Woe be to any mobile phone maker that isn't named Apple or Samsung. Numbers out today from IDC show the two combining for a staggering 87.6 percent of all smartphones "shipped" in 2012 on a global basis. In Q4, according to IDC, the two companies' products constituted 91 percent of all smartphones shipped. Shipped is actually a false market share metric. That's because shipments don't always equal sales or usage. However, in the case of Apple and Samsung these data are a reasonable proxy for actual sales. According to IDC, Samsung controlled 42 percent "of all Android smartphone shipment [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Apple: iPhone | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Google: Android | Microsoft: Mobile | Mobile Marketing | Samsung | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Popularity & Usage | Top News

Dan Nolan, an app developer, is concerned that Google Play giving email addresses of app purchasers to developers is a privacy blunder. As an app developer myself, I could not disagree more! How Developers Sell In Google Play Vs. iTunes The way the Google Play market works and has worked since it launched on October 23, 2008 is as follows. A developer who charges for their apps has to set up a Google Wallet account. The Google Wallet account makes the developer the merchant on record in the Google Play store. When someone buys your app from the Google Play store, that transaction, along [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Features & Analysis | Google: Google Play

People are starting to shun conventional mobile phones also known as "feature phones." But sales of smartphones continue to grow. According to sales data compiled by Gartner, global mobile handset sales in 2012 hit 1.75 billion units. However that was a nearly 2 percent (1.7 percent) drop from the previous year. According to the firm, "Demand for feature phones remained weak in 2012 and in the fourth quarter." Indeed, feature phone sales were off over 19 percent in Q4. By contrast demand for smartphones continues. As already widely documented Samsung and Apple were the two dominant smartpho [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Apple: iPhone | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Google: Android | Microsoft: Mobile | Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Popularity & Usage | Top News

This afternoon comScore released data on December US smartphone market share. The story is the same as in previous months. Android and iOS are up and almost all others are down. Apple and Samsung gained share, while others besides LG lost share. LG produced the wildly popular, perpetually sold out Nexus 4 handset. Apple was the single top smartphone OEM, while Android was the top platform with 53.4 percent of the market. Increasingly, however, Samsung is the hardware maker synonymous with Android, although Samsung rarely promotes the "Android brand." It markets Galaxy rather than And [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Apple: iPhone | Channel: Analytics | Google: Analytics | Google: Mobile | Statistics: Market Share | Statistics: Mobile Marketing

In what is widely being seen as a miss (except for profit), Apple reported quarterly revenues of $54.5 billion this afternoon. That was slightly below consensus revenue expectations. The company posted higher profits ($13.1 billion) and earnings per share than expected. Even though they were "record results" according to Apple, analysts' expectations were extremely high. Accordingly each sales category came in just under anticipated unit sales figures. For example most analysts expected 50 million iPhones to have been sold in the previous quarter. However the company "only" sold 47.8 m [...]

Related Topics: Apple | Apple: iOS | Apple: iPad | Apple: iPhone | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Top News

Facebook can thank Apple for helping making it the top overall mobile app in the U.S. in 2012, according to new numbers out today from the comScore Mobile Metrix service. ComScore says Facebook ended the year with more than 85 million unique adult visitors -- that's on both Android and iOS. It's about 11 million more unique visitors than Google Maps. After Facebook, Google apps hold down the next five spots. Facebook and Google Maps were pretty much neck-and-neck for several months last year, but comScore says Google Maps usage saw a significant decline after Apple dumped it from iOS [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Channel: Local | Facebook: Mobile | Facebook: Statistics | Features & Analysis | Google: Android | Google: Maps | Google: Mobile | Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Popularity & Usage | Top News

A report appearing in the Wall Street Journal asserting that Apple cut production orders on components for the iPhone amid weak demand sent nervous investors into a frenzy and sent Apple stock down this week. (The WSJ may have been "used" by people trying to manipulate Apple's stock price.) We'll find out about how stable iPhone demand is next week when Apple reports earnings. What appears to be very stable over the past six months, however, is the amount of traffic that iOS devices are driving compared with Android. According to ad network Chitika Apple devices continue to generate nearly [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Channel: Strategy | Google: Android | Statistics: Market Share | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Uncategorized

