Free apps are estimated to account for 89 percent of the total downloads in the mobile app market this year, the US-based research firm Gartner Inc said yesterday.
The figure shows that out of the 45.6 billion total downloads, about 40.6 billion were free, said Gartner, which also predicted that the figure will have risen to 93 percent by 2016.
Meanwhile, apps priced between US$0.99 and US$2.99 are likely to account for approximately 87.5 percent of total paid downloads this year and are expected to climb to 96 percent in 2016.
Gartner research director Sandy Shen (沈哲怡) said that like free apps, low-priced apps will garner large-scale downloads.
In related news, sales of mobile communication products in Taiwan for the second quarter of this year jumped 46 percent from a year earlier, according to a report released yesterday by market researcher GfK Group.
GfK Taiwan said strong sales of Android-based smartphones, which accounted for more than 50 percent of the cellphones sold in June, were the major force driving growth in the mobile communications sector.
The report also showed sales of tablet computers in the second quarter jumped 103 percent from a year earlier.
In contrast, laptop sales were down from a year earlier, despite reduced pricing for the new Ultrabooks, it said.
Real estate agent and property developer JSL Construction & Development Co (愛山林) led the average compensation rankings among companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) finished 14th. JSL Construction paid its employees total average compensation of NT$4.78 million (US$159,701), down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, but still ahead of the most profitable listed tech giants, including TSMC, TWSE data showed. Last year, the average compensation (which includes salary, overtime, bonuses and allowances) paid by TSMC rose 21.6 percent to reach about NT$3.33 million, lifting its ranking by 10 notches
Popular vape brands such as Geek Bar might get more expensive in the US — if you can find them at all. Shipments of vapes from China to the US ground to a near halt last month from a year ago, official data showed, hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a crackdown on unauthorized e-cigarettes in the world’s biggest market for smoking alternatives. That includes Geek Bar, a brand of flavored vapes that is not authorized to sell in the US, but which had been widely available due to porous import controls. One retailer, who asked not to be named, because
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