Mobile App Industry - Apple App Store Vs Google Play

App Store is a digital application distribution platform for app developers. The two main distribution platforms for iOS and Android phone are the Apple App Store and Google Play. The platform allows users to browse and download applications from the store that were developed and published through Apple Inc. and Google respectively.  

Apple App Store and Google Play are always competing in the mobile industry. In this post, mobile9 will review the 2012 performance of both platforms.

The Apple App Store now has over 500 million active accounts and 775,000 applications available for iOS devices. It has reached a new milestone in total app downloads. Apple Inc revealed that 2 billion apps were downloaded in December alone, making it the best month in the marketplace's history. There have been 40 billion unique application downloads in its App Store since the marketplace launched in 2008. Of the 40 billion apps downloaded, about 20 billion were downloaded in 2012. The growth in the download rate has benefited the developers where $7 billion has been paid out to iOS developers. 

In 2012, Google has announced that it has another app-related milestone under its belt. Google Play crossed a significant milestone where it hits 25 billion app downloads. Although it was revealed that more than 675,000 apps and games now live in Google Play, Apple App Store still claims the largest selection with 775,000 titles in its store. It might be seen that Google Play may eclipse its rival in short order. It should not be long before Google sees 30 billion app downloads in the rear-view mirror. 

Based on last year figures, it appears that Apple’s App Store growth is accelerating, and this acceleration is expected to continue over the next 12 months. It is expected that the a combined of 2 billions apps are to be downloaded to iOS and Android-based devices each week between now and fourth quarter of 2013.

App developer, the app market is growing indicating that your revenue income is growing too. Good luck in developing more apps for the users.

The Mobile Community

Mobile9 provides a platform that unites all members who share the same interest and who have the same enthusiasm in the mobile world. mobile9's mobile community allows a group of people to interact with each other and ensure that all individuals are able to express their curiosity and to share their excitement about the latest news and trends. The aim of the community is to create a surprising and delightful environment that connects a unified body of individuals by means of  location-independent.

There are several groups or communities that publishers can be involved and to build your network connection in mobile9. For example, you can join the ‘Nokia’ groups and share the latest news about Nokia. You can also ask any questions that you might have or experience when using Nokia devices or mobile application.

As a publisher, you can also be involved in the community to announce the launch of your new product, start a discussion on your latest product, question about the latest trend in the mobile world as well as provide tips for users in using your products or tips for publishers in creating new products. In the community, you will be not only able to share interesting news but also able build connections with your users.

There is no requirement in order to join the groups. The only thing you need is to join mobile9 and be our free or premium member. Below are the screenshots of mobile9's community platform.

Here are some popular groups that you might be interested:

1. IOS: http://community.mobile9.com/edit_group/?gid=253 

2. Android: http://community.mobile9.com/group/?gid=254  

3. Samsung: http://community.mobile9.com/group/?gid=333

4. Nokia http://community.mobile9.com/group/?gid=319  

5. Blackberry: http://community.mobile9.com/group/?gid=352 

6. Sony Ericsson: http://community.mobile9.com/group/?gid=338  

How To Improve Mobile App Rating?

It is commonly held belief that mobile app developers want to get more and better ratings for their apps. App rating refers to an evaluation or classification of the mobile apps based on a comparative assessment of their quality, standard or performance. An app with good ratings and reviews indicate high users' acceptance, and this will lead to more success for your app. As there are lots of developers understand this theory and are experimenting with ways to get ratings, it is fundamental for developers to learn the way in which they can improve their app rating as well as utilize the ratings or reviews.

Get Feedback Directly Coming to You and Not App Store

A good app by passionate developers deserves recognition. As compared to unsatisfied users, satisfied user are less likely to provide good reviews of your app. Although great app will also get negative feedback, it is another way for developers to learn and improve from it. 

Good feedback will lead your app to success, but bad feedback will cause failure. As an app developers, you should ensure that all good reviews will publish on app store and bad reviews will be directed to you. With less negative feedback available on the app store, the overall review of your apps will be better, and the ranking will also improve. 

Below is an app that did a good job at keeping negative feedback out of the app store  via direct line of communication:

• 360 Panorama - by Occipital 

They created two buttons, “Send Love” where it takes users to app store to publish a good review and “Send Feedback” where the bad review will be emailed directly to the developer. In result, they have good rating in app store. 

The app world is increasingly competitive, the only strategy to stand out from the crowd is to build a customer base that loves your apps. A review reminder could be effective in improving app rating. For example, Appirator is a class that you can drop into any iPhone app that will remind users to review and rate your app on App Store. Achieving a great ranking is not easy, but by putting in some effort developers should be able to maximize the rating and improve the ranking.

mobile9's tips for good rating:

• Create good app that meet users’ demand.
• Create a direct link of communication for bad reviews.
• Quickly respond and fix customers’ problems.
• Set up a review reminder for users to rate your app. 

