App Annie: Apple App Store revenues still 2.6x higher than Google Play

Apple's App Store generated revenues 2.6x greater than the rival Google's Play store front during the first quarter of 2013, down from a multiple of 4x during the fourth quarter of 2012, analytics provider App Annie reports.

The US continues to lead all international markets on iOS app downloads, unchanged from the previous quarter. Here are the top 5 :

1. US
2. China
3. UK
4. Japan
5. France

China has started to gain momentum in the iOS App Store and was the leading contributor to the increase in iOS downloads from Q4 2012 to Q1 2013. While Games were the top category for downloads growth in China, gains were seen in many other categories as well. All together, these four key countries have been driving roughly half of total iOS downloads.

The top 5 by revenue for iOS are :

1. US
2. Japan
3. UK
4. China
5. Australia

U.S. and Japan together are responsible for close to half of all App Store revenues.

The U.S. tops all markets on Google Play downloads as well. The top 5 are :

1. US
2. South Korea
3. India
4. Russia
5. Japan

China is not listed as the Play Store was not launched in China otherwise I reckon China should also be high up on the top 5 list. The top four countries represented roughly 40 percent of Android installs during the first quarter, compared to about 50 percent for iOS.

Top 5 by revenue for Android :

1. Japan
2. South Korea
3. US
4. UK
5. Germany

The top 3 countries dominate Google Play, covering approximately 70 percent of its worldwide revenue. Their revenues are largely driven by games than any other countries' with South Korea  surpassing the 95 percent mark, while Japan has exceeded 90 percent.

Games continue to drive the overwhelming majority of worldwide revenues in both the App Store and Google Play, App Annie added. As of the first quarter, the category accounts for 70 percent of iOS revenues and close to 80 percent of Android revenues.

In short, its a still a gaming economy on both App Stores and it will continue to be driven by Games. The Play store is definitely catching up very quickly thanks to the exponential Android OS take up rate. Apple has to buck up quickly if they want to continue to dominate the space. 

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Flurry: 1.76bn Android and iOS apps downloaded in last week of 2012

Happy Belated New Year and apology for the long hiatus as i have been busy wrapping up quite a few things and making plans ahead for 2013. 2012 has definitely been a huge mobile year for everybody and I m expecting 2013 to be another record breaking mobile year. The ride ahead is going to be an exciting one as i m certain the forecasted growth will surely be overwhelmed. 

2012 ended with a bang as Flurry had just released jaw-dropping figures showing 1.76 billion Android and iOS app downloads were made during the Christmas week from December 25th-31st, while 328m downloads were made on Christmas Day itself. 

 

Comparatively, 1.2 billion apps were downloaded during the last week of 2011, while 242m were downloaded on New Year. The download surge was stimulated as more than 50m new devices running on Google and Apple's respective operating systems were activated in the final week of 2012, while around 17.4m were brought to life on the 25th. 

In fact, Flurry says the period accounts for the highest number of device activations and app downloads of any week in history. Meanwhile, the US, China, and the UK all broke past 100m downloads to account for 604m, 183m, and 132m, respectively. 

Flurry predicts that one-billion-download weeks will become the norm in 2013 and break past a two-billion download week during Q4.

Facebook back on track after growing 6 fold on mobile ads revenue in one quarter

Facebook reported a respectable quarter at $1.3bn/$0.12, beating most analysts consensus. While the payment business was soft due to Zynga (dropping almost 20%), the surprising strength in advertising more than offset that weakness.

Mobile was the key driver to the outperformance, contributing 14% of ad revenues and yielding a run-rate of 6x over last quarter. Current daily mobile run-rate is about $3 million and this is mostly coming from the sponsored daily feed on the mobile.

Management attributed the success to three factors: (1) users are more engaging on mobile and spending more time on Facebook; (2) the company introduced more ad products on mobile, increasing audience reached by advertisers and (3) mobile ads yield higher performance, on average 8x more than the desktop.

The company is getting better on mobile monetization, which alleviates a major investor concern and thus improves sentiment going forward. Facebook is well positioned over the long term for the multi-screen environment due to its larger base of socially connected users and its ubiquitous reach on the web and apps. With the roll out of their mobile ad exchange, I m bullish of the future prospects in the mobile ads space. Well done to the team at Facebook and this would certainly put pressure on Google to step up to continue their domination in the same space. I wont discount Apple iAds as they can easily get back into the game having access to so many iOS devices and customers data out there. 

Apple launches iPhone 5 but without the WOW factor

Apple launches the new iPhone 5 last night, a thinner and lighter version of its iconic device capable of running on 4G/LTE networks. Much of the speculation in the run up to the launch proved correct (Apple isnt very good at keeping secret these days especially with Steve Jobs not around) : the new device has a larger 4-inch Retina display, enough room for a fifth row of icons but is 18 percent thinner and 20 percent lighter than its predecessor, the iPhone 4S.

It is powered by Apple’s new A6 chip, which the firm claims can provide up to twice the CPU and graphics performance, while at the same time improving battery life. It also sports an 8MP iSight camera, improved audio and microphones (including a redesign of Apple’s famous white earbuds); and as widely expected a new connector known as ‘Lightning,’ replacing the 30-pin cable used for many years on Apple gadgets. This newly designed connector is going to be a pain for all iDevices manufacturers as they either had to replace the connector or bundle it together with the devices or the iPhone 5 users have to pony out $25 for the adapter.

It will run the previously-announced iOS6, which includes 200 new features to the software, notably new mapping and navigation (by Apple rather than Google) and deeper Facebook integration. Although the general view from analysts was that the iPhone 5 is an evolutionary rather than revolutionary step forward, many are predicting it will contribute to record iPhone sales in the upcoming holiday quarter.

