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Microsoft 'approaching' 100,000 apps in the Windows Store, boasts app downloads in the 'hundreds of millions'
Companies love milestones nearly as much as bees love honey, so it doesn't come as much of a surprise that Microsoft would take advantage of Build 2013 to announce as much positive news as it possibly can. This time, MS head Steve Ballmer has revealed to us that he expects the Windows Store to hit the 100,000 mark (in terms of total apps) sometime this month. Sounds about right if you monitor services like MetroStore Scanner to get a good feel for the OS's progress: it lists over 95,000 apps, which certainly fits the bill. Additionally, Microsoft also claimed that the very same Windows Store has witnessed app downloads in the vicinity of "hundreds of millions." This vague indicator is not as impressive as it could certainly be if an actual number was attached, but we have a feeling that our friends in Redmond are trying to keep the specifics as hush-hush as possible.
There have been 900 million Android activations, 48 billion app installs to date
What would a Google liveblog be without some updates on Android activations? Well, in case you're curious, the newest figure is 900 million -- a big jump from the 400 million activations reported last year. What's more, Google says there have been 48 billion app installations to date, including 2.8 billion in the last month alone, with revenue per user 2.5 times what it was a year ago. To put that in context, that's not far off Apple's latest numbers: the company has logged just under 50 billion downloads of its own. Moving on to Chrome, meanwhile, Google is touting 750 million active users, and that includes not just the desktop, but phones and tablets too. That's up from 450 million users at this time last year, with 300 million switching over in the past 12 months. Finally, if you want to get really granular, Google also gave an update on its Google Cloud Messaging service, which was announced last year. Apparently, 60 percent of apps are now using GCM, and 17 billion messages are pushed through the service per day. We'll let you chew on that for a moment while you follow the liveblog, but it seems to us now would be a good time to start placing bets on when we hit the 1-billion-activations mark.%Gallery-188420%
App downloads saw a surge after iPhone 5 release
A mobile marketing firm named Fiksu has posted that the iPhone 5 had a tremendous effect on app downloads, bringing up totals by as much as 33 percent. That's huge, and Fiksu says it hasn't seen numbers like that since, well, the iPhone 4S released a year or so ago. I've heard about numbers like this before -- the creators of big apps like Doodle Jump and Angry Birds say their download numbers always experience a big jump whenever a brand-new Apple device is released, and considering how popular the iPhone 5 and the iPad mini have been already this year, it's not hard to imagine that developers saw nice benefits from both new devices. The high download numbers probably aren't over yet. Every year around the holidays, developers report a nice big jump in downloads, as more and more people bring new iOS devices home for the holidays and then go looking for apps to install on them. Especially around the Christmas / New Year's period, there will be lots of new iOS devices jumping into the App Store ecosystem, and we're likely to see more big movement during that time period. So yes, the iPhone 5 may have boosted app downloads, but I doubt the boosting is over yet. [via VentureBeat]
Japan court rules Apple did not infringe two Samsung patents
In the latest scuffle between Apple and Samsung, a Tokyo court has ruled that the iPhone 4 and 4S do not infringe on two of Sammy's patents. According to The Asahi Shimbun, a decision on September 14th found Apple had not violated a patent related to app downloads, as Samsung's method is different. A dispute regarding flight / airplane mode also went in Cupertino's favor on October 11th, because the technology in question was regarded by the court as incremental. Only one case against Apple remains undecided in Japan -- for a patent on using "homescreen space" -- but, as usual, don't expect that to be the last chapter in the neverending story.
Android and iOS share a merry little Christmas: seven million total device activations
Google's SVP of Mobile just provided us with another glimpse inside the horse's mouth, claiming that Android scored 3.7 million new device activations over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. To put that in context, Flurry reported that total Android and iOS activations on Christmas Day alone totaled 6.8 million. If we can accept a very high margin of error, and if we assume that the vast majority of Rubin's activations were on the 25th, then we might extrapolate a roughly even split between the two rival platforms. Considering where Android was just a couple of Christmas's ago, it's no wonder that Mr Rubin is in the tweeting mood.
Samsung's HDTV-based app store passes two million downloads
Reaching two million downloads in a year may seem paltry considering Apple's app store delivered 1.5 billion downloads in its first year, and the Mac app store passed one million downloads on opening day. Still, it's the largest number we've seen from a TV maker, and when you factor in that Samsung's store just passed one million downloads back in November, it seems the Korean tech giant has a good thing going. Naturally, we knew the company was serious about apps when it announced the Free the TV contest late last summer to lure developers to the platform, and today the app store is available in over 120 countries and features roughly 380 applications, 259 of which are free. It also doesn't hurt that the brand has already sold boatloads of Smart TVs and plans to ship 12 million more in 2011. The question is, when the store hits the 10 million mark, can Samsung possibly pull off a new interpretive dance that tops its 2011 CES keynote? We certainly hope so. For the full announcement, check out the press release after the break.
Android Market hits 20,000 apps, over 60 percent free
Quantity rarely equals quality, of course, but it's still fairly notable that the Android Market has now managed to top 20,000 apps just a little over a year after it opened its doors -- Apple's App Store had over 50,000 apps a year into its existence, for those keeping track. Even more interesting, however, is the distribution of free and paid apps in the Market. According to AndroLib, fully 62.2% of the apps available are completely free, compared to just 37.8% that are paid apps. That's in stark contrast to the App Store, which now has over 100,000 individual apps, of which (by some recent counts) a hefty 77% are paid applications -- although only 30% of total App Store downloads are for paid apps. What does it all mean? Well, that's open for debate. But one thing's for sure: the rest of the app store contenders are going to have to work some special pie chart magic to come out looking good in this battle.
