Las Colinas, TX - August 26, 2009 - Handango Inc., the leading provider of smartphone content globally, today announced the results of its bi-annual Handango Yardstick, a proprietary global trend index offering unique insight into the smartphone content industry
Handango Adds 550 New Content Providers in First Half of
2009
. For the first time ever,
BlackBerry displaced Windows Mobile to become the dominant platform within the
Handango smartphone content catalog, constituting 44% of all apps sold in the
first half of 2009, up from its 31% share in 2008.
In the first half of
2009, Handango added an impressive 550 content partners to its network with
almost 7,000 new applications across all categories ranging from Games, Personal
Information Management (PIM), Personalization, News and Media, Education, Travel
and Messaging.
HANDANGO'S TOP TEN - Best Sellers List (Across
Platforms) January-June 2009
1. SPB Mobile Shell 3 2.
MobiTV 3. Ringtone Megaplex 4. Aces
Texas Hold'em 5. The Weather Channel 6. SPB
Weather 7. Bejeweled 8. Alltel TV 9. Aces
Solitaire Pack 10. SPB Backuup HANDANGO' S TOP TEN GAMES (Across Platforms) January-June
2009
1. Aces Texas Hold'em 2.
Bejeweled 3. Aces Solitaire Pack 4.
Tetris 5. The Sims 2 6. Guitar Hero 3 Mobile 7.
Monopoly Here & Now 8. Tiger Woods PGA TOUR®
09 9. Jewelrumble 2 10. Sudoku Puzzle Pack
Games
continue to grow in popularity Games represented 25% of all apps sold in
the Handango category up 6% from 2008. Year-over-year, games grew 19% (H1 08 vs
H1 09). EA Mobile was the best-selling game developer for the first half of
2009. Among the notable and popular titles added to the Handango catalog are
Hell's Kitchen and The Sims 3. A special edition mid-year report on Handango's
Games category is available at http://www.handango.com/marketing/Yardstick/Yardstick_2009_1H_Games.pdf <http://www.handango.com/marketing/Yardstick/Yardstick_2009_1H_Games.pdf> . DEVELOPER HIGHLIGHTS
SPB
Software stood out from the crowd again as Handango's top performing software
developer based on both the popularity of its apps and its sales figures. Voice
control software also made a big splash in the first half of 2009, with the
addition of Vlingo to the Handango catalog.
Leading
the way for SPB Software in the first half this year was the launch of SPB
Mobile Shell 3. SPB Software has been a dominant player in the smartphone
content space for many years due to SPB Mobile Shell's runaway success. In the
past 12 months, the development house has been actively cross-marketing its
broader suite of products by using Handango merchandising tools, upgrade
campaigns, and cultivating user loyatly via e-mail and user-generated
content.
Even with
the explosive growth of BlackBerry, SPB Software chief Sebastian-Justus Schmidt
remains extremely bullish about Windows Mobile as a platform and the strong
future for those creating and distributing the type of quality, powerful mobile
apps for which SPB Software and Handango are both known. "Handango is the most
important distribution partner for SPB Software," said Schmidt recently. "They
do a great job supplying the best choice of software to end-users worldwide.
Handango is by far the most well known site for Windows Mobile software and is
always growing the market share and availability of apps for new Windows Mobile
devices."
In the
first half of 2009, Vlingo emerged as Handango's hottest newcomer. Vlingo offers
voice control software for BlackBerry, Symbian (beta), and Windows Mobile
(beta). With only one quarter of sales under its belt with Handango, Vlingo
jumped into the top 20 most popular apps in the first half of
2009.
Commenting on Vlingo's remarkable growth, Handango CEO Alex Bloom
advises developers and publishers to continue focusing on building apps that
solve problems and needs of substance in the mobile user experience. "A lot of
press has been given to the low price-point app market. And while there's
definitely a place for low price-point apps, I believe there's an even bigger
opportunity in the mobile media market for quality apps that are built to
augment personal and professional productivity, to provide rich forms of
entertainment, and to help mobile users get organized, keep fit and stay safe",
said Bloom.
