Uncool Mobility

March App Store uptake -- Gaming still dominates

Nice recap of uptake and pricing in app store. This post is mostly about books but it gives a good representative look across categories.

The Fastest-Growing Category in the iTunes App Store: Books - O'Reilly Radar.

A follow-along guide to MWC in Barcelona

If you didn't make it out to Barcelona for MWC here is a nice summation of story lines to follow from home. Once again, chasing Apple's App Store is the main line.

What to look for at the Mobile World Congress | Technology | Los Angeles Times.

Interview: iPhone dev gets existential about "crap" apps

This interview and article on Apple's App Store are funny on many levels if you deal with technology product marketing.

Interview: iPhone dev gets existential about "crap" apps.

Third-party web browsers surprise App Store watchers

I don't understand the news that Apple is allowing competing browsers in their web store. It sounds to me like a misinterpretation.

Apple is not allowing true competing browsers, only web interface apps. Am I wrong? As the Ars Technica article notes you can't switch the default browser so you'd have to manually launch each time. Also, without cut and paste, you'd have quite a chore manually adding in the url you are seeking.

Third-party web browsers surprise App Store watchers.

As far as my limited understanding can tell the same restrictions for other browsers using different engines remain (no use of anything that interprets code e.g. Flash or Java).

Google and Omni could offer their browsers, as both are webkit based, but the only feature additions they could offer to Safari either don't work on a mobile or conflict with the inability to run background apps (e.g. Chrome's multitab).

iTunes goes DRM free

The big news out of Macworld today is Apple's decision to remove copy restrictions on iTunes content.

For consumers this will cement iTunes as the dominant music store and service/device ecosystem. For Apple competitors the basic requirements of content distribution have changed again making it even more difficult for Amazon, Microsoft, and especially Real to maintain relevancy in music.

From a mobile perspective this lends a big tailwind to the App Store and the iPhone in general amongst consumers who have a PC.

99 Cent iPhone Apps Not Significantly More Popular

99 Cent iPhone Apps Not Significantly More Popular.

This is a fantastic post because it offers commentary based on data. The data intrepretation can be argued--some good comments on this--but it's a great approach.

Zune phone rumors hard to kill

It's funny how the echo-chamber story of a zune phone goes round and round. The interest in the idea of a Zune phone, tightly integrated services and device form factor, escape comment in every story which focuses instead on the red herring of "will Microsoft make an own-branded device".

No Zune phone at CES, says Microsoft | Register Hardware.

The larger questions Microsoft has to answer: How will Live services overlay or fit with the increasing tendency of partners to layer their own UI on WM? How will the WM roadmap, and its downward compatiblity (or not), reach into the existing WM installed base? Who will mediate competing operator and device vendor services which compete with Live services?

Microsoft could carve out some interesting space in the market by extending XBox and Zune services into Windows Mobile features. But even there they run into some fast-developing challenges.

In particular, by the time Microsoft's Skymarket app store is out the same devices may well have operator or device vendor stores. Will they co-exist? Will the service provider ultimately decide? Will Microsoft support their app store with demand generation for partners?

Apple App Store tribute page shows all 10k apps

Fun eye candy showing all apps, the distribution of pricing, and the pace of publication (by submission month).

10,000 Apps! - Presented by 148Apps.com :: 10,000 iPhone and iPod Touch applications in the iTunes App Store.

Zumobi turns to App Store to resurrect app distribution--will search rule distribution?

This article compares search engine optimization efforts to marketing of applications on mobile app stores. Best quote: "it’s like the dreaded search-engine optimization for the Internet, where you do stuff to get recognized by Google and get listed higher in the rankings".

When users turn to search as a navigation aid it's a leading sign the existing UI is broken. I think it's hilarious that "doing stuff to get recognized" is the explanation of search engine optimization. Existing mobile application distribution is so horrendous that Apple's App Store is a shining light of usability in comparison and should be applauded.

This does raise a very interesting question: will search become the dominant UI of app stores and by extension rich mobile UIs? Android sure hopes so.

The Making Of An iPhone App | mocoNews.net.

Android Market Shows Steady Growth

The NYT notes a Medialets report on Android Application Market uptake. It's frustrating how little solid information is available about Apple's App Store and Google's Android Market.

Android Market Shows Steady Growth - NYTimes.com.

If this information is accurate then the G1 appears to be doing well--especially if you compare the demand generation spend relative to the iPhone 3G launch. Medialets reports the Android Market growing at about a third the pace of Apple's App Store, while Android device uptake is likely growing even more slowly in comparison (not saying it is an unsuccessful launch).