mobile apps

Google's Android Market offers the largest share of free apps at 57 percent, while the Windows Mobile Marketplace offers the smallest share at 22 percent, says a report on mobile app stores released last week by Distimo.

The report looked at trends in the U.S. for May 2010 among the major app stores, including Apple's App Store for the iPhone, Apple's App Store for the iPad, RIM's BlackBerry App World (worldwide), Google's Android Market, Nokia's Ovi Store, Palm's App Catalog, and Microsoft's Windows Marketplace for Mobile.

A large percentage of free … Read more

GetJar, a mobile app store that offers software for most major smartphones, said Thursday it has picked up $11 million in financing.

GetJar said it will use the Series B funding generated by Accel Partners to continue to innovate its site and its services for customers and developers, including Pay-Per-Download, App Download Page, and App Catalogue Express.

GetJar is not nearly as well known as the Apple, Android, and BlackBerry mobile app stores. But according to GetJar, it has counted more than 1 billion downloads since its launch in 2005. GetJar describes itself as the world's second largest app … Read more

Smartphone maker HTC has bought mobile app developer Abaxia.

Based in Paris, Abaxia creates mobile applications for network carriers and handset manufacturers. The company designs software that allows mobile phone makers to customize and add features to the home screens of their handsets to give them a consistent look and feel. Counting Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, and of course HTC, among its customers, Abaxia said that it has provided software to 60 different handset models.

The acquisition is a way for HTC to boost mobile app development under its own roof.

"The addition of Abaxia deepens and broadens our software … Read more

People with Web-browsing phones are spending a lot more of their minutes accessing social networks these days, according to a new study from ComScore.

The study, released Wednesday, pegs social networking as the fastest growing activity among people with smartphones and other advanced phones that offer Web browsing, which are also known as feature phones.

Among the 69.6 million phone users who tapped mobile apps over the three-month period ending in April, 14.5 million of them accessed social networks--a 240 percent jump from the same period in 2009.

Among the nearly 73 million who used mobile browsers, 30 … Read more

It may be a direct clone from the excellent iPhone app, but Google's Mobile App for iPad loses something in the translation. Or rather, it loses an opportunity to go further and deeper by creating a rich, native home for its many services.

There's the search screen with voice search and text input, a Settings menu, and a screen displaying a long list of Google's Web services, like Google Docs, Picasa Web albums, and Google Reader. Just like Google Mobile App for iPhone, which we primarily regard as a search tool, tapping any of these shortcuts takes … Read more

The mobile apps market has become a cash cow for carriers such as Apple but is turning increasingly competitive for developers trying to make a profit, according to a new In-Stat report.

Mobile subscribers are downloading apps in ever increasing numbers as they learn more about the capabilities of their smartphones, said the report, released Wednesday. As the company that set the standard for mobile apps, Apple and its App Store are seeing the most action, with iPhone and iPod Touch users downloading 2.4 times more apps than the other smartphone owners.

But although the news may be bright … Read more

Worldwide demand for mobile applications is set to explode in the next three years as the total value of the market could grow to $17.5 billion, according to a new report released Wednesday.

A study commissioned by GetJar, the second largest mobile app store in the world, predicts that mobile downloads will climb to 50 billion in 2012 up from about 7 billion in 2009. This rapid uptick in downloads will generate about $17.5 billion in revenue for the mobile app market. The mobile market was worth about $4 billion at the end of 2009.

"The global … Read more

Mobile app stores are likely to get a lot busier this year.

Smartphone consumers will spend $6.2 billion on mobile apps in 2010, forecasts Gartner in a recent report, generating ad revenue of around $0.6 billion throughout the world. Downloads will also skyrocket, exceeding 4.5 billion this year. But good news for app users--82 percent of all apps downloaded will be free.

Last year, mobile app stores kicked up sales of more than $4.2 billion, which includes paid apps bought by consumers and ad-sponsored free apps. On the horizon, Gartner predicts mobile app downloads will shoot … Read more

We've always liked Google's Mobile App for BlackBerry.

A recent update this week to version 3.5 adds an unexpected and interesting new feature--searching through your phone's e-mail and address book as well as the Web--when you type or speak a name into the search bar.

Although the BlackBerry does have separate search functionality for the address book and in-box, Google's search app rolls them into one, and then tucks local phone search neatly into its free Web search app.

Learn more about contact and e-mail search in our First Look video (above) or in our review.… Read more