Cute kids iPad app from Penguin

Here at The Appys we are liking the MeBooks iPad app by Penguin (http://vimeo.com/27865194), possibly because some are old enough to remember the original print versions of these traditional favourites. “We’ve added nothing to the books themselves, just a new way to bottle the creativity and imagination they inspire,” says Penguin. Cute.

The first collection to be released is ‘Ladybird Classic Me Books’ that includes much loved vintage titles like ‘The Three Little Pigs’, ‘Cinderella’ and ‘The Farm’ read by the likes of Adam Buxton and Josie Lawrence.

Over 30,000 apps now available for the Windows Phone

The number of apps for the Windows Phone platform has now reached an impressive 30,000 in less than a year. While the figure is tiny compared to the 500,000 or so apps on Apple’s app store, the 30,000 apps will also run on the first major upgrade to Windows Phone, Mango.

Last December, an IDC analyst forecast that Windows Phone market place could be the third biggest app store this year behind the iOS App Store and the Android Market.

RIM’s BlackBerry World has just over 25,000 apps while Nokia’s Ovi Store has over 40,000 apps since April this year. Nokia’s deal with Microsoft to produce Windows Phone handsets will eventually see a merger between their two respective app stores.

Microsoft says its focus is on the quality of the apps rather than the quantity.

Apps still more popular than the mobile web

It seems US consumers still prefer apps to the mobile web.

According to first-reported data from Nielsen Smartphone Analytics, a new effort that tracks and analyzes data from on-device meters installed on thousands of iOS and Android smartphones, the average Android consumer in the U.S. spends 56 minutes per day actively interacting with the web and apps on their phone. Of that time, two-thirds is spent on mobile apps while one-third is spent on the mobile web.

Perhaps more surprising, despite the hundreds of thousands of apps available for Android, a very small proportion of apps make up the vast majority of time spent. In fact, the top 10 Android apps account for 43 percent of all the time spent by Android consumers on mobile apps. The top 50 apps account for 61 percent of all time spent. With 250,000+ Android apps available at the time of this writing, that means the remaining 249,950+ apps have to compete for the remaining 39 percent of the pie.

Don Kellogg, Director, Telecom Research & Insights, Nielsen

Facebook app shows how globally connected you are

As part of its 160th celebrations, money transfer giant Western Union created Western Union World, which includes a new Facebook app called http://www.westernunionworld.com/yourworld/ which aims to find the world’s most networked individuals.
Your World visualises Facebook users’ global connections and they receive a score that shows how globally connected they are. They can compare their ranking against their Facebook Friends, against others in their country and against others in the world.
In the few days the site has been live it has received over half a million visits and over 220,000 people have used Your World.
Western Union is also calling for the world’s most globally connected individuals to step forward and take the Network 160 Challenge at http://www.westernunionworld.com/yourworld.
“We wanted to find a way to give consumers their own bird’s eye view of their personal network in the world. As well as being a fun way to celebrate the power of human connectivity, Your World is going to create some fascinating insights, and perhaps encourage more of us to reach out to our fellow global citizens,” says Western Union President and CEO, Hikmet Ersek.
To see your global connections go to http://www.westernunionworld.com/yourworld and type in your Facebook log-in details. The most connected individual will be announced later in the year.

The planet of the apps

New research from In-Stat projects 48 billion app downloads by 2015 generating more than $29 billion in app revenue.

The figures are truly astonishing. The growth of the app industry can only be described as explosive. Nothing in the digital industry’s history has grown so quickly and attracted so much innovation in such a short space of time.

Here are some ‘explosive stats’ regarding the app industry so far:

* Apple’s three-year-old App Store now offers more than 425,000 apps while Android Market offers more than 200,000

* More than 15 billion App Store apps had been downloaded to 200 million iPhones, iPads and iPod touches over the past three years.

* Google says there are over 4.5 billion app downloads from its Android Market, so far.

* Apple alone has paid some $2.5 billion to app developers over the last three years.

* The developers receive 70% of the purchase price of their apps sold on the App Store. The App Store has already generated some $3.6 billion in revenue for Apple by mid-2011.

