WHOA: Mobile Apps Business Expected to Be Double the Size of the Entire Movie Industry... This Year

I really had no idea that revenues from the mobile app business will hit about $25 billion this year -- roughly double the revenue of every movie theater in America.

...The global apps business is expected to make $25 billion in revenue this year, up 62% from a year ago, according to Gartner. To put that in perspective, movie theaters sold less than half that dollar amount at the box office in 2012.

And we have a ton of apps to choose from: Apple’s store now has about 800,000 apps, compared with 700,000 on Google GOOG -0.28% Play, 125,000 on Windows and 70,000 for Amazon.

Yes, business is booming. But it’s also unpredictable. About 63% of the apps used daily now differ from those used daily a year ago. Our attention span is so short these days – and the competition is so fierce – that we soon move on to the latest and greatest app.

On average, we only focus on about eight apps at a time. And we use these apps more than you might think: The average smartphone user spends two hours a day with apps, more than double the time spent two years earlier...

...Where did we find all this free time?

It’s hard to say exactly — if you look at the following graphic, the amount of time watching television and surfing the Web is flat in the past couple of years. Of course, we often have apps running in the background, like music-streaming apps, allowing us to multitask.

So consumption of apps is catching up to television viewing – some might say that’s a good thing, that apps are more productive than watching “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”

...But, as the following graphic shows, productivity apps capture just 2% of our time. Rather, games are stealing the most of our attention...

...43% of our time is spent catapulting angry birds at pigs and fighting monsters...

Thinking about developing your own mobile app? Have at it, but recognize that the odds are long.


Only five of the top 250 app publishers in the Apple Store are "virgins", the rest are reported to be veteran development shops. Electronic Arts, for instance, has dozens of bestselling apps and a marketing budget to match.

But a single good idea -- likes Tetris or Angry Birds, for instance -- can change the game. In truth, it's never been easier to write a software bestseller.

OBAMANOMICS 101: Four out of Five Americans aged 18 to 34 say economy makes it hard to afford a... car

Not a home. A car. Ain't Democrat policies grand?


It's indeed ironic that the millennials who overwhelmingly supported Barack Obama are going to be those devastated most by his policies in the years to come.


Hat tip: Jalopnik.

Stunning new electronic eyewear -- Google Glass -- nears its debut #IfIHadGlass

Google's electronic eyewear -- dubbed "Google Glass" -- is nearing a milestone beta release for developers (or is it alpha, I always forget).

Google ... announced a promotion in which people who share interesting ideas about what to do with the device get the chance to become a "Glass Explorer," who can then pre-order a $1,500 prototype. The application deadline is February 27.

I offered up several ideas including one with a simulated picture:

#ifihadglass I would automatically recognize QR codes and project previews of web pages in their stead (now w/pic: 4.bp.blogspot.com/-4Tx-3lcdVOA/U… )

— Doug Ross (@directorblue) February 20, 2013

In other words, Glass would offer up semi-transparent views of the pages/content represented by QR codes in magazines, on posters, etc. -- helping to bridge the physical to the virtual world. If you like the idea or some of my other ones, please consider retweeting!

TWEET THIS: Twitter now fastest-growing social network in the world

Interesting chart over at Global Web Index:

Contrary to popular perception, Twitter has always been more of a niche social network in most countries around the world. In our first wave of research in July 2009, we estimated that Twitter had just 35.47 million monthly active users across the markets covered at the time. Twitter, however, is shaking off that niche status with impressive style, and as we being 2013, it is the fastest growing social platform on the planet.

GWI.8, the Q4 2012 dataset from GlobalWebIndex, shows that the number of active Twitter users grew 40% from Q2 2012 to Q4 2012. This is equal to 288 million monthly active users (claimed to have used or contribute to Twitter in the past month) across the 31 markets currently researched by GWI (representing nearly 90% of the global internet population aged 16 to 65). That marks a whopping growth rate in active users of 714% since July 2009.

An incredible 21% of the global internet population now use Twitter actively on a monthly basis...

...As the chart below shows, the way people are using Twitter is changing in two respects. Firstly, it is becoming a passive source of discovery for users and secondly, users are using more as a tool or service rather than a pure social service. Amazingly, only 51% of active users claim to have posted a tweet in the past month. This means that half the active user base is just reading, reacting or using Twitter as a source of discovery. The caricature of the average Twitter user banally talking about what they had for breakfast is dying...

...All of these changes in usage underline the changing nature of Twitter (and the broader social media landscape) from a peer-to-peer or personal publishing platform, to the social infrastructure that links our internet experience across multiple devices and allows us to use the internet more efficiently. It’s quite possible that the majority of Twitter users in future will have very little or no interaction with the Twitter web page, and only use it through third party apps, aggregation services, operating system integration or via connected devices such as your TV...

I don't know about all of this newfangled Twitter stuff. I'm still banking on Friendster making a comeback.


Hat tip: BadBlue Tech News.

HOW COOL IS THIS? First Grader Becomes Youngest Person Ever to Develop a Mobile Game

What were you doing in the first grade?

