Posts Tagged ‘AppStore’

  • 15 Jun

    Posted by
    joesonic


    Category

    Market Share of mobile AppStores by number of Applications

    1

    I have tried out to compare mobile application stores by their number of available applications. Starting with Apple mobile application stores have become very popular to download programs and games directly to the users smartphone. Now nearly every big player has launched a platform where different applications are hosted. I have compared platforms of the 5 major players in case of application variety:

    Name of the Store       Platform Company
    Apple AppStore iPhone OS Apple
    Android Market Android Google
    Palm AppStore Palm OS Palm
    Ovi Store Symbian Nokia
    AppWorld Blackberry OS Research in Motion (RIM)

    All in all it is not so easy to compare the total number of applications, because there are no official or correct information available. Most headlines give the impression platforms start with 10000+ applications, but if you take a closer look at different applications you find out that these numbers are utopian. By June 2009 there are good numbers about Apples AppStore. They provide about 50000 applications and games, where 11000 of these are free (~87 % Market Share). Android Market has nearly 6000 applications which is about 10 % Market Share. Palm claims to have about 3000 applications available, which is about 5 % Market Share. But I get the impression this number include also Windows mobile applications. Nokia has only about 250 application available for their Symbian S60 v5 phones (0.5 % Market Share). And Blackberry has only 15 featured applications listed in their online platform. I could not verify the total number of BlackBerry applications because therefore you need a BackBerry phone.

    Market Share by total number of Applications

    Market Share by total number of Applications

    In conclusion it can be said that the success of a mobile platform or operation system depends on the variety and number of application. It is a very easy equation that allows you to predict the success of an application:

    • The higher the amount of applications the higher the success of a platform!

    In my opinion big players in the smartphone market will be the iPhone OS and Android. It is difficult to say what will happen to Palm and the big looser will be Nokia (See also following article: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/26/nokia-ovi-store-launch-is-a-complete-disaster/).

  • 14 May

    Posted by
    joesonic


    Category

    OffMaps – Allows to use maps without Internet Connection

    2

    OffMaps is an application for the iPhone or iPod touch which can be downloaded via the Apple AppStore.  Online map services consume quite a bit of bandwidth and mobile internet services are often limited. Therefore many users are looking for offline solutions for map services. Map services are of particular interest if your are travelling abroad. And in this case roaming charges can be very expensive.  Also the fast access to maps at remote destinations can be enhanced.

    This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.

    OffMaps used the community driven map service platform OpenStreetMaps. OffMaps allows you to access maps and location bookmarks and stores Openstreetmap snapshots directly on the device for any area and zoomlevel. It also has two modes:

    • an online and
    • an offline mode.

    Whenever possible OffMaps will use the online mode, but this can be configured. In online mode you can pan and zoom normally through the world map. Map images that have not been cached will automatically be loaded and saved to the cache for later offline use. You can also search for locations around the world, add bookmarks and preload whole areas in a zoom range of your liking. Of course you can view your own location too.
    In offline mode you can only view maps of areas that you have previously seen or preloaded. You can view your current location and bookmarks, but can’t use the search as this requires the large CloudMade database that is only available online. You can even add local bookmarks by tapping the map at any location.

    screen-en-1 screen-en-3

    Features:

    • Maps with cache and download function
    • Online Search for places, cities and features
    • Bookmarks (offline and online) with internal search
    • Display of own current location with accuracy indicator
    • Map scale in kilometres or miles

    Storage Space of Offline maps by cities:

    City Most detailed -1 zoomlevel -2 zoomlevels
    Barcelona, ES ~37 MB ~10 MB ~3 MB
    Berlin, DE ~125 MB ~35 MB ~8 MB
    Boston (incl. Cambridge), USA ~50 MB ~13.1 MB ~5 MB
    London (center), UK ~30 MB ~9 MB ~3 MB
    New York (incl. Jersey City), USA ~170 MB ~45 MB ~12 MB
    Paris, FR ~60 MB ~15 MB ~4 MB
    San Francisco, USA ~75 MB ~20 MB ~6 MB

    At the most detailed zoomlevel the screen covers approx. 300 meters in width, at the medium details approx. 600 meters and at the “Important streets” level it covers approx. 1km in width.

    [via offmap.net]

  • 01 Mar

    Posted by
    joesonic


    Category

    First real Navigation Software for the iPhone

    0

    One of the most requested applications in Apples AppStore is an navigation software, like TomTom or Garmin for Apples Smartphone. Even-though the iPhone 3G has integrated A-GPS no such navigation software is available, due to the restricting policy of Apple. In the early days of the iPhone TomTom has announced to develop an navigation software for the iPhone, but until now it has not found its way to the user. In the area of Maps and GPS Apple has a strong Partnership with Google and provides spatial information via Google Maps.

    Meanwhile there are several applications which are close to a real Navigationsoftware by displaying a route and visualising maneovers. The first language driven turn-by-turn navigation software is xGPS and will be available at 02.03.2009. This software is a freeware and won`t be distributed over the AppStore but via Cydia for jailbroken iPhones 3g and iPhones 2G or iPod with external GPS module.

    In this version maps can be downloaded directly on the phone but need an huge amount of memory, because they are Google maps raster data. In version 2 it is announced to use vector data, which will reduce the needed memory dramatically. As alternative map material can be loaded dynamically via the network.

    Software: xGPS

    xGPS Roadmap

    [via Computerbase]