The Android Market is growing at nearly three times the rate of Apple’s app store in the US and it is set to contain more apps than its rival by 2012, according to Lookout Mobile Security’s App Genome Project.

The study claims that Android’s app store offering has grown 127% since August, compared to Apple’s 44% growth. However, the growth rate is relative, with Android jumping from 38,729 apps in August to 87,785 this month, while Apple added 105,857 apps during the same period to reach 348,894. The results are leading some commentators to speculate that Apple’s app store is reaching saturation point and will soon be surpassed by Android.

Few things to note here, the report talks about app offers not revenue. Although one can argue, when you have loads of app coming in down the pipeline, revenue will automatically follow given the steady rise of andriod based smartphones. No classification of apps is also made, as in paid or free.

Finally, the growth we are talking about is relative.Given the size of market and market maturity, the growth Andriod apps are having now is bound to be more than that of Apple’s. Having a growth figure which is three times more than your competitor sure is something.

The report also indicates that Apple still receives the lion’s share of developers with numbers increasing nearly 50% during the last six months to reach 72,682 from 49,014 in August. In contrast, Android only added approximately 4,000 more developers during the same period bringing its tally to 14,111, approximately a fifth of Apple’s head count. Android’s surprisingly small increase conflicts with a recent IDC report that claimed that 87% of app developers say they are “very interested” in creating Android smartphone apps with a further 74% seeking to develop apps for forthcoming Android tablets.

The report claims that Android’s app store is maturing as its percentage of paid apps increased from 22.4% to 34.1%. However, Apple’s chargeable app count decreased approximately four percentage points to 66.2%. Among free apps, Google’s AdMob is the dominant ad platform on both Apple and Android devices. However, the prevalence of iAd on Apple devices increased sharply, gaining 10 percentage points in six months to sit within 2% of AdMob. Lookout predicts iAd will become the number one ad platform in the coming weeks. The positive iAd stats are at odds with recent reports that Apple’s ad platform is struggling to fill its inventory due in part to high fees.

Lookout’s results follow recent predictions by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster that Google could generate more than USD1bn in Android-related ad revenue in 2012. Android’s US market share increase more than seven percentage points in Q4 2010 to end the year less than three percentage points behind market leader Research In Motion (RIM) and many expect the OS to become the most popular in the US this year.

In addition to both these app markets, it will be interesting to see what has the Nokia-Microsoft alliance to offer.

Producing recognized exactly what has been widely anticipated for days, Htc and Ms have announced how the two businesses are teaming up in the smartphone marketplace, along with Nokia embracing Home windows Telephone since it’s “primary smartphone strategy” while adding its expertise to further development of the woking platform.

While the specific information on the deal are being exercised, here’s a fast summary of what we should will work towards:

– Nokia may adopt Windows Phone as its primary smart phone technique, innovating along with the platform in areas for example image resolution, exactly where HTC is a marketplace innovator.

– Nokia can help generate and define the near future associated with Home windows Phone. Htc may lead it’s expertise on equipment design, vocabulary support, as well as help provide Home windows Telephone to a bigger selection of price points, market segments and geographies.

– Nokia and Ms may closely collaborate on improvement, combined advertising initiatives and a discussed improvement roadmap to align on the future evolution of mobile items.
Nokia has long been the earth’s smart phone share of the market innovator using its Symbian system, but the company’s dominant lead has been rapidly evaporating because iOS and Android have quickly developed. From the additional viewpoint, Windows new Home windows Phone Seven system has been fairly well regarded through reviewers, but offers however to catch on like a latecomer towards the increasingly crowded smart phone room.

This pioneering relationship has been kindled to quickly equip Nokia’s Symbian devices along with smarter and much more advanced functions with regard to working on the move. Heaps of Htc mobile phones tend to be set up to profit over time, with Eseries about the frontline leading the actual charge and set in order to display the first variety of company services and apps.

Devoted teams from the inside Htc and Microsoft are now working collectively to bring this new era associated with cellular productivity alive upon Symbian mobile phone models. This particular isn’t just conceptual things, because each businesses are closely collaborating to ensure the software program as well as services tend to be fully co-created, in the design as well as growth and development of their creations towards the marketing to ensure the most effective item eventually ends up proudly in our palms.

A purported memo from Nokia Boss Stephen Elop released the 2009 week outlined the challenges confronted through Htc in a smart phone market that has shifted from the battle of devices to some battle of “ecosystems”, a theme echoed within the open public claims made today in support of the partnership along with Microsoft.

4G Mobile broadband

Verizon wireless (NYSE: VZ) recently released its 4G LTE network (via laptop computer modem credit cards). The Verizon wireless system pace drawfs the “4G” systems becoming promoted by Sprint and T-Mobile. Verizon’s 4G will be users’ first flavor of accurate special broadband and will further drive cellular information usage and the percentage of time users invest in the actual mobile Internet. The first 4G LTE handsets will be introduced mid-year and you will be lighting quick compared to 3G versions. Verizon’s 4G deployment coupled with it’s rumored use of the actual apple iphone marketplace may place considerable pressure on AT&T (NYSE: T) to accelerate it’s 4G rollout with thrilling brand new (likely Android-based) mobile phone models.

