According to two firms who track iTunes App Store data, Apple’s App Store has reached a very significant milestone.  Even though the App market place for iTunes has only been in existence for 3 years, the Store has surpassed a quarter of a million applications that are available.

The website 148apps.biz today announced that as of Friday, the App Store is now passed 250,000 applications, just a mere 2 years and 49 days after the App Store was launched.

What kind of content is the most popular in the App Store?  Books now have overtaken games as the biggest group of content in the App Store, taking up 17% of all content available in the market.  Another interesting statistic, 70% of all apps in the App Store are paid.

If you’re an iPad user, you’ll be happy to know that this iconic tablet device has more than 25,000 apps for it, representing a very healthy ecosystem for this new class of portable computing device.

Justin from Mobile Marketing Watch points out that with the 250,000 apps now available, the overall count of all apps in all app stores (Android Market, Palm Store, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry App World) is now about 500,000.

So – how many applications is too many?  Have we reached saturation yet?  This is an interesting discussion that I hope draws some healthy debate.

I feel that if you have an interesting application idea, don’t let these figures deter you.  Develop it and market it to the best of your ability!  Get it out there and let the market decide whether it flies, or fails!

Hurrah!

Here in the United States, we have two GSM phone carriers, T-Mobile USA and AT&T.  Unfortunately for consumers, these two carriers have 3G bands that are not compatible, so T-Mobile phones cannot be used on 3G on AT&T and vice versa.  GSM voice calls and text messaging of course work, but high speed data don’t work when you swap SIMs.

Recently Samsung released their Galaxy S line of phones.  AT&T has the Captivate and T-Mobile has a similar model called the Vibrant.  The models are the same in terms of specifications, but the Vibrant wins in the looks department and most reviewers have favored the Vibrant.

In some recent news, two interesting bits came out regarding these phones. Both phones can easily been unlocked by working with a file on the phones file system.  Turns out, the unlock code is stored on this .BAK file; so you have no reason to call T-Mobile technical support and beg for this code.

In another fun development, it turns out that the Vibrant can run on AT&T’s 3G bands.  This means that AT&T customers, if they choose, can use the Samsung Vibrant to it’s full capability.  However, the Samsung Captivate can make voice calls and SMS on T-Mobile, but 3G speeds are not possible.

So, Vibrant users, rejoice!  If you’re unhappy with T-Mobile and think AT&T is right for you – you can switch if you feel comfortable doing a bit of hacking.

[Original source: Engadget]

There is no doubt that to be successful as a phone maker these days, the major players including Nokia, RIM, Apple, Google and Microsoft are seeing that app stores are almost as important as the phones themselves.  If there aren’t numerous and attractive application marketplaces for your phones, consumers will go elsewhere when they buy a phone.

In that vein, two phone makers, Research and Motion and Nokia, recently made acquisitions that will make their app stores and developer ecosystem be more attractive to mobile developers.

For RIM, they recently acquired Cellmania, a firm which makes infrastructure for app developers to distribute their apps in marketplaces.  If there is one thing that RIM needs right now, is help getting its BlackBerry App World more attractive to developers.  The Android Market and iTunes App Store get all the focus and RIM is a huge potential market for app developers.

In another move, Nokia bought Motally, a US based mobile analytics firm.  Motally provides metrics that help developers and content publishers gauge user engagement.  Motally’s tools can help developers see how users interact with content by providing carriers, user location, most commonly user phones and application usage.

Nokia will take Motally’s tools in to it’s Qt framework, making this cross-platform programming language more attractive right before it’s release in a wide manner.

Developers, Developers, Developers

As you can see, mobile phone makers are making acquisitions to provide application makers the tools they need to develop and market their applications.  As can be seen by Android and iTunes, who have done this well already, there is a lot of room to improve.

A recent study gave RIM the most upward momentum when it comes to the North American market.  This is because of the large userbase BlackBerry has and the unrealized potential of the BlackBerry App World.  The BlackBerry user class is mainly enterprise, and there is a huge amount of enterprise applications that have yet to be developed.

Are you a mobile developer – which factors do the existing application markets make them attractive?  Where are the markets failing?