PLATFORM OVERVIEW
The
Handango Yardstick is the leading Index of trends in smartphone content based on
Handango's position as the largest third party smartphone application retailer
with multiple distribution channels including: a consumer website, Handango.com,
a market leading on-device client, Handango® InHandT, more than 50 channel
partners including Microsoft, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Alltel, AT&T, and
AOL among others and operates over 1,000 content partner storefronts. The
Handango Yardstick compiles and analyzes consumer activity from each of these
channels creating a unique industry index of smartphone content trends across
leading platforms, most major devices and top distribution points. A full
version of the Handango Yardstick is available at http://www.handango.com/marketing/Yardstick/Yardstick_2009_1H.pdf<http://www.handango.com/marketing/Yardstick/Yardstick_2009_1H.pdf>
RIM
(BlackBerry)®
The
top-five best-selling applications for BlackBerryJanuary-June 2009 were: 1. Ringtone Megaplex 2. Alltel
TV 3. Aces Texas Hold'em® - No Limit 4. Aces Solitaire
Pack 5. The Weather Channel As the new dominant player on the Handango network, the
BlackBerry platform added 229 new content partners and almost 3,000 new apps in
the first half of 2009. BlackBerry accounted for 44% of all apps sold and
represented four of the top ten devices adding software by both units sold and
revenue. The Games category was the strongest with 36% of Handango's BlackBerry
sales while PIM came in second with a 19% share. Energized by its highly popular
app, eMobile Today Professional, eMobile Software Inc. emerged as the top
developer on the BlackBerry operating system and was Handango's second highest
revenue producer. eMobile Software Inc. offers an array of Personalization, PIM
phone tools, and Entertainment/Information apps for BlackBerry, Windows Mobile,
and Symbian devices. As the new dominant platform on Handango, BlackBerry now
has a special mid-year report available at http://www.handango.com/marketing/Yardstick/Yardstick_2009_1H_BB.pdf <http://www.handango.com/marketing/Yardstick/Yardstick_2009_1H_BB.pdf> . Windows Mobile®
The
top-five best-selling applications for WM Professional January-June 2009
were:
1. Spb Mobile Shell 3 2.
MobiTV 3. Spb Weather 2 4. Spb
Backup 2 5. Spb Wireless Monitor 3
The top-five best-selling applications for WM Standard in January-June 2009 were:
1. MobiTV 2. Ringtone Megaplex 3. Guitar
Hero 3 Mobile 4. HandiTV: Watch TV from mobile devices! 5. Aces
Texas Hold'em® - No Limit
Despite
the remarkable growth of BlackBerry downloads in the first half of 2009, Windows
Mobile still remains Handango's top revenue earner due to Windows Mobile
Professional's high Average Order Value of more than $20.00. Accounting for 23%
of sales, Personalization surpassed PIM -- the 2008 top category -- to become
the top category for WM paid downloads.
Palm® OS
The
top-five best-selling applications for Palm OS in January-June 2009
were:
1. Ringtone Megaplex 2.
PocketMirror Standard 3. Agendus 4. Diet
& Exercise Assistant 5. SplashID The top 5 Palm paid app searches were for free products,
ringtones, backup apps, games, and mobile email apps. Despite having no new
Palm platform phone launches in the first half of 2009, Palm sustained a healthy
volume of app downloads (paid and free).
Symbian®
The
top-five best-selling applications for Symbian January-June 2009
were:
1. ProfiMail 2. X-plore 3. Handy Weather 4. Handy Safe Pro
5. Spb Wallet 2 ProfMail remains the top selling app on the Symbian platform
for the first half of 2009. The top 5 Symbian paid searches were for themes,
GPS apps, dictionaries and PDF viewers. Handango added 1330 new Symbian titles
to its catalog along with 162 new Symbian
developers.