Social Analytics

Social statistics describes the process of calculating, examining as well as interpretation the results associated with relationships and associations among individuals, topics and ideas. These relationships may happen upon social computer programs used in the workplace, within in house or even externally facing towns or even on the social internet. Social analytics is definitely an outdoor umbrella term that includes a number of specific evaluation techniques such as social filtering, social-network analysis, sentiment evaluation and social-media analytics. Social network evaluation resources are useful for examining social structure as well as interdependencies as well as the work designs of people, organizations or even businesses. Social networking evaluation entails collecting information through several resources, determining relationships, and evaluating the impact, quality or even effectiveness of a relationship.

Death of the Daily

Everyone knows the newspaper business in writing is dying out slowly. The only way to allow them to endure is as simple as moving online within 2011. According in order to Tamar, only the New York Occasions and also the Wall Street Journal managed to get more and more people to purchase their document edition.

Reading’s Rebirth

Current studies have discovered that e-readers lead to an increase in reading through. With the proliferation of these products, along with pills and even smartphones, watch out for a cohort of new and more productive readers. With initiatives like Worldreader, e-readers are even getting publications to more people within low-literacy nations for example Ghana.

Tablets Getting Stronger

Should you look at all of the newest information, each and every main company is originating out with some kind of “tablet”. Actually, Apple company has already been coming out with a new as well as improved apple ipad 2 after promoting over 60 million models globally and more. It appears as if everything is shifting more and more in order to small , cloud.

Apple company Inc. is actually working on brand new versions from the iPhone that are targeted at slowing the actual advance of competing mobile phone models depending on Google Inc.’s Google android software program, according to people who have already been briefed on the ideas.

1 edition would be less expensive and smaller than the newest apple iphone, said an individual who has seen the model and requested not to end up being recognized because the plans weren’t published. Apple also is developing technology that makes it simpler to use the apple iphone on several cellular networks, two people stated.
Based on the statement, the smaller iPhone might be priced at regarding $200 without needing an agreement, presumably introducing the way in which for service providers to offer financial assistance that may make the phone totally free when purchased with a service contract.

The actual prototype more compact iPhone is actually apparently about one-third small compared to the actual iPhone 4, and would make use of most of the exact same components found in the present apple iphone.

Whilst Apple company has aimed to unveil the device near mid-year, the actual introduction may be postponed or scrapped, the individual stated. Few Apple employees know the details of the actual project, the individual said. Apple frequently creates items that don’t later obtain launched.
Gossips of an “iPhone nano” possess popped upward every once in awhile, however have been relatively peaceful over the past few years.

Rumors of an “iPhone nano” have popped up every once in awhile, however happen to be relatively quiet in the last couple of years.

The actual statement additionally information which Apple is actually focusing on dual-mode iPhone that could operate on each GSM and CDMA networks, a claim which should ‘t be astonishing provided Apple’s use of the dual-mode baseband chip from Qualcomm in the CDMA iPhone. Finally, Bloomberg which Apple is actually continuing in order to pursue the thought of built-in SIM cards that would permit users to simply change in between service providers by way of easy software program settings.

Speech Recognition

Tone of voice enter in to cellular devices will start to become more mainstream. Companies like Target audience are allowing the actual reduction of background noise upon mobile phone models, traveling much higher speech acknowledgement precision. At the same time, the actual Google android platform offers scores of end users successfully “training” Search engine (Pink sheets .: GOOG) speech recognition motors (in multiple ‘languages’) by way of Search engine voice research. Speech recognition high quality will get much better and much better, as well as voice input will quickly feel more intuitive as well as efficient when compared with touchscreen typing.

Solar Industry Progress

Following a two-year drought associated with funds access as well as valuations challenges, a number of solar start-ups will have weathered the actual storm and start to show real improvement upon commercial deployments, production capability as well as competitive costs for each kw hr. Even though it is not likely this particular sector is going to be positioned to determine new IPOs, several early those who win will emerge and provide brand new investor excitement to the sector.

Biotech M&A

Biotech field deal producing ought to warm up as the big pharma businesses face growing stress to fill their own R&D pipelines as well as mitigate the actual impact of medication heading away patent. As the IPO market for biotech may stay lukewarm, there must be increasingly more big deal-making for attractive medical applications as well as acquisitions through the big players.

Context-Aware Computing

Context-aware computing centers about the idea of utilizing details about a finish user or even object’s environment, actions connections as well as choices to enhance the quality of conversation with that end user. The end person can be a client, business companion or worker. The contextually aware system anticipates anyone’s needs as well as proactively delivers the best and personalized content, service or product. Gartner predicts which by The year 2013, more than half associated with Fortune Five hundred companies will have context-aware computing endeavours by 2016, one-third associated with worldwide cellular consumer marketing is going to be context-awareness-based.

Crowdsourcing

The Internet is a good system for submission, however technology-not only to reach not just clients, but also workers – it’s called crowdsourcing. Whilst Amazon . com Mechanical Turk has been around for some many years enabling use of thousands of distant workers, new startups like Crowdflower (disclosure: I’m an angel investor) provide platforms for managing the distribution of little, particular duties to a large as well as scalable workforce around the world. By combining the net by having an “on-demand” labor force companies may grow quickly, remixing both electronic and human to incorporate an entirely new fabric of business providers.