Archive for August, 2009

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Samsung application store goes live

Monday, August 31st, 2009

The Samsung application store has been in beta for seven months. The store has been available only  in the UK and Germany, and has seen little promotion. We have been tracking the content since its launch, see more here.

Today, Samsung announced that its application store will go live on September 14 in the UK, France and Italy. More countries will follow later. The largest difference with the current beta store is that it will now be accessible from a client on the phone. The first supported models are Samsung’s Omnia phones, with the Symbian platform.

Billing in the current beta store goes via credit card or PayPal. It is not completely clear if this will change when the store goes out of beta. The revenue share for developers is 70%.

Developers that want to publish application in the Samsung app store can go here.

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Posted in Samsung App Store | 1 Comment »

BlackBerry App World goes Latin America and has 2,300 apps

Monday, August 31st, 2009

Research in Motion is continuing the worldwide roll-out of BlackBerry App World. Initially, App World was only available in the US, UK and Canada. At the end of last month, 10 European countries got access as well. Now App World has also launched in five Latin American countries, with more to follow soon. The first five countries are Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Venezuela.

In total, consumers from 18 different countries can now download App World to their BlackBerry and start downloading and purchasing applications. Developers that want to publish applications in App World for consumers in these countries can submit applications here.

This is the content that is available today in App World:

In total 2,310 application are available in App World today. Surprisingly for a business oriented phone, 30% of these are Games. Other large categories are Utilities, Reference & eBooks, Entertainment and Productivity.

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Posted in BlackBerry App World | 3 Comments »

Recap of this week’s app store news

Sunday, August 30th, 2009
  • Micorosft’s Zune HD media player, that is coming to the market on September 15, has a marketplace, with apps.
  • Nokia is launching a Windows based netbook and a new phone based on the Maemo platform, with an app store called Maemo Select.
  • Motorola is launching it’s first phones with Android and will announce their Android portfolio on GigaOm Mobilize, September 10.
  • The Palm App Catalog is now live in Canada, Europe will follow this October.
  • The iPhone and Apple App Store are  now officially coming to China.

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Posted in Weekly news recap | No Comments »

Nokia Maemo and the Ovi Store

Friday, August 28th, 2009

With Nokia World around the corner (September 2 in Germany), a lot of news has come out in the last days. This week Nokia announced the launch of a netbook and now also presented their first mobile phone based on the Maemo platform. Nokia already offers an internet tablet based on Maemo, which is an Linux based operating system.

It is very interesting how all these new developments will influence Nokia’s app store strategy. Nokia now has its Ovi Store with content for Symbian phones, a netbook that is likely to run Windows and a new phone with the Linux based Maemo as operating system instead of Nokia’s long used Symbian.

The first signs on how this all affects Nokia’s app store offering are starting to appear. The first Nokia phone with Maemo will have something called Maemo Select, described as:

the place to discover the most popular downloads from the Maemo community and Ovi Store. Choose your favourite applications, themes, and wallpapers to personalise your Maemo device.

Maemo already has a community of developers that build and offer applications to consumers. On maemo.org close to 500 applications are available for the current Maemo platform. Looking at the Maemo Select description, Nokia will be offering this content combined with content from the Ovi Store on the new N900 phone.

It is unclear yet if, and exactly how, Maemo applications will be supported in the Ovi Store. Expect more news on this September 2nd.

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Posted in Nokia Ovi Store | 1 Comment »

China Unicom’s iPhone deal & the App Store

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

The news is spreading that China Unicom finally signed a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to China. This will significantly increase the installed base of the iPhone OS, enlarging the opportunities for iPhone developers.

Unlike some might expect, the App Store was already accessible in China. So was the iPhone, in a way: China Mobile announced in 2008 that there were 400,000 unlocked iPhones on their network.

Some facts about the Chinese App Store:

  • The Games category is unavailable in the App Store.
  • Prices are in dollars.
  • Many applications are already available in the Chinese App Store, specifically targeted to Chinese users (like “500+ Chinese Recipes“. These are currently the most popular free applications in China:
Chinese top free

Chinese top free

We will keep you up to date on the development of the Chinese store.

Posted in Apple App Store | 2 Comments »

Palm App Catalog live in Canada

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

On time as announced earlier, the Palm App Catalog is now available in the first country following the US. As of today, the Palm Pre is on sale with Bell in Canada.

Palm is continuing it’s worldwide App Catalog roll-out in October, when the Pre comes to Europe. Right now a small selection of free apps is available, but Palm will be testing paid applications in beta starting mid-September and will give developers access to the store this fall.