Remember the name Zora Ball. At seven years old, she's the youngest person to ever create a mobile game app, which was unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania's Bootstrap Expo last month.

Zora used the Bootstrap programming language, and lest you think her older brother Trace, who was a STEM scholar of the year at Zora's charter school, did the work for her, she reconfigured her app on the fly when asked, according to the Pittsburgh Courier.

This could be the beginning of a long career as a programmer and developer for Ball. But first she has to get through first grade.

Isn't it startling to consider that -- like Zora -- humanity remains in the infancy stage when it comes to computers? What will the next five or so decades bring? Or, for that matter, the next five years?


Hat tip: BadBlue Tech News.

IRONIC PRIVACY FAIL: Facebook Founder's Sister Suffers Photo Leak

Well, if the sister of Facebook founder Jerry Zuckerberg screwed up her own privacy settings, what chance do the rest of us have?

...Mark Zuckerberg's sister Randi has complained about a Facebook privacy breach.

Randi, the former head of marketing for Facebook and the executive producer of Bravo's reality series Silicon Valley, complained when Callie Schweitzer, director of marketing and projects at VoxMedia, posted a photo of Randi and her family (including Mark) reacting to the new Poke app. Randi originally circulated the photo on Facebook to her friends, but Schweitzer posted it publicly on Twitter:

...Zuckerberg and Schweitzer have since deleted the conversation, but according to BuzzFeed, Schweitzer originally wrote "@randizuckerberg demonstrates her family's response to Poke" with a link to the pic. Randi then replied "@cschweitz: Not sure where you got this photo. I posted it only to friends on FB. You reposting it on Twitter is way uncool."

The article implies that Schweizer was not actually connected directly to Randi, but had simply subscribed to her updates.

So the failure was presumably either user error by Randi or facilitated by the vagaries of Facebook's notoriously nebulous privacy settings.

It doesn't help that this particular incident follows hot on the heels of Instagram's (a Facebook acquisition) public relations disaster.

It remains to be seen whether Facebook will get this privacy thing right, balancing the need to generate top-line growth with the privacy requirements of a fickle user community.


Hat tip: BadBlue Tech News.

ALERT THE MEDIA: New iPhone OS "Suspected of Draining Batteries"

I don't think Steve Jobs would be pleased:

The iOS 6.0.2 update released earlier this week may have cured some people's Wi-Fi woes, but others now claim it's reducing their battery life too. First reported by TidBITS' Adam Engst and supported by a number of posters in Apple's Support Communities, some (but seemingly not all) iPhone users have begun seeing dramatically reduced battery life on their iPhones after performing the update.

...As noted by the team at TidBITS, this change in how devices connect to Wi-Fi may be related to the apparent battery drain. "Our speculation, based on some quick testing that Michael Cohen did, is that the problem is related to a change in Wi-Fi behavior, which maps with Apple's sole release note for iOS 6.0.2," Engst wrote. "[I]t's far from conclusive, but indicates that the problem may be related to wireless communication in some fashion."

Given the battery performance I see and hear about from my friends and family members with iPhones, this ain't exactly breaking news.

BARRY RITHOLTZ: Facebook Just Destroyed Instagram

Well, these developments don't seem customer-friendly:

Over the past few years, I have been fairly critical about Facebook — starting first with its absurd valuation, and then moving to its abuse of privacy and data mining about its users, its frequent unannounced changes to its terms, and the general disdain with which it treats its users.

Although I was an Instagram fan, once [Facebook] bought the company, I stopped using the app (there are lots of alternatives)... This morning, I was reading the latest terms of service for the photo app — and they are nothing short of insane.

Facebook will be adding advertisements into Instagram’s application — and you and your kids may be part of them... here are the changes in Instagram’s privacy policy that you should be aware of:

1. Instagram can share information about its users with Facebook, its parent company, as well as outside affiliates and advertisers.

2. You could star in an advertisement — without your knowledge.

3. Underage users are not exempt.

4. Ads may not be labeled as ads.

5. Want to opt out? Delete your account.

Number five turns out to be a great idea — this morning, I deleted my Instagram account. At this rate, its only a matter of time before Facebook gets deleted.

Hat tip: BadBlue Tech News.

BUT SHE HAD IT COMING: Chinese woman gets tasered for buying too many iPhones

Memo to self: don't buy too many iPhones at one time.

...local TV news stations in New England were having a field day Wednesday with blurry cellphone video of a tiny 44-year-old Chinese woman being held to the ground and tasered outside an Apple Store by a pair of Nashua, N.H., police.

Piecing together the accounts of the police, the woman's 12-year-old daughter and her American boyfriend, this is what led to the confrontation:

The woman, Xiaojie Li, a Chinese national who lives in Newton, Mass., bought two iPhone 5s last Friday at the Apple Store in Nashua's Pheasant Lane Mall and was told when she tried to purchase more that she'd reached Apple's two-per-customer limit. When she made a video of other customers she claimed had bought more than two units, Apple staffers asked her to leave.