This morning Apple issued a press release announcing that the iTunes App Store had reached 40 billion app downloads. It also said in the release that nearly half of those had come in 2012: Apple today announced that customers have downloaded over 40 billion apps, with nearly 20 billion in 2012 alone. The App Store has over 500 million active accounts and had a record-breaking December with over two billion downloads during the month. Apple’s incredible developer community has created over 775,000 apps for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users worldwide, and developers have been paid over seven [...]

Related Topics: Apple | Apple: iOS | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Google: Android | Statistics: Market Share | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Popularity & Usage | Top News

Earlier today comScore released November mobile market share numbers for the US. Android and iOS continued their gains, with Android picking up some momentum over Apple. Some version of the Android OS is now installed on 53.7 percent of US smartphones. Meanwhile the other smartphone operating systems continued their long slow declines, including Microsoft's. ComScore's data suggest no traction for Windows Phones in the US, although there is some evidence of adoption in Europe and elsewhere. The leading handset maker in the US is Samsung, followed by Apple. All others, including Googl [...]

Related Topics: Apple | Apple: iOS | Apple: iPhone | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Google: Android | Statistics: Market Share | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Popularity & Usage | Top News

According to Reuters yesterday Apple has agreed to drop patent infringement claims against the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini. Despite its availability online in several places, including Amazon, Samsung represented to the court that it's not "making, using, selling, offering to sell or importing the Galaxy S III Mini in the United States." On that basis Apple has withdrawn its complaint. Indeed, a search on the Samsung US website doesn't shows only the Galaxy S3 in response to a search for "Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini." However the phone can be purchased on the US version of Amazon's website as [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Channel: Industry | Legal | Legal: Patents

After a year of massive growth in smartphone adoption nobody is questioning the importance of mobile anymore. Finally the tired conference joke, "Every year for the past ten years has been the year of mobile," will be repeated no more (thank the lord). But even as marketers have yet to fully "get their heads around" the new reality of smartphone-powered consumer behavior they'll have to contend with yet another form factor: tablets. No longer a novelty gadget, the tablet is now a mainstream computing device. Post-Xmas sales data will soon make that very clear. If 2012 was finally, defini [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Apple: iPad | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Features & Analysis | Google: Android | Statistics: Market Share | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Popularity & Usage | Top News

Earlier this year Apple won a billion-dollar US patent infringement case against Samsung. On almost every single claim Apple succeeded, including claims of willful infringement by Samsung. Samsung lost on all its counterclaims. It was a staggering victory for Apple and apparent vindication of its contention that Samsung had "slavishly copied" the iPhone for its various Android handset designs. Yet even this massive win with its $1 billion verdict may turn out to be largely symbolic. Yesterday Judge Lucy Koh denied both Samsung and Apple what they wanted in a post-trial hearing. Samsung h [...]

Related Topics: Apple | Apple: iOS | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Legal: Patents | Samsung | Top News

Yesterday the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple and Foursquare were talking about a "data sharing" deal. According to the article: The talks, which took place in recent weeks and involve Apple senior vice president Eddy Cue, are the latest sign of Apple's plans to more tightly integrate local services into the iPhone and iPad. The discussions with New York-based Foursquare come as Apple has been talking to a number of companies that collect local data to improve its new mapping product. The maps service, released in September, has had a rocky reception and faces fierce competition from [...]

