A latest report by Strategy Analytics titled ‘App Developer Attitudes and Behaviors’ reveals that mobile app developers still prefer Apple’s iOS despite Google Android’s surge in the market. While developer’s interest in iPhone is waning down, their interest for iPad has helped Apple manage its dominance among developer community.

The report further reveals that while Android is continuing its steady pace in attracting app developer interest, BlackBerry is struggling. Windows Phone is gaining momentum as more developer’s are showing interest towards developing applications for its devices.

According to Josh Martin, Director of Apps Research at Strategy Analytics, “The app market is already maturing. Developers are tired of a few making the lion’s share of revenue. Thus, we see strong interest in fresh, emerging platforms and new business models, such as virtual goods and in-app advertising over the next year. The platform that best delivers revenue from multiple streams stands the best chance of success in the next eighteen months. For this reason, Strategy Analytics predicts that Apple will introduce carrier billing in emerging markets next year, which will extend the lead it has built in mature regions.”

A new mobile development survey by Evans Data Corp., examining the technology adoption and intentions of over 400 mobile app developers finds that 74% of respondent app developers are thinking of extending enterprise applications to mobile clients this year. The survey also reveals that Cloud or SaaS (Software as a Service) enterprise APIs are in great demand by app developers.

“It’s clear that the mobile device has come into its own in the enterprise” said Janel Garvin, CEO of Evans Data Corp.

“And it’s a very heterogeneous target with multiple devices and device types being introduced by users, leaving IT management and enterprise developers to cope. This study also showed the importance of web apps vs. native apps to mobile developers which correlate with the need to support a wide range of devices,” he added.

Other key insights from this mobile app development survey include:

• 84% of mobile app developers think performance to be more important than power consumption while designing apps.
• Android Marketplace and Microsoft’s Windows Marketplace have both outdone Apple’s App Store as planned channels of distribution.
• Wi-Fi spoofing has become a major security concern for mobile app development.

Flurry has announced the launch of its European operation. The company has appointed Richard Firminger, as European Managing Director. The company also released a report on the status of mobile application market in Europe, showing an addressable market of 46 million monthly mobile application users, whose base is growing by more than 10 percent (month-over-month).

“Mobile applications have become a credible mass media channel that now challenges the web in reach and television in engagement,” said Simon Khalaf, President and CEO of Flurry.

“We are excited to have our European division lead by Richard, who will work closely with our publishers, advertisers as well as brands and media agencies, to grow the mobile application media market,” he added.

Flurry Analytics, launched in January of 2009, currently has reach to 220 million users worldwide. The services are used by over 45,000 companies in more than 85,000 apps across iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone and J2ME platforms.

ClickSoftware Technologies Ltd., recently announced that it is bringing an app store of business applications for enterprise mobility. The app store named ClickAppStore will include mobile business apps, and a unique integrated development environment (IDE) to assemble business apps into end-user solutions using primarily no-coding ‘drag and drop’ wizards.

ClickAppStore will also offers tools and other resources to build user interfaces that are efficiently device agnostic and will make it possible for enterprise apps to run on any smartphone or tablet. The app store will also provide access to consulting, training, and outsourcing services.

“In different forms, ClickAppStore has been in use internally for over two years to deploy mobile workforce management solutions for some of the most demanding clients around the globe, including Sempra Energy, Vivint, ETSA Utilities, Portugal Telecom, YES, Questar Gas, Skanska, OnStream and more,” said Dr. Moshe BenBassat, ClickSoftware’s Chairman and CEO.

“Thousands of end-users are already using our ClickMobile family of products which includes ClickAppStore’s apps, and thousands are in the process of deployment using a wide variety of devices including iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry Torch, Android smart-phones, Windows Mobile Devices, Panasonic ToughBooks, Windows based tablets, Ultra-mobile PCs and more. The launch of the ClickAppStore is a natural extension of the growing number of system integrators and clients’ IT staff that have joined our own teams in using ClickAppStore tools to adapt, configure, or extend the ‘out-of-the-box’ functionality of our own mobility products,” he added.

iPhone developers can know more about the ClickAppStore here.