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Posted in Palm App Catalog | No Comments »

Motorola joining Android on September 10? > confirmed

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

Update:
The launch of their first Android phone is confirmed by Motorola. On GigaOm’s Mobilize conference September 10, Motorola’s CEO will announce their Android portfolio during his keynote:

We wanted to provide some additional details so you’re aware of what to expect for September 10. Motorola Mobile Devices CEO Sanjay Jha will be making an announcement regarding the company’s Android portfolio during his keynote that day at GigaOM’s Mobilize conference.

Motorola previously announced that they would launch two Android phones within this year. On September 10, Motorola is holding a press conference in San Francisco, where it is expected to announce its first Android phone:

An increasing number of manufacturers is adopting the Android platform. Right now we have HTC, Samsung, Motorola, Lenovo, Dell and Philips that will have Android phones this year. Google seems to be getting close to the expected 18 different Android models in 2009.

With all these new Android phones getting on the market, the consumer reach of Android Market is also extending. It will be very interesting to see how this will impact the content, and maybe even pricing, in the store. If you are interested in such trends, check out our free monthly report.

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Posted in Android Market | No Comments »

Nokia launches a netbook; with an app store?

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

There has been a lot of response on Nokia’s announced entrance into the netbook market, which was announced yesterday. Nokia will launch a netbook, called Booklet 3G. Launch date and more details will be announced on Nokia World on September 2.

The Nokia netbook is rumoured to run on Windows 7. We wonder if it will have an app store, and if so, which one? Other players in this field have made the switch from Windows to the Android operating system and are launching own app stores.

Nokia has its own Ovi Store, and the promotion video shows two interesting things:

  • It will be possible to purchase music on the device from Nokia’s Music Store
  • Ovi services are supported (at least maps, file sharing and mobile phone sync)

Nokia Ovi Services

Nokia Ovi Services

Nokia Music Store

Nokia Music Store

See the full video here.

We think there are three options on how Nokia could include an app store on this netbook:

  1. They won’t. Initially the focus will only be buying music, with no store for apps yet.
  2. Ovi Store will be supported. The current store is completely focussed on Symbian based mobile phones. Hence it will be difficult for Nokia to start a developer community to build great apps for their Windows based netbooks.
  3. Eventually, a Microsoft app store will run on it. Within this year, Microsoft will be offering app stores on mobile phones, media players and gaming devices. Analogous,  it would make sense to also use app stores on Windows 7 based Tablet PC’s and netbooks.

More details will be announced on September 2, during Nokia World in Stuttgart (Germany).

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Posted in Nokia Ovi Store, Windows Marketplace | 4 Comments »

Microsoft’s Zune has a Marketplace, with apps

Monday, August 24th, 2009
Zune HD

Zune HD

Micorsoft’s Zune HD Portable Media Player will be on the market this September 15. As mentioned earlier, the Zune will have a Marketplace for buying content for the device. Microsoft already does this for the Xbox.

During a Zune HD preview this weekend, a very interesting item appeared on its Marketplace screen (see screenshot below): “apps”. So, next to the obvious content for a media player, applications will be available for download as well.

Zune HD Marketplace

Zune HD Marketplace, via Boygenius

When the Zune will be launched in September, Microsoft will be maintaining three app stores: Windows Marketplace for Mobile, Xbox Marketplace and Zune HD Marketplace. It is unclear yet if these different stores will be integrated. Will there eventually be one Microsoft app store with content for phones, media players, gaming devices and maybe more? Let’s wait for the Zune launch first, to see how Zune’s Marketplace will look like.

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Posted in Windows Marketplace | 3 Comments »

China Mobile Market: An Update On Its Launch

Friday, August 21st, 2009

We previously reported on the launch of China Mobile Market. The launch did not go entirely as planned, but the web version seems to be up now. A status update:

  • Applications are offered for six brands: Ophone, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, LG, Lenovo, Dopod, Panasonic and Dell.
  • Five types of applications are offered: games, wallpapers, music, video and e-books
  • Mobile Market currently records 9,246 registered developers and 6,481 submitted applications (English Google Translation)
  • Unlike earlier reports, China Mobile offers developers a 70% revenue share
  • China Mobile currently offers a free trial to users, refraining from charging internet fees
  • According to Marbridge Daily Report, China Mobile set targets for the open beta stage of its Mobile Market application store’s trial period (lasting from August through December), and “”expects to see over 1,000 development studios on the platform, with over 2,000 applications, 1 mln users, 3 mln downloads and RMB 50 mln in revenues. China Mobile aims to reach 20 mln Mobile Market users, over 100 mln downloads and a total industry value chain of RMB 10 bln by the end of 2010.”

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Posted in China Mobile Market | No Comments »

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