Finding Your Way Around The Best Mobile Devices

People want to know what are the hottest phones on the market today. From the latest to the greatest, mobile users keep updating with the best devices. Cell phones that have been entitled in the “Most Popular Award” list indicated that specific device had received a high level of interest at the time of release. With the craze for the latest gadgets as a must have, the older mobile devices may be lacking compared to the newer devices. Thus, it is crucial for publishers to keep track of the latest and popular devices in order to be the first to publish amazing files for that specific devices and to capture more audiences.

Mobile9 allows users to add a collection of devices to the phone list. By doing so, publishers will be able to keep an eye on the trend for that specific device (i.e. what’s the most popular themes, ringtones, wallpapers, apps, etc. at the point of time).

Here is how it works - by clicking the “Add Device” at the navigation menu on top of the page, you will be redirected to a page where you can enter your device name. Then, select the device by just clicking on the image of your device. For example, you can search for Samsung devices and adding “Samsung Galaxy S III I9305” to your phone list. Your device is now added to your phone list, you will be able to view it. Below is a screenshot of your the process.

Note 1: Please spell the model of your mobile device correctly. If there is any misspelled on the model of the device, an error will occur (i.e. No Phone(s) Found).

Note 2: If your device(s) is/are not listed on our site, please try an alternative name for search. For example: “Samsung Galaxy” instead of “Samsung”.

Here are the 10 most popular mobile devices for 2012 and 2013 that publishers should consider adding them to your phone list:

1. Apple iPhone 5
2. Samsung Galaxy S3
3. Samsung Galaxy Note 2
4. Google Nexus 4 
5. Nokia Lumia 920
6. HTC One X+
7. HTC Windows Phone 8X
8. LG Intuition
9. Sony Ericsson Xperia
10. Motorola Atrix HD

A Stunning and Customized Profile

A profile is like a magazine stories which focuses on an individual or an entity. Every user of mobile9 will have their own profile that allow them to share their own story with other m9ers. In this profile, m9ers are able to feature a personal story about what is important or interesting about him or her right now. 

The story includes:

•  Posts that have been contributed.
•  Post that you received from other m9ers.
• Your recent uploads.
• Your own collections.
• Your followers and people that you are following.
• Gift that you have received from other m9ers.
• Badges that you have achieved.

There is one interesting feature in “My Profile” that differentiate the free m9ers and premium m9ers. A comparison between Diagram 1 and Diagram 2 indicated that premium m9ers will be able to enjoy a more stunning design for their profile. The diagram below shows that free members will only have a standardised profile where the background is not editable. However, by clicking on the “Unlock Cover Photo & Background” button, free m9ers will also have the opportunity to customize your own profile. 

Diagram 1 - Free Members

On the other hand, the picture below are some samples of our premium profile. Premium m9ers have the priority to enjoy this special feature by changing their cover photo as well as the background color of their profile. Publisher can also use this opportunity to publish or advertise your latest product on your cover photo to increase the exposure of your products. Premium m9ers will not only able to upload a static photo but also an animated photo for your cover photo. An animated photo will be more interesting to catch an eye of your audience.

Diagram 2 - Premium Profiles

In order to edit your profile, you will need to be an premium members and by clicking the “Edit Profile” button, you will be redirected to the page being shown below. Here, you will be able to upload your own cover photo as well as redesign the background color of your profile. 

Diagram 3 - Edit Profile

Find out more information about our premium publisher account here:
http://gallery.mobile9.com/upload/

Hunger Developers - Read This If You Are Awesome

Mobile9 is a mobile app store and more where you can download and upload free wallpapers, apps, ringtones, themes and more for your mobile phones and tablets. 

After your content has been uploaded to our gallery, review will be in progress. Your content will be available to our audience once the review process has been completed. If you already have your apps on apps store like Google Play, Apple App Store or BlackBerry App World, you can import your app easily by copy and paste the URL links to Mobile9. If someone has imported your apps, you can always claim it back. For your own analysis, you will be able to track the total number of downloads and favorites for your uploads. 

What is amazed about Mobile9 platform:

• Promote mobile apps, wallpapers, themes & ringtones to millions of audience.

• Support all mobile devices including smartphone, tablet and e-book reader. 
• Target the right audience.

• Connect with other developers to share ideas and develop social experience with your audience.

The registration is free. Check out Mobile9 developer site here:
http://www.mobile9.com/?pg=developer