She revisited the mall Tuesday to pick up two more iPhone 5s she had ordered online, but the store refused to sell them. The store manager asked her to leave -- a request she says she didn't understand. The manager then asked a police officer assigned to provide mall security to escort her out.

"The officer approached her, told her she wasn't welcome in the store, and she refused to leave," Nashua police captain Bruce Hansen told WCVB TV. He described the use of electroshock weapons as standard procedure when a subject refuses to obey a lawful order or resists arrest.

According to police, Li was carrying about $16,000 in cash when she was arrested. She said she was buying the phones for relatives in China. Even if she was an iPhone 5 reseller, her boyfriend told a WCVB reporter, "does it rise to the level of getting a beating from police?"

Li has been charged with two misdemeanors -- criminal trespass and resisting arrest.

Two questions:

(a) So "refusing to leave" is a Tasering offense?

and:

(b) has her boyfriend told Xiaojie (pronounced Chao-Che, as far as you know) about, eh, eBay??!

GOOGLE THROWS DOWN THE GAUNTLET: Says Mobile War is Over and Android Has Defeated Apple

Interesting analogies drawn by Google Chairman Eric Schmidt:

Google (GOOG) Chairman Eric Schmidt believes the war between Android and Apple’s (AAPL) iOS is just about over and his side has won. In an interview with Bloomberg, the former CEO said that the current mobile battle is similar to the computing war that took place more than 20 years ago between Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple. The executive notes that Google is “winning that war pretty clearly now.”

...Schmidt’s words aren’t without merit; Android has seen explosive growth since its debut and controlled nearly 70% of the market this year. In fact, the operating system has been projected to dominate the smartphone market over the next four years while continuing to eat away at Apple’s tablet market share.

The Chairman’s comparison to Microsoft of the 1990s is fairly accurate. Windows was able to conquer the operating system space because of the strong support it had from a variety of manufacturers, while Apple refused to license OS X. Google has taken an approach similar to Microsoft’s, but rather than licensing the software it gives it out freely. This has helped the Android operating system see unprecedented growth.

“The core strategy is to make a bigger pie,” Schmidt said. “We will end up with a not perfectly controlled and not perfectly managed bigger pie by virtue of open systems.”

If taking shots at Apple wasn’t enough, the executive also jabbed the world’s largest social network, calling Google+ a “viable competitor to Facebook.” While Google’s social networking site has had its fair share of success, topping 500 million total users in a little over 14 months, it is no match for Facebook’s one billion monthly active users.

My prediction is that Google will continue to nibble away at Facebook, cable companies and wireless providers. This will prove extremely healthy for consumers because the latter two industries desperately need the benefit of robust competition.


Hat tips: Image via The Android Invasion, Story via BadBlue Tech News.

LATEST SMARTPHONE MARKET SHARE DATA: Apple Regains Top Spot, Edging Out Android

Here's a great table spotted in PC World that breaks down the latest smartphone sales by OS and carrier:

Android sales have declined in the U.S., helping iOS regain the top spot among smartphone platforms sold in the three-month period ending in October, according to the latest research from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.

...The figures from Kantar are different from a recent comScore MobiLens survey that found that Android is dominating with 53.6 percent of the market after a 1.4 percentage point increase. Apple was in second with 34.3 percent of the market after a 0.9 percentage point increase. Both surveys rely on user interviews, but the comScore survey does not include the month of October, while Kantar’s does...

...The month of October is relevant to this study because this is when iPhone 5 sales took off after a late September launch. Kantar attributes Apple’s double-digit rise in share specifically to the iPhone 5.

...Also thanks to the iPhone 5, AT&T has regained its spot as the top-selling smartphone carrier for the latest period, with 34.7 percent of smartphones sold, overtaking Verizon at 27.5 percent. Sprint and T-Mobile follow with 19.9 percent and 8.4 percent, respectively...

It's shocking to think back just three short years ago, when Apple and RIM were battling neck-and-neck for leadership of the smartphone market. It's been a fast downhill ride for the BlackBerry platform ever since.


Hat tip: BadBlue.com/Tech.

IT'S COME TO THIS: App Converts Any Photo Into Awesome Censored Nude Version, 60 Minutes-Style

And the four horsemen of the apocalypse were just spotted a couple miles south of town:

Nudifier: Turn Any Photo Into a Hilarious Censored Nude

The old cliche trick for getting over stage fright is to imagine the audience naked. We like to imagine everyone naked. That's what this app is for—except it censors out all the dirty bits and pieces.

What does it do?

Nudifier turns a photo of a fully clothed (or not) person (or animal) into a nude with TV-like pixel censorship around their private parts. Simply use the app's eyedropper to select the person's skin color, draw that color over their loins, and let the app turn that region into pixelation. Now share it with all your friends to the chagrin of the subject...

I can not confirm the Beltway scuttlebutt; i.e., that Joe Biden is the most prolific user of Nudifier.


Hat tip: BadBlue.com/Tech.