Apple’s current iPhone sales record is the 37.04 million shifted in the quarter following the launch of the iPhone 4S a year ago. The iPhone 5 will retail in the US (after subsidy) for US$199 (16GB), US$299 (32GB) and US$399 (64GB).

It will ship in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the UK on Friday 21 September with pre-orders taken from tomorrow (14 September). The device will rollout to 22 more countries on 28 September.

Mashable did a nice blog by comparing 3 other similar devices to iPhone 5 and you will see how it will stack up against the rest. This will help you to decide which devices to buy. iPhone 5 unlike before really have to work a lot harder to compete these days as there are many other devices out there that are either just as good and sometimes even better like the Samsung Galaxy S3. The only thing that is of no comparison is their superior iOS platform which most Apple users are used too.

Just in case if you havent seen the video of the iPhone 5's product launch, Apple has posted the video online at here. 

The reality of wealth - "RICHNESS IS WHEN YOU NEED NO MORE"

While reading, i came across a good story or reminder that i wanted to share with all my readers.

The story goes like this...

In 1923, eight of the wealthiest people in the world met. Their combined wealth, it is estimated, exceeded the wealth of the government of the United States at that time. These men certainly knew how to make a living and accumulate wealth. But let's examine what happened to them 25 years later. 

1. President of the largest steel company, Charles Schwab, lived on borrowed capital for five years before he died bankrupt.

2. President of the largest gas company, Howard Hubson, went insane.

3. One of the greatest commodity traders, Arthur Cutton, died insolvent.

4. President of the New York Stock Exchange, Richard Whitney, was sent to jail.

5. A member of the President's Cabinet, Albert Fall, was pardoned from jail to go home and die in peace.

6. The greatest "bear" on Wall Street, Jessie Livermore, committed suicide.

7. President of the world's greatest monopoly, Ivar Krueger, committed suicide.

8. President of the Bank of International Settlement, Leon Fraser, committed suicide.

They were money making machine but what they forgot how to make a good and meaningful life with all their wealth!

Money in itself is not evil! Money provides food for the hungry, medicine for the sick, clothes for the needy. Money is only a medium of exchange.

We need two kinds of education. One that teaches us how to make a living and one that teaches us how to live. There are people who are so engrossed in their professional life that they neglect their family, health, spiritual life and social responsibilities. If asked why they do this they would reply that they were doing it for their family. Our kids are sleeping when we leave home. They are sleeping when we come home. Twenty years later, we'll turn back, and they'll all be gone.

Without water, a ship cannot move. The ship needs water, but if the water gets into the ship, the ship will face problems. What was once a means of living for the ship will now become a means of destruction.

Similarly we live in a time where earning is a necessity but let not the earning enter our hearts, for what was once a means of living will be become a means of destruction. So take a moment and ask yourself....has water entered my ship? RICHNESS is not Earning More, Spending More Or Saving More, but "RICHNESS IS WHEN YOU NEED NO MORE".

And the first person that came to mind was Bill Gates. All his wealth are being put to good use, helping others and most importantly i think Bill is enjoying his life. Why carry on making more money when you cant even keep any of it at the end of the day. We work to live and not live to work...

China's Dianping - Mobile Apps Usage surpasses PC

According to the first mobile lifestyle report recently released by China's leading local platform which connect people with local businesses, Dianping (a chinese version of Yelp), daily views of Dianping's mobile apps have shown explosive growth, exceeding those of its PC.

Views of Dianping's mobile apps have grown over 100 times since early 2010, with the number of its mobile apps' unique users jumping over 110 times, according to data from Dianping.

Through Dianping mobile apps, users can have access to extensive information about restaurants, beauty, leisure, shopping, hotels and lifestyle services. In addition, the demand is increasing as pharmacies, banks, parks, Internet cafes, cinemas, gas stations, nail salons and table games, among others, are becoming the most commonly used search keywords in some cities, which reflects the diverse characters of mobile lifestyle.

Information search and having access to discounts remain the two core needs of mobile lifestyle. Over 70 percent of Dianping mobile apps' users prefer to use the three functions: keyword search, neighboring businesses search and group buying.

It appears in the report that iPhone users are more apt to prefer a lifestyle that is "elegant" and "romantic". Not so the ordinary Android users who prefer a more "common" lifestyle. Illustrating the difference Dianping notes that over half (54%) of iPhone users choose restaurants costing at least CNY80 ($13) per head, compared to 46% of Android users selecting restaurants that cost CNY50 ($8) or less.

As of Q2 of 2012, Dianping has more than 48 million monthly active users, over 20 million reviews, and more than 1.5 million local businesses covering approximately 2,300 cities across China. As of Q2 of 2012, Dianping (including Dianping.com and Dianping mobile apps) has nearly one billion page views monthly, out of which, over 50% comes from mobile users. And mobile apps have more than 33 million unique users.

Its not surprising that Dianping's total view on mobile had surpassed that of PC, its just a matter of time where most eyeballs will be focusing largely on mobile. 

China - Mobile Internet Users surpassed Internet Users on desktop

The latest data from the Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) shows that China has more than 538 million Internet users, of which 388 million are mobile Internet users. This is the first time that the number of mobile internet users has surpassed desktop users indicating that China's internet users are relying more and more to smartphone to get online. With more affordable and accessible mobile devices, smart phones are now the top choice for on line surfers.

A bi-annual statistical report says that by the end of June, 2012, the number of websites had risen to 2.5 million. Meanwhile, the number of mobile internet users reached 388 million, accounting for 72.2% of total web users.

The popular usage for mobile internet is mobile video, mobile searches, communication and e-commerce.

The report also finds that on line video users are growing rapidly. Over 100 million people watch videos on their mobile phones, accounting for 27.7% of total mobile internet users.  And more than 210 million people made purchases through e-commerce sites.