Related Topics: Apple | Apple: iOS | Apple: Siri | Channel: Local | Facebook: Mobile | Foursquare

Apple has released their top apps of 2012 for the App Store in iTunes, you can access the list in iTunes by clicking here. The top free apps for 2012 in the App Store are: (1) YouTube (2) Instagram (3) Draw Something Free (4) Flashlight (5) Facebook (6) Pandora Radio (7) Temple Run (8) Pinterest (9) Twitter (10) Skype The top paid apps for 2012 in the App Store are: (1) Angry Birds Space (2) WhatsApp Messenger (3) Draw Something (4) Camera+ (5) Where's My Water? (6) Angry Birds Star Wars (7) Fruit Ninja (8) Angry Birds (9) Bejeweled (10) TETRIS Editor's Choice [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Channel: Mobile Marketing

Amid multiple antitrust investigations around the world, I'm not sure he wanted to suggest that Google was the new Microsoft. But that's the analogy that Google Chairman Eric Schmidt used in his discussion of Android's growth and increasing lead over the iPhone. Quoted in a Bloomberg article Schmidt said the following: Booming demand for Android-based smartphones is helping Google add share at the expense of other software providers, Schmidt said yesterday in an interview at Bloomberg’s headquarters in New York . . . Customers are activating more than 1.3 million Android devices a day, [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Apple: iPhone | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Google: Android | Google: Critics | Legal: Antitrust

YouTube announced they have updated the iOS app they launched a couple months ago in response to Apple dropping the native YouTube app. The update brings the much requested iPad user interface support to the app, it also gives iPhone 5 users support as well. So it fills the full iPad screen as well as the full iPhone 5 taller screen. Other features include: Stream videos with AirPlay Tap logo to open your Guide of channels Add and remove videos from your playlists Clickable links in video descriptions Improved accessibility with VoiceOver You can download the app or update th [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Apple: iPad | Channel: Video | Google: Mobile | Google: YouTube | Top News

Mobile push notifications provider Urban Airship has acquired Tello. Tello began as a consumer ratings and customer service mobile app/product. But much more recently the company introduced a product called PassTools. PassTools makes it easy for publishers and app developers to create coupons, tickets and loyalty cards for Passbook. It offers simple templates, analytics and an API. Passbook of course is Apple's mobile wallet. Tello CEO Joe Beninato now becomes Urban Airship’s GM of Digital Wallet. Previously, Urban Airship bought SimpleGEO's assets and used them to launch a very intere [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Apple: iPhone | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Mobile Marketing | Top News

According to Kantar Worldpanel Comtech research the iPhone 5 has overtaken Android in US smartphone sales. Buoyed by existing iPhone owner upgrades, which account for 62 percent of iPhone 5 sales, as well as some Android switching Kantar says that the iPhone now holds a 48.1 percent to 46.7 percent lead over Android in the US. Again, these numbers refer to recent sales and not to persistent, overall device market share (Android still leads). Kantar says the share surge is based on "strong uptake of the iPhone 5 over the past 12 weeks." In Europe Android holds a considerable lead over [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Channel: Strategy | Google: Android | Top News

A couple of weeks ago Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer stood on stage at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium and ticked off the ways that Windows Phone 8 and Surface machines would make Microsoft competitive again against its main rivals Google and Apple. Before that we'd just been given an hour-long feature tour of Windows Phones by Microsoft VP Joe Belfiore: bold design, great camera, personalization, novel apps (e.g., "kids corner," "Data Sense") and so on. And while Windows Phones (8) do have some unique features and the UI is nicely done, none of those individual OS features is likely to lur [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Channel: Strategy | Features & Analysis | Google: Android | Microsoft: Mobile

There are a lots of tablets in the market now and hardware-tracking firm IDC says that Android's share is gaining on Apple. However, despite the increase in "shipments" of various tablets, very few of them drive meaningful web traffic according a new study from mobile publishing platform Onswipe. Onswipe says that the iPad is responsible for a remarkable 98 percent of all tablet-based traffic to its publisher partners. All other tablets drive less than 2 percent of web traffic combined. This would be almost unbelievable if it weren't supported by other research showing similar trends. Ho [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Apple: iPad | Apple: Safari | Channel: Content Marketing | Features & Analysis | Google: Android | Google: Mobile | Google: Nexus | Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Market Share | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Top News