Gets Google Groups

    > L.A. Approves $7.25 Million Google Apps Contract