A study by mobile analytics firm Zokem says that iPhone owners have highest loyalty to the brand in the smartphone market. As per the survey, iPhone scored 84 percent higher than Android and also emerged as the top preference among non-iPhone users. The results are based on a Global Smartphone Study 2010 survey conducted by the company where over 1,500 US smartphone users were surveyed and asked about their handset preferences and perceptions. The news of iPhone emerging top in customer loyalty outsmarting its nearest rival, Android is sure to bring cheer to iPhone developers who were concerned with Android’s growing popularity and likely shrinking of their customer base.

Android emerged as the best selling mobile platform in the US. However, iPhone continues to get attention as the foremost smartphone operating system. “The figures suggest clearly that iPhone is the top performing platform in terms of user loyalty, and therefore, it is an increasingly likely pick for a repurchase” says Dr. Hannu Verkasalo, CEO of Zokem. “Android is a good number two in the US market, even though the loyalty score is not nearly as high as it is for iPhones, but it seems that people who are using Android are also very likely to buy an Android-based device as their next smartphone too”, Verkasalo adds.

Other important findings from the study include:

• In user loyalty, iPhone scores 73% followed by Android at 40% and Samsung Bada at 33%. A score of 60 percent is measured as good and iphone is the only platform to exceed it.



• Low loyalty may mean likelihood of users shifting to rival platforms. However, platforms like Samsung Bada, Nokia Symbian and Palm suffered due to other factors like low mass adoption, limited apps compatibility and weaker business tie-ups with carriers.
• iPhone, Blackberry and Android owners are most likely to stick to the same platform in the future. This is in contrast to Nokia and Palm mobile users who are more likely to switch to rival platforms signaling tough times for them in the future.

With various studies showing iPhone’s sway in the market, iPhone app developers are sure to have good business in the future.

A report by research company eMarketer suggests that around 31% mobile users in United States presently own smartphones and the figure is expected to jump to 43% by 2015. As more users own smartphones, it will trigger the app market, largely dominated by iPhone apps, thereby bringing more revenue for iPhone app developers.

The report also brings to the fore the fact that mobile apps are largely popular among young, male and well heeled and is yet to hit the mainstream market. A survey by Ask.com and Harris Interactive found that, as of October 2010, around 69% smartphone owners (men- 74%, women-62%) have downloaded a app on their device. It also showed that smartphone owners in the age group 35-44 years have mostly downloaded an app followed by 18-24 years group. Aged people, over 55 years age group, were the least active in downloading an app. The survey further says that income also plays a role in app market with those with yearly income over $75,000 forming the major block as app users.

Analysts believe that with smartphones replacing features phones and increasing penetration of smartphones in the future will be able to change the app user demography. In addition, as smartphone users mature and become more comfortable with the device, app usage will certainly go mainstream and popular.

Source- eMarketer

iPhone Developers around the world are waiting for WWDC 2010 to begin on 7th June with Steve Job’s Keynote. You gonna get some great Hands-on on various new frameworks for both iPhone and Mac. But believe me, this isn’t sufficient for iPhone Developers; they usually look around for more fun after attending serious technical sessions at WWDC.

We figured out from a tweet (on Twitter) that there gonna be an iPhone Intelligence Party @ WWDC 2010 which is sponsored by various iPhone application development companies. Meet some of the leading iPhone Developers and publishers. See demos of new iPhone applications & Celebrate the success of the iPhone platform.

Although this party is free and open to public, gets will need to register to attend.

Party sponsors include Small Society, Urban Airship, Appular, and PayPal X Developer Network. Additional sponsors to be announced shortly.

Check out a video of the iPhone Intelligence Party @ Macworld 2009.

Make sure you check out the Official page: iPhone Intelligence Party @ WWDC 2010

Tawkon developers who developed an app to help users to measure the cellular radiation were invited at Apple, Cupertino.

Tawkon for iPhone was earlier rejected by Apple. Now, when the same App is available for download at BlackBerry AppStore for BlackBerry devices, Apple decided to open their private API to Tawkon guys to make their app full fledge for iPhone.

Basically, the major difference is that the app which was submitted to Apple for iPhone was not background aware whereas the BlackBerry App is. So, when the user is on call on his / her BlackBerry device, it prompt user about the cellular radiation frequency right away as it is running in background already. But an iPhone, which is not capable of running apps in background was not doing the same.

Gil Friedlander, Tawkon’s CEO said, that they’re closely working with Apple’s iPhone Application Technology team to get the Tawkon App to the AppStore.

As an iPhone developer, I suspect that the Tawkon App was earlier rejected because, the new iPhone OS 4 being background / multitasking aware (ability to run more than one app simultaneously) is incapable of making Tawkon App background aware through those 7 standard APIs provided by Apple in iPhone 4 SDK.

Now, when Apple has offered to open up their private API specially for these iPhone developers it is likely that we will very soon see the Tawkon app in the appstore and it will be completely background aware.

Apple recently filed a new patent application that describes serving proximity based or location based apps temporarily on a users iPhone or other mobile device. The content would be managed by a central server that would pair a users device location as relayed by the Wi-fi connection or other geo aware features and deliver appropriate applications that the users might like to use in that particular location.

Apple sighted two examples for this. In one they mention, when an iPhone user nears a restaurant, he might be able to get some temporary apps on his screen that tells him the wait time and also there can be an app that would allow him to go through the menu while still waiting to be seated.

Similarly this Apple patent can be used by people in public libraries to get a temporary iPhone app that would allow them to search the library database right on their iPhone without having to log in to the networked computers of the library.
These temporary apps would disappear as soon as the user exits the location.

This would definitely open up a very interesting aspect for iPhone developers as this service is sure to initiate a surge in iPhone application development for local businesses. Also because Apple would be using the users location data to serve this temporary apps, that might just stir up the privacy question once again. Besides, iPhone developers have always wanted to use the user’s location data to make their apps more interesting but now that Apple is opening the door for itself, it is sure to increase the developer’s demand for using such information in their other types of iPhone applications.

iPhone OS 4 and it’s SDKs were released for the paid iPhone developers on 8, April 2010. Since then iPhone application developers have been digging into SDKs; After spotting the iChat client services earlier with front facing camera libraries, now, Facebook integration has been spotted by Gunning for Safety (which, amazingly, seems to have two areas of interest: nail guns, and iPhone OS).

According to that blog, Apple is probably working on Facebook’s Event Calendar, Contacts to integrate with Calendar, Contacts app on iPhone, respectively. Currently, iPhone has easy setup options for you to setup your accounts on Gmail, MobileMe, Yahoo, etc. You can simply type in your details and you’re done. Facebook, might get listed in this as well.

There was a huge user request received by Joe Hewitt (iPhone Application Developer of Facebook) during development of Facebook 3.0 for iPhone. So, it might be possible that on the other hand Facebook team will work on existing Facebook App to get the proper end user integration.