We had mobile apps before the iPhone, but the modern mobile app market really began with the App Store in 2008. Three years later, we’re swimming in apps and poised to hit a big milestone: 1 million apps available to users.

Mobilewalla, a mobile analytics firm, said iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7 have collectively hit 991,524 apps available in their stores, with the big milestone set to be reached sometime next week. This is not a complete list, and leaves out Symbian apps and older Windows Mobile and Palm software. But it’s still a reminder of just how big this modern market is and how much it’s grown in just a few years. Developers have already built more than 1 million apps on iOS and Android alone, but a good chunk of apps have been pulled over time.

Apple continues to lead the pack with 59.6 percent of the market, with 591,428 apps and Android follows with 321,020 apps or 32.3 percent of the market, according to Mobilewalla. BlackBerry has 43,544 apps, good for 4.4 percent of the total, while Windows Phone 7 had 35,248 apps or 3.5 percent. Apple’s developers are adding about 1,000 new apps a day while Android developers are uploading about 1,400 a day, said Mobilewalla’s founder and executive chairman Anindya Datta.

He said the market for apps has doubled this year, which started out with 484,000 apps. There are 150,000 app developers and companies responsible for the apps on the market now, according to Datta. The top app categories across all platforms are Entertainment (16.68%), Games (13.36%), Lifestyle (8.02%) and Utilities (7.13%).

Again, we had an app market before the iPhone. But it reached more of a niche audience, nothing like the mainstream phenomenon we’re seeing now. Companies are now making huge money in mobile apps including Rovio, which reportedly turned down a .25 billion acquisition offer from Zynga. Gartner has said it expects mobile apps to bring in billion in revenue this year, while Juniper Research believes app revenues can hit billion by 2015. It’s a mobile app world and we just live in it.

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While Android and iOS continue to control the top of the smartphone market, we keep wondering when an ascendent third-place challenger will appear. New data from Nielsen helps explain why placing a strong third may be tough. Nielsen says that in the U.S., Android and iOS account for 71 percent of all smartphones in use, which leaves little room for competitors. But among smartphone users who downloaded an app in the last 30 days, the competition is even more lopsided: 83 percent used either an iPhone or Android.

Now, on a surface level this might seem intuitive considering how many apps are available on the two platforms. But the figures show that the top two operating systems account for a bigger chunk of app downloads than their relative footprint would logically suggest. Competitors also have apps, but these two are the leading destinations for people who are eager for mobile software.

That shows why it’s hard to break into the top of the smartphone market, which is dominated by what the New York Times‘ David Pogue calls “app phones.” It’s not enough to have elegant hardware, you have to bring a very vibrant and broad app market to consumers, too. That’s partly why iOS and Android are sitting pretty: they offer a lot of very compelling apps that make money for developers, more so on iOS but increasingly so on Android.

For competitors like BlackBerry or Windows Phone 7 to compete, they need to really bring the app heat as well. Both are working hard on doing so, but it’s hard to close the distance when iOS and Android have such a lead. And that lead also benefits Google and Apple through app lock-in, in which consumers may be reluctant to leave a platform because they have a lot of apps and data tied into one operating system. Getting someone to switch to a new platform requires a big commitment from a user, who has to know that the apps they want will be waiting for them on a new platform and that the transition, which may involve losing data, will be worth it.

Of course, the app market and the growth of the platforms are somewhat intertwined. Developers like to place their bets on the biggest and most profitable platforms and a big library of apps can help sell a platform. For someone who’s starting behind on apps, or whose device sales are fading or sluggish, it’s tough to break that cycle after it’s well under way. I think Windows Phone 7 probably has the best shot at escaping the downward spiral and gaining some momentum, but looking at the competition through the lens of the app advantage, I think it will be a harder road for Microsoft then the rosy projections painted by Gartner and IDC, who predict WP7 displacing iOS by 2015 as the chief rival to Android. The app ecosystem is a key factor to achieving that uptake.

