Google Inc’s Android application store has twice the proportion of free software as smartphone rivals Apple Inc and Research In Motion Ltd, according to market researcher Distimo.
Free applications comprised 60 percent of software on Android Market in July, Distimo said. That compares with 29 percent for the Apple App Store for the iPhone and 26 percent for RIM’s BlackBerry App World, the Utrecht, Netherlands-based researcher said on its Web site on Thursday.
Attracting more app developers may help Google catch up with the App Store, which contains more than 250,000 programs, three times the 70,000 for Android, the company’s figures showed.
Annual revenue from smartphone app downloads, ads and services is estimated to almost triple to US$40.7 billion in 2014 from this year, according to researcher Booz & Co.
Android Market is available in 46 countries. The store may be struggling to attract users for paid programs because only people in 14 nations can download these apps, which are distributed by developers in nine countries. Android buyers also have to sign up for a Google Checkout account in order to download paid apps, it said.
Separately, microblogging service Twitter launched an app for the Apple iPad on Thursday to rave reviews from technology blogs.
The free official “Twitter for iPad” program allows Twitter users to send and receive the 140-character-or-less messages known as “tweets” as well as open links to Web content.
Twitter has a Web site, but most users opt to use third-party applications to access the service rather than the somewhat non-user friendly Twitter.com.
The Twitter application for the touchscreen iPad, which is available from Apple’s App Store, allows users to tap a message with their finger and see any related content in a separate window pane.
“Depending on the content in that Tweet, you’ll see a video or photo, or maybe a news story, or perhaps another tweet,” Twitter said in a blog post. “Twitter for iPad takes advantage of the iPad’s fluid touch interface, letting you move lots of information around smoothly and quickly — without needing to open and close windows or click buttons.”
Dan Frommer of Silicon Alley Insider described the Twitter iPad application as “really slick.”
MG Siegler of TechCrunch said: “It has now been a few days since I first played with Twitter for iPad, and I still think it is hands-down the best iPad app out there.”
“It’s that good,” Siegler said, adding that the application provides “a great experience for reading tweets — and more importantly, reading the links your friends share.”
Mercuries Life Insurance Co (三商美邦人壽) shares surged to a seven-month high this week after local media reported that E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) had outbid CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) in the financially strained insurer’s ongoing sale process. Shares of the mid-sized life insurer climbed 5.8 percent this week to NT$6.72, extending a nearly 18 percent rally over the past month, as investors bet on the likelihood of an impending takeover. The final round of bidding closed on Thursday, marking a critical step in the 32-year-old insurer’s search for a buyer after years of struggling to meet capital adequacy requirements. Local media reports
US sports leagues rushed to get in on the multi-billion US dollar bonanza of legalized betting, but the arrest of an National Basketball Association (NBA) coach and player in two sprawling US federal investigations show the potential cost of partnering with the gambling industry. Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, a former Detroit Pistons star and an NBA Hall of Famer, was arrested for his alleged role in rigged illegal poker games that prosecutors say were tied to Mafia crime families. Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier was charged with manipulating his play for the benefit of bettors and former NBA player and
The DBS Foundation yesterday announced the launch of two flagship programs, “Silver Motion” and “Happier Caregiver, Healthier Seniors,” in partnership with CCILU Ltd, Hondao Senior Citizens’ Welfare Foundation and the Garden of Hope Foundation to help Taiwan face the challenges of a rapidly aging population. The foundation said it would invest S$4.91 million (US$3.8 million) over three years to foster inclusion and resilience in an aging society. “Aging may bring challenges, but it also brings opportunities. With many Asian markets rapidly becoming super-aged, the DBS Foundation is working with a regional ecosystem of like-minded partners across the private, public and people sectors
BREAKTHROUGH TECH: Powertech expects its fan-out PLP system to become mainstream, saying it can offer three-times greater production throughput Chip packaging service provider Powertech Technology Inc (力成科技) plans to more than double its capital expenditures next year to more than NT$40 billion (US$1.31 billion) as demand for its new panel-level packaging (PLP) technology, primarily used in chips for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, has greatly exceeded what it can supply. A significant portion of the budget, about US$1 billion, would be earmarked for fan-out PLP technology, Powertech told investors yesterday. Its heavy investment in fan-out PLP technology over the past 10 years is expected to bear fruit in 2027 after the technology enters volume production, it said, adding that the tech would
RSS