Gnomedex is a great summer event where 400 social media types, new media producers, and anyone interested in technology confer upon Seattle for a 2 day conference.  Gnomedex, hosted by Chris Pirillo, is a unique conference in that it is a one-track event and everyone is in the same room all experiencing the same presentations and talking about them actively in real-time.

Topics range from technology to society and everywhere in between.  We’ve watched a Mars Rover Driver from NASA talk and have also helped raise money to send a woman residing in a third world country to college with Beth Kanter.

This will be my fourth Gnomedex and this year I’m glad to have a Taptu friend joining me, Benjamin Southworth.  So, this year, there will be two Taptu-ans in Seattle mixing and mingling, trying to make new friends and learn something new.

If you’re at the conference, look for us!  Can’t wait to see everyone in Seattle!

Adobe, the prolific software maker for desktop computers, recently released a report that gave us more insight in the mobile apps versus mobile web debate.  According to Adobe, 80% of respondents are planning or have already deployed a mobile-friendly website.  For comparison, only 8 percent said they were interested in mobile applications.

It must be pointed out (as Mobile Marketing Watch does) that Adobe has a dog in this fight – the company’s mobile initiatives are enhanced by mobile web adoption, but the company asked 446 respondents in the Scene7 Rich Mobile Commerce Survey.

What is driving mobile strategy?  Most of those who responded said promotions and driving sales, especially in retail channels.

The survey can be downloaded here, but it goes to show that mobile is a hot space to be in.  With more mobile users opting for smartphones and expecting rich mobile experiences, marketers and retailers are continuing to see mobile devices as a new way to reach users and drive sales.   This is why only 18 percent utilize rich visualization features, but a whipping 81% plan to do so in the near future.

The last tidbit, regarding “rich visualization features” says Flash to me.  This is Adobe pitching their own technology through this survey.  While I agree more vendors and producers will look to deploy rich internet content on the mobile web, Adobe might be surprised that sites opt to use other video or rich media technologies such as HTML5 and/or Silverlight.  Silverlight is available now for Microsoft’s Windows Phone and Symbian,

Those looking for rich experiences on mobile – which technologies are you planning on employing?

Wapedia for Android is one of our most popular products.  Ever since this application was released, the Android audience have received it well and it consistently gets good reviews and positive press.

One of the areas we routinely get feedback on is the inclusion of ads on the Wapedia screen.  We have to run ads because developing software has an actual cost to it, and ads help us recoup some of this cost on Wapedia, which is free in the Android market.  However, our community has proposed offering a paid version of Wapedia  that is free of ads.

To that audience, we are proud to announce the availability of the Wapedia AdFree Plug-In.  This plug-in is available now live in the Market and is priced at £1.79, which is less than $3 US.  So for less than 3 bucks, you can do away with the ads in your Wapedia browsing experience.

We hope you find the plug-in useful and that it meets your needs.  Keep in mind that the plug-in requires that Wapedia is already installed.  The plug-in itself is not a full version of Wapedia.

So – go out and get it!  Search for Wapedia AdFree Plugin in the Android Market and enjoy.

When you want to contact someone using your mobile device, do you default to calling or texting that person?

According to a recent Washington Post article, your age will affect your decision regarding what communication method you utilize on your mobile phone.

According to the article, younger cell phone users are much more apt to use SMS than to call.  In fact, youth find calling an annoying way to use their phones and find it intrusive when their phone rings.  Looking at numbers, In the 18 to 34 years old age bracket, the amount of minutes used per month has declined from 1200 minutes to 900 minutes over the past 2 years. Meanwhile, the number of text messages has cone from 600 per month to 1400 in the same time frame.

The article goes on to say that youngsters find phone calls to be impolite, even more impolite than the beep of an incoming text message.  Alternatively, one college students says he uses text messaging to arrange a specific time for a call; which is actually a habit I can get behind.

For parents, youth report that they don’t actually listen to your voicemails.  So, if you want your teenager to call you back, just simply text them and say it.  Or if you *have* to leave a voicemail; just quickly say it. 

My question for you dear readers: is this age gap thoroughly truthful?  Are there any younger cell phone users who prefer calling their contacts?  Any old timers who hate it when their phones ring?  I look forward to the comments!

(Photo Credit: Flickr user sean dreilinger)