The results of the "People's Choice" app award are announced at Macworld|iWorld
Image: Halfbrick Studios
A record 1.5 million votes were cast earlier this month in the fourth annual Best App Ever contest, more than three times as many as last year. Created in 2008 by 148Apps -- a smartphone app-tracking website named after the maximum number of apps that could be installed on Apple's (AAPL) original iPhone -- its purpose, according to founder Jeff Scott, "is to help publicize the very best apps available, not just the best-selling apps."
It's not a bad idea. There are a dizzying number of mobile applications to choose from, especially if you include -- as Scott did this year for the first time -- apps for Google (GOOG) Android devices. This year,
And the winner, with 36,431 votes, nearly ten times the number the nearest Android app drew, was (wait for it)
Jetpack Joyride, for the iPhone or iPad
Created by Halfbrick Studios, an Australian firm best known for the 2010 game phenom Fruit Ninja (more than 30 million downloaded), Joyride is a retro throw-back to the one-touch jump-and-run horizontal scrolling games of the Super Mario Bros. era packed -- like any addictive game -- with just enough twists, missions, prizes and upgrades to keep players coming back for "just one more."
The app is free on the iTunes App Store (here), but you can buy your way to higher levels with in-app purchases like the popular coin doubler ($0.99).
Jetpack Joyride had already won editorial accolades from publications ranging from the TouchArcade to the New Yorker. Now the people -- or at least 1.1 million of them -- have made their choice.
Below the fold: The official trailer that tells the backstory of why Barry Steakfries is scattering evil scientists with a machine-gun powered jetpack in the first place, but you don't need it to enjoy the game. The full list of winners and honorable mentions in 148Apps' other 108 (!) categories is available here.
A pair of reports agree -- more or less -- on the current state of the battle
Click to enlarge. Source: IHS iSupply.
Two reports published Thursday -- one by IHS iSuppli, the other by Strategy Analytics -- describe the global race for smartphone supremacy as high-stakes see-saw.
Basically what happened is that Apple (AAPL) took the lead from Nokia (NOK) in June, lost it to Samsung in September and won it back in December.
"Apple's MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jan 27, 2012 2:26 AM ET
Between October and Christmas, Apple's U.S. sales nearly caught up to Android's
Click to enlarge. Source: Nielsen
Three findings stand out in Nielsen's December survey of the U.S. mobile phone market, released Wednesday:
Among recent smartphone buyers, 44.5% of those surveyed in December bought an Apple (AAPL) iPhone, up from 25.1% in October
57% of new iPhone buyers said they chose the iPhone 4S over the less expensive iPhone 4 or iPhone 3GS
Android's MORE
Apple's (AAPL) share of the U.S. smartphone market nearly caught up to Google's (GOOG) Android in the first two months of the fourth quarter, according to a new report from the NPD Group.
Apple's market share jumped from 26% in Q3 to 43% in October and November while Android's fell from 60% to 47%.
Underscoring Apple's strength going into the holiday sales period, the company had the three best-selling smartphones -- the MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jan 9, 2012 4:16 PM ET
Google's U.S. market share continues to grow against Apple, but at a much slower pace
Data: ComScore. Charts: PED
"In case you needed more proof that Android is walloping iOS," writes Steve Kovach in Thursday's Business Insider, "ComScore's three-month report on mobile subscribers (ending in November) is out."
He points out, as others have, that Apple's (AAPL) smartphone market share grew a bit, from 27.3% to 28.7% over the past three months. But, he writes, MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Dec 30, 2011 6:42 AM ET
If you count the iPad and iPod touch, it looks like iOS by about 1.6 million units
Estimates based on Flurry Analytics and Google tweets
Without a press release from Apple (AAPL) crowing about their Christmas sales, we're forced to rely on data from a mobile analytics firm and tweets from a Google (GOOG) senior vice president to make some rough guesses.
Here's what we know:
According to Flurry Analytics -- which claims it can detect MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Dec 28, 2011 7:24 AM ET
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* Thanks to oversupply and competitive pricing, TVs are the cheapest they've ever been. It's a situation that's causing major problems for retailers and manufacturers, including significantly lower profits, and in Sony's case, forcing the Japanese company to overhaul its TV operations. (The New York Times)
* Google+ gained 12 million users this month, bringing MORE
JP Mangalindan, Writer-Reporter - Dec 28, 2011 3:30 AM ET
Source: Flurry Analytics. Numbers in millions.
Using data from 140,000 smartphone apps running on devices all over the world, Flurry Analytics has created a fascinating series of graphs showing ...
Which countries have purchased the most Apple (AAPL) iOS and Google (GOOG) Android devices
How many people in each country can afford a smartphone but haven't yet purchased one
Which countries are the most mature (in terms of smartphone penetration)
Finally, the chart MORE
iOS edged back up against Android in November, gaining 8% in Millennial's ad network
Click to enlarge.
There's a small but measurable iPhone 4S effect in November's Millennial Media's Media Mix, which reports the presence of various devices in the mobile advertising network it runs.
Apple (AAPL) was the No. 1 manufacturer in Millennial's advertising platform, up 8% since October to gain a 26% share in the list of the top 15 manufacturers.
Meanwhile, in MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Dec 20, 2011 6:03 AM ET
Cupertino responds to a Google milestone with a flurry of nice round numbers
Source: Google
Last Tuesday, Google (GOOG) announced that Android users had downloaded more than 10 billion apps from the Android Market and that the number of downloads was growing by 1 billion per month. To celebrate the milestone, Google was going to make a new set of "awesome apps" available on the store every day for the next week for only MORE
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| Company | Price | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank of America Corp... | 7.95 | -0.16 | -1.97% |
| Microsoft Corp | 31.27 | -0.17 | -0.54% |
| Ford Motor Co | 12.28 | -0.25 | -2.00% |
| General Electric Co | 19.39 | 0.17 | 0.88% |
| Citigroup Inc | 32.36 | -1.00 | -3.00% |
| Index | Last | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dow | 12,938.67 | -27.02 | -0.21% |
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| S&P 500 | 1,357.66 | -4.55 | -0.33% |
| Treasuries | 2.00 | -0.04 | -1.96% |
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