SOURCE: ClickSoftware

If as an iPhone developer, you were worried about the rise in popularity of Android OS and Android market then put all your worries to rest. The latest IHS Screen Digest research has brought good news for iPhone developers as it predicts that combined revenues of four major app stores run by Apple, Google, Nokia and RIM will jump by 77.7 percent this year. Combined revenue for the four major stores is expected to touch $3.8 billion in 2011 from $2.1 billion in 2010.

What will particularly make an iPhone developer happy is the fact that Apple App Store is predicted to grab over three-quarters of the market revenue. This means that iPhone developers will continue their dominance this year.

“With consumers continuing to show robust, unflagging interest in downloading games and other applications to devices like smart phones and tablets, collective revenues from the four stores will climb sharply this year,” said Jack Kent, analyst for IHS.

Total revenue from games and other apps are projected to continue soaring in the next few years, leaping to $5.6 billion in 2012, $6.9 billion in 2013 and $8.3 billion in 2014.

Apple App Store will continue to head off all competition. Apple App Store is predicted to earn $2.91 billion, a jump of 63.4 percent from $1.78 billion in 2010. The App Store is expected to take in 76 percent of revenue in 2011 and hold on to 60 percent market share by 2014, despite serious efforts from other stores.

Appia, the world’s largest open app marketplace, has announced the launch of a latest performance based advertising network for iPhone developers. The new service will also be available for Android, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Java, Symbian, and Palm developers who want better ROI from their advertising efforts. The new service provides iPhone developers a ‘pay per download’ opportunity, enabling them to boost their app downloads. The iPhone developer has to pay only for results.

The new advertising network makes it possible for an iPhone developer and others to market their apps by targeting ads by country and platform. Moreover, an iPhone developer can also target customers across Appia’s distribution network, which reaches over 200 million mobile subscribers in more than 200 countries.

“While developers scramble to figure out discoverability in light of new policies within Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android Marketplace, we are providing new options for developers to market and promote their apps and only pay for results,” said Jud Bowman, founder and CEO, Appia.
“Our performance-based advertising network gives developers a powerful way to directly influence the placement and traffic of their apps, leading to greater discoverability and increased downloads,” he added.

Appia’s new service will be directly integrated into the Appia Developer Program, making it easy for iphone developers to set up and run pay-per-download campaigns and promote their apps. Once an app is uploaded, an iPhone developer has to simply set the bid price per download, choose the countries they would like to target, and select a payment system. Developers will also get access to online reports wherein entire campaign activity will be segregate by platform, device and country to give a better overview of the campaign.

“We have found the quality of traffic via Appia to be very high relative to other mobile advertising channels and have been very pleased with our actual cost per registration across Android and Blackberry Platforms,” said Jo Ryall, Marketing Manager for North America at Flirtomatic.
“For most developers, if you’re not in the top 25 search results for your category; your app has little chance for success. Appia’s new program gives us greater control over marketing and distribution, so we can reach new users and drive downloads more effectively,” he added.

Interested iPhone developers can visit www.appia.com/ppd to sign up.

A news report on popular business daily, Financial Times, says that mobile application developers are sceptical on the success of mobile applications community to challenge the dominance of Apple’s App Store.

The community was announced a year back to make it easier for app developers to build applications regardless of the platform. This year, Peters Suh, chief executive of WAC, announced the launch of a now 68-strong alliance and introduced new software tools that will allow app developers to create apps that can be sold across platforms and devices. Companies such as Ericsson, Telefónica and Huawei also launched new cloud-based stores that would help developers house their apps outside the existing app stores.
However, mobile app developers and analysts remain unconvinced that the app community is anything more than a talking shop for telecom operators. The developers feel that telecom operators want to get a slice of revenues generated through apps and that’s why they are building this platform.
The news report quotes Adam Leach, principal analyst at Ovum, saying that coming up with another ecosystem for app developers could be “an uphill struggle” for operators. “Collaborations [between telecoms operators] in the past have not been too successful. There is business intent and common interest but there tends to be a difficulty on agreeing a standard,” he says..
“It would be really good if they could make it work,” says Peter Vesterbacka, head of Rovio, the Finnish developer behind the highly successful Angry Birds app. “But I’ve seen many initiatives from operators over the years and none of them have really gone anywhere.”

