Posts Tagged ‘Android’

Traffic consumption by smartphone users doubled

Monday, June 27th, 2011

waze-4phonesThe Nielsen company has evaluated the consumption of internet traffic by smartphone users on various mobile platforms.
In the first quarter the average amount of downloaded traffic was about 435 Мb. Just for comparison, a year before this figure was about 230 Мb. Android users have showed the biggest web activity – they download 582 Мb of information monthly. They are followed by iPhone users (492 Мb) and Windows Phone 7 users (314Mb).

The Nielsen’s statistics is based on the analysis of mobile phone bills of about 65,000 users. In 2010 nearly 305 mln smartphones controlled by various mobile phone operating systems were sold worldwide. This year the growth is expected to increase by 55% – up to 472 mln items and by the year 2015 this figure will have reached 1 bln items.

What do users download? In a word, everything. If you look at the mobile application market, you’ll see that iphone and Android phone developers can satisfy all your needs and requirements, no matter how strange or complicated they can be. Mobile Phone Applications Development has entered the new stage when all our wishes can be realized.

Google presented its new Android version for mobile devices

Thursday, May 19th, 2011

At the I/O conference Google announced its new version of Android operating system. The version got the name ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’.

According to CNET News, Ice Cream Sandwich will be released in the fourth quarter of 2011. Various mobile devices including smartphones and tablets can work on this platform. The new Android version will inherit many features of the Honeycomb version intended only for tablets.google_predstavila_android_ice_cream_sandwich_i_obnovlenie_3_1_intro

The update for Honeycomb 3.1 was also presented at the conference. It can be installed by the owners of Motorola Xoom tablets and Google TV. Among the innovations one can mention the following ones: the updated user’s interface, scalable widgets and a possibility of connecting USB peripherals including keyboards and joysticks.

The representatives of Google also informed that the number of activated Android devices in the world had exceeded a hundred million. Android based devices are produced by 35 manufacturers. According to the company, about 200,000 android applications are available at the Android Market.

The I/O conference is held by Google every year. During the conference Google carries out seminars and trainings for Android application developers as well as announce present innovations.

Qwiki: new app in the App Store

Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

iPad application developers have created a new application for iPad and presented it in the App Store. It is intended to change the people’s attitude towards getting encyclopedic knowledge. Qwiki, a sort of visual Wikipedia, provides a user with an easy and interactive way of exploring the world via media presentations and using interactive maps.

The application in many cases repeats the website of the project offering users to get acquainted with the biographies of famous people, monumenqikits, and wonders of the world or exotic animals. All the information is connected with hundreds of places on the map of the world and is presented in the form of presentations with excellent photo and video materials.

After viewing, you can share your favorite information with your friends by e-mail, Twitter or Facebook. The presentation material at Qwiki contains links to other resources related to the given topic as well as additional information and images in Wikipedia, Google, Fotopedia and YouTube. All it makes Qwiki much higher than other Wikipedia resources.

Soon we’ll see similar Android application development and iPhone applications.

Choice of mobile application development platform (part 2)

Wednesday, April 20th, 2011

Google Android is popular because of its open source code: practically every developer from any mobile development company can write an application without any licensing. All the development tools are also available in the source code and free (for example, IDE Eclipse). Moreover, the off-the-shelf Android application is easy to sell as the terms of selling at the Android Market are simple and transparent: practically all applications can be sold and only those that don’t correspond to the rules are deleted. However, some mobile application developers are not satisfied with the marketing component of the Android Market.

For free Android application development there is another alternative available – advertising. At present there is a system called AdMob (which Google is going to buy) and also Google has decided to develop its own AdSense for mobile applications (mainly for Android). We can already find many applications using the new advertising system from Google.

So, that’s for you to decide. But we have made our mine — Android.

Choice of mobile application development platform (part 1)

Sunday, April 10th, 2011

At the beginning of one’s career, every mobile application developer faces the choice – what platform to choose? At present the number of mobile platforms can scare everybody – Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian.

To start with, you have to define the main aims of the project – the commercial software development, amateur development (open source applications)- as well as the end users.

From the point of view of monetarization (commercial development) at present the leaders are iPhone OS and Windows Mobile. The main advantage of choosing these platforms is a big number of users that get used to paying for the software. The main disadvantage is the necessity to compete with more than 500 mobile apps on any taste that have already been created. Moreover, Apple has got a tough policy on approving the requests for new applications, consequently, much time may pass before your app appears in the App Store, which makes it difficult to invest time and money into iPhone OS.

On the other side, if we look ahead, another interesting variant may be Android OS. Why? Because the database of Android OS users is growing every day. The analytics forecast that by the year 2012=2013 Android-based devices will beat iPhone and even Windows Mobile. Moreover, Google has started teaching its Android users that Android mobile application developers will produce free as well as paid applications and the geography of the countries where the payment can be carried out wilmobile-platforms-410x286l be extended.