* Users now pay an average of $2.50 for a mobile app.

* Smart phones made up 25% of all mobile phone shipments in 2010. That number is projected to jump to 45% in 2015.

* Nearly half of all app downloads are now done over Wi-Fi.

* There are more than 100,000 iPad-specific apps on sale in the App Store. It took Apple 452 days to surpass the 100,000 iPad app mark to land at 100,161 dedicated iPad apps.

* About 20% of apps are abandoned by developers, removed from the store because they’re not compatible with the latest OS, or removed for violating Apple’s terms.

* Facebook is the most downloaded iPhone app of all time, but has yet to launch an iPad app. At the time of writing the iPad app is imminent.

The Appys 2010 – winners

• Best augmented reality / location services app – Daft.ie iPhone/iPad App – Daft Media Ltd
• Best Branded app – Paddy Power Mobile – Paddy Power
• Best business solutions app – Smartgrid – Redwind Software
• Best Consumer Experience / Retail app – Betfair for iPhone – Betfair
• Best Entertainment / gaming app – Movie Challenge – Redwind Software
• Best Media app – RTÉ News Now – DRG
• Best medical/ healthcare app – Pocket Heart – eMedia Interactive Ltd.
• Best Social Networking app – Absolut Fringe – eightytwenty/interactive
• Best sports app – RTÉ GAA – Furious Tribe
• Best Tourism/ Travel app – Ireland’s Blue Book – Ireland’s Blue Book
• Best Education / Learning App – FIS Training – Furious Tribe
• Best use of the Irish Language in an App – Greann Gaeilge – Miranda Corp
• Best developer – Daft – Ciaran Maher – Daft
• Best Andriod App – Today FM – Communicorp Digital
• Best Bada App – Munster Rugby – iMobile
• Best OVI App – Mowbli’s Halloween – Axonista
• Best Apple App – RTÉ News Now – DRG
• GRAND PRIX – RTÉ News Now – DRG

2010 Summary

The RTÉ News Now iPhone app has won the Appys 2010 with The Carphone Warehouse at a ceremony at the Gibson Hotel in Dublin. Beating off some tough competition, The RTÉ News Now app was judged to be the best app out of 170 entries and a shortlist of approximately 60. Over 200 people attended the inaugural awards show at the Gibson Hotel, Point Village, Dublin 1.

Edward Conmy, event director and co-founder, said the level of interest in the Appys, the first year of the awards, has been immense. “We’re extremely happy with the response, not just from all those who entered but also from our sponsors and the general digital media/marketing community. The app sector in Ireland is thriving and we hope the Appys will shine a bright light on this creative and energetic media sector. Well done to all those who made the shortlist, who won their categories and of course well done to the Grand Prix winner. For those who are a little disappointed on the night, there’s always next year.”

Des Doris, founder/organiser of the Appys and MD of Alchemy Events said each app entered was judged on seven different attributes including design, relevance to target market, utility and innovation. “We’ve been really impressed with the standard of entries for such a young media sector, and the app sector is a media sector in its own right now. While this year we’ve concentrated on mobile apps, next year we’d like to see tablet apps, social media apps and even Web TV apps entered. The app sector is changing the media landscape and the way many companies do business and the Appys with The Carphone Warehouse aim to showcase the best Irish apps and their developers.”

The CEO of The Carphone Warehouse, Stephen Mackarel said, “We wanted to sponsor the Appys to recognise app development across all of the platforms. The standard of entries and indeed the overall winners are a testament to the vitality evident within this sector in Ireland. 41 million smartphones were sold in Europe in 2009 and the substantial year on year growth within the market, highlights the opportunity for products, brands and businesses to consider app development as an important part of their consumer marketing strategy.”

“I’d like to congratulate RTÉ and the agency that developed the News Now app, DRG, on the Grand Prix win,” said Stephen Conmy, editor of Digital Times and co-founder of the Appys. “The competition for the top prize was quite fierce, there were some great apps entered and most of the apps that made the shortlist show the creativity and utility now abundant in the Irish app sector. I’d also like to thank all our judges for the hard work they put in.”

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