Nokia chief Stephen Elop said as much when he announced that the move to Windows Phone 7 for Nokia smartphones was led by the need to compete on ecosystems. But I think it’s tough to keep building that ecosystem when you’re not selling that many phones. Nokia’s introduction of new phones will certainly help, but consumers are still going to see more apps on Android and iOS. And developers are going to need to see a lot more momentum before they really support WP7. There is hope for WP7, based on a recent Appcelerator/IDC developer survey, which found that WP7 was pulling away from BlackBerry as the third most popular smartphone option for developers. But WP7 will also have to vie for developer attention with the Kindle Fire, which is now the top Android tablet in the minds of Appcelerator developers.

I still hope that we’ll see more than just a two-horse race in smartphones. And it’s certainly possible we will see WP7 and BlackBerry rise to the challenge. But they’re going to have to offer competitive app marketplaces for consumers and developers. The emergence of HTML5 web apps might offset some of the existing advantage, but even if it does, it will likely take a while to really get going. For now, Android and iOS, with their app advantage, are enjoying the view from the top, without much fear of tumbling from their perch.

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Voltage Pictures dismisses 90 percent of defendants in Hurt Locker file-sharing lawsuit originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Oct 2011 05:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In April, Texas Instruments announced its intention to snatch up National Semiconductor for a cool .5 billion. Now, almost six months later, the acquisition is complete and TI can tack another few percentage points on to its already market-leading chunk of the analog chip market. At least for now, National will operate as a branch of TI’s analog division, which now accounts for over 50-percent of the company’s revenue, and keep its (reasonably) well known brand name alive. For a few more details on the deal, check out the PR after the break.

Continue reading Texas Instruments wraps up purchase of National Semiconductor

Texas Instruments wraps up purchase of National Semiconductor originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 25 Sep 2011 00:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Thanks to the web and social media, interruptions have become not just a way of life, but a way to work according to survey data out from Cisco. The networking giant found that among college students and young professionals, 24 percent experience three to five interruptions in a given hour, while 84 percent get interrupted at least once while trying to complete a project.

What’s stunning about this isn’t that college students and young professionals (defined by Cisco as folks in their first job out of college) are being interrupted, it’s Dave Evans’ assessment that these interruptions are now part of the way of corporate life. Evans, who is Cisco’s chief futurist, conveniently points to more survey data showing that seven out of 10 respondents friend managers and coworkers on Facebook as well as follow them on Twitter. Evans says that they work there. Given that young people are conducting work online via social media sites, and that they are both multi-tasking and being interrupted, I wonder if we need to rethink the billable hour?

For lawyers, contractors, accountants and many other professionals, following, responding to and interacting with clients and coworkers via social media isn’t the type of work that can be broken down into hour-long chunks. Plus, as we tote smartphones and fire off quick emails on the fly, that does take a toll on our family lives and intrudes on the mental break we may need from our work. These two-minute tasks are no longer a side element to work, but make up a considerable chunk of it. The nature of work is changing, and perhaps the way contractors and other professionals charge people for it should change as well.

Other data worth noting from the survey includes:

• Two out of three surveyed would choose the Internet over a car.
• Two of five college students surveyed globally said the Internet is more important to them than dating, going out with friends, or listening to music.
• More than one in four college students globally (27 percent) said staying updated on Facebook was more important than partying, dating, listening to music, or hanging out with friends.
• One of every three college students and employees surveyed globally believes the Internet is a fundamental resource for the human race – as important as air, water, food and shelter. About half believe the Internet is “pretty close” to that level of importance.
• Two-thirds of students and more than half of young employees cite a mobile device (laptop, smartphone, tablet) as “the most important technology in their lives.”
• Smartphones are poised to surpass desktops as the most common tool from a global perspective, as 19 percent of college students consider smartphones as their “most important” device used on a daily basis, compared to 20 percent for desktops.

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