Analytics are sure in Windows Phone success

Monday, April 4th, 2011

Gartner Company agree with their colleagues from IDC that by the end of 2015 Windows Phone will have overcome Apple iOS and BlackBerry OS in terms of popularity and will surrender to Android only. At this the sales of Symbian smartphones will have completely stopped by this time. microsoft-windows-phone-logo

At the end of 2012 the market share of Google Android will be about 49% of the general smartphone market. In other words, in 2012 every other smartphone bought will be based on Android, said Gartner.

It is expected that in 2012 about 310.09 mln smartphones will be based on Android in comparison with 179.87 mln units this year and 67.23 mln last year.

According to Roberta Cozza, the leading analyst from Gartner, first of all the increase in the Android market share in the nearest future will be mainly due to the increase of the given operating system in the segment of the device of low and medium price categories.

Now all analytics think that by the end of 2015 Symbian will have left the three leading places – the given platform will have disappeared completely. The first three leaders will be Android, Windows Phone and iOS and BlackBerry OS will be the third. The market shares of these platforms will be 48.8%, 19.5%, 17.2% and 11.1%.

Thus, mobile application developers will also have to consider this tendency and I’m sure that the number of Windows Phone applications will increase considerably as well.

Opera Mobile Store – mobile application store for popular platforms

Sunday, March 13th, 2011

Recently Opera Software has launched its own online store, Opera Mobile Store, the mobile application store. So far this service has been in the test mode. Simultaneously with the launch of Opera Mobile Store, another resource – Opera Publisher Portal – for mobile software developers was launched. The company decided not to choose only one platform and offers various popular games and applications for Windows Mobile, Android, BlackBerry, Java, Palm, Symbian.

opera-mini-213x186The version of the store is available from the PC as well as from mobile devices. In the first case, you will have to choose the operating system and the model of the phone where you are going to look for applications yourself and in the second case the operating system definition will be done automatically.

The store offers free and paid applications and there is also a system of application selection – according to genres, date, popularity, etc. Thus, mobile application developers should consider this store for distributing their apps.

Google solved the problem of application fragmentation

Wednesday, March 9th, 2011

So far the main problem of Android application developers has been the fragmentation of applications for various screen resolutions. Now thanks to Google efforts, this problem has been solved. For these purposes, Google has launched the special library – Android Compatibility Package which is available for downloading to all users.

Not so long ago the launch of Fragments API intended for Android 3.0 was announced. The new API interface should have automatically scaled applications according to the screen size of the device, thus, mobile application developers didn’t have to create several versions of one application for the devices with various screens.

The main drawback of Fragments API was the fact that it wasn’t compatible with the Android operating system lower than 3.0. Now the possibility to use API is available for the users with the Android 1.6 operating system and higher.

This innovation is especially up-to-date against the rapid growth in Android devices at the market. As it is expected, the year 2011 will become the year of Android and apart from smartphones, the market will be flooded with the wave of tablets.

As reported, new libraries can be installed using SDK, the standard tool of updating.

Most expensive application

Monday, December 27th, 2010

Recently the company ASiQ (don’t confuse with ICQ) has launched the application SafeCell which is intended for the users who have their own planes with satellite communication. The application uses this communication and Bluetooth. Now you can make calls from your mobile phone during the flight.
At present the application is available for the platforms Symbian and BlackBerry and soon will be available for Android and iOS. And, which is more important, the price of this application is $12,500 (!). So far this application is the most expensive app in the world.google-android-apps-market-paid

As the mobile application developers admitted, despite the high price of this product, it is much cheaper than the equipment for providing mobile communication on board the plane which costs about $500,000. Thus, if you have a plane, now you know how to save money on mobile communication!

But, in general, mobile developers create applications for iPhones and Android much lower and the price of such apps is about 5-10 dollars.

Will Android be the first?

Sunday, December 19th, 2010

The operation system Google Android, which was born only a few years ago, has caught up with the world’s leader – Symbian OS, supported by the Finnish corporation Nokia.android eat
According to the quarterly data as of the end of summer, the volume of sales of Android based smartphones was far behind the volume of Symbian sales but was already ahead of Apple iPhone and RIM for BlackBerry.
Since the middle till the end of summer, the volume of Android based smartphones sales from NTC, Motorola and Samsung Electronics on the average was 218,000 devices a day. Nokia could boast of 325,000 smartphones sold daily.
According to some experts, Symbian can keep its dominating position thanks to the new portfolio and the statement on a completely new approach to the mobile interface.
However, Android is a free platform that is available for any manufacturer of mobile phones. Its population is growing from day to day. Mobile application developers feel this tendency and work hard to produce more and more Android apps to the Android Market.