Source- Financial Times

The market for smartphone apps is really heating up. All the key players and mobile app developers are striving hard to attract customer attention. In that background, a new study by Localytics finds that first impression counts a lot in the commercial success of an application. The study reports that customers are willing to try out new apps but 26% time they never give an application a second try. The report also advises mobile app developers to look beyond download figures of their app and make an attempt to understand real customer engagement.

The study was done by analyzing thousands of smartphone apps using real-time app analytics service. The company first looked for the first time each user used the app and if there was any follow-on usage through January 26, 2011.

The study found that 22% of the users never open the app again in the first quarter whereas one-time usage remained stable at 26% in 2^nd and 3^rd quarters and grew to 28% in the last quarter.

The reports says that smartphone owners in US increased from 42.7 million in November, 2009 to 61.5 million in November, 2010 but the number of mobile app has also increased and hence advised developers to understand their loyal user base and make efforts to grew it. It also advised developers to look beyond download stats which has become a popular measure for the success of app. It finds that download statistics often give incomplete view and therefore engagement of the user with an app should be studied to get proper understanding of the consumer.

Scaleform Corporation, the leading provider of Flash based UI and 2D graphics solutions for videogame developers, announced that it will unveil a set of new features for UI technology that will speed up the app development process on iOS devices and tablets. The technology can also be used by Android developers to create apps. The new set of features and optimizations for Scaleform GFx 4.0 will help iPhone app developers to develop lightweight and highly animated 3D iPhone applications and iPhone games. The features will be showcased at Mobile World Congress to be held on February 14-17 in Barcelona, Spain.

Scaleform GFx is an open, extensible, hardware-accelerated Flash player SDK which is used in numerous 3D games and the company is now expanding the potential of GFx 4.0 to allow mobile application developers to quickly create 2D and 3D applications, User Interfaces and games for smartphone devices running on iOS, Android, and OpenGL ES. Key new features include-

• Multiple threads to bring fast, graphically advanced applications.
• It includes Analyzer for Memory and Performance (AMP) tool to provide a broad view of the CPU usage, rendering stats and memory allocation to the iOS app developer.
• Mobile UI Kit to speedily design mobile apps.
• Support for Flash 10.1’s multi-touch API to create multi-touch applications.
• Stereoscopic 3D for rendering of Flash UIs and games on auto-stereo 3D mobile gaming devices and smart phones and tablets.

“The inclusion of advanced features like the new multi-threaded rendering engine to accelerate mobile content brings Scaleform’s power and extensibility to a completely new market,” said Brendan Iribe, president and CEO of Scaleform in a released press statement. “Not only can game developers familiar with Scaleform use it to create immersive mobile games and interfaces; any application developer can now use Scaleform to power graphically rich apps and custom user interfaces for many of the most popular mobile devices available today” he adds.

A new report by renowned market research firm Forrester Research Inc. reveals that online retailers in United States are showing great interest in mobile applications with many planning to use apps for their business. The figures are based on a sampling of 63 online retailers in U.S. growing interest of retailers on using apps to reach out to their customers will surely open up new opportunities for iPhone OS application developers.

The report also shows that there has been a huge jump in retailer’s investments in apps. More than 44 percent of retailers are planning to invest in apps this year as against 15.1% last year. Moreover, 47% of retailers plan to have an app in the next 12 months.

The recent report is in sync with the view where market watchers and analysts are predicting on mobile application market to grow hugely in the coming years. Apps are getting very popular with smartphone users and therefore both, small and big businesses are using it as an important medium for brand promotion and reaching to their audience.