Android
The top-five best-selling
applications for Android January-June 2009 were:
1. Texas
Hold'Em
2. SimCity Metropolis
3. MONOPOLY Here & Now
4. SplashID
5. Bejeweled Handango nearly
tripled its Android paid app downloads for the first half of 2009 over its
year-end 2008 downloads. In Handango's Android catalog, the Games category
figures as a higher percentage of sales than it does in its other smartphone
catalogs.
About Handango Handango is the leading
provider of smartphone applications globally for the BlackBerry®, Palm®, Windows
Mobile®, Symbian OS®, and AndroidT platforms. Leveraging its 140,000+ apps,
network of 23,000+ content partners, and vast distribution network, Handango
delivers top-selling mobile applications including games, business and
entertainment apps and productivity tools to millions of consumers. Applications
can be downloaded via http://www.handango.com <http://www.handango.com/> , partner Web sites,
SD cards and Handango's proprietary on-device catalog, Handango® InHandT, the
industry's leading content delivery platform that allows consumers to purchase
mobile apps directly from their smartphone and download them over the air.
Handango's unparalleled content expertise has attracted numerous mobile industry
partners including Microsoft, AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Alltel,
Nokia, Research In Motion, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, AOL and The Carphone
Warehouse. For more information, visit http://corp.handango.com
Mobile Technology Feature - Top 10 Business Apps for Android - Android has become one of the most popular mobile operating systems
in the world due to advanced software, competitive manufacturers, and an
app market that is filled with exciting and useful applications. Read
on for this fine Top 10 List compiled by tech writer, Blake Sanders
The Really Big List of Mapping, Geo location Mobile developer resources, APIs and Tools - The Mobile Ecosystem... no question that mobile is huge and
the opportunity for developers, in particular, geo developers! There's
loads of developer resources on the web so to help the developer,
here's a listing of just some of the fine dev resources, blogs,
toolsets and more to consider when developing or porting your app to a
smartphone or Tablet.
ArcGIS.com Mashup Tutorial with Flickr and Foursquare data-
Here's a simple "how to" tutorial on working with the free ArcGIS.com
to easily import KML or RSS data from Flickr and foursquare into ArcGIS
to create your own custom map mashup. ArcGIS.com has some recent
updates including support for KML, be sure to check it out!
Most Users of Free Photo Apps Say Adding Cool Effects is Most Useful - Adding cool effects
to photos was rated as the most useful thing by more than halfof
consumers surveyed using free online photography services, according to
CatchFree a free
online service that helps people find the best free mobile and web applications
to perform useful tasks.
Amazon Kindle Fire Tablet Up Close - No Replacement for the iPad But Pretty Darned Sweet - As could be
expected, speculation and blogging is rampant with many stories and
pseudo "reviews" coming out, many of them touting the next "iPad
killer".
Mobile Developer Resource - MapQuest & The Mobile Worker - Facility management companies, surveyors, multi-level marketing,
insurance claims, pipeline companies, water utilities; all have field
workers who would benefit from mobile applications. Not only checking in
to work sites, but keeping a record of the work done
Flickr GPS Photo Tag Tip - Here's a tip for Flickr users who want to share their GPS information
with their photos. note, in order to do this you'll need to be
capturing photos using a GPS-enabled or GPS-aware camera (see you're
smartphone hardware settings to ensure that GPS or location sharing is
turned "ON)".
Mobile data usage in Canada to triple between 2010 and 2012 - Some interesting, yet not terribly surprising, numbers on mobile
usage coming out of Canada. According to a report summarized on
Techvibes, mobile usage is soaring, in particular, the smartphone
segment
Social Location Directory
Do you have a location-aware application, social location service or other location-sensitive service that you'd like to share with us? Please browse this growing directory of Social location Services and feel free to leave a link to your favorite service! See the Directory HERE
Suggested Reading
The Underground Guide To The iPhone:
The iPhone is – if I may say so – one of the greatest mobile
revolutions of the past decade. More and more, mobile phones seem to
materialize out of our wildest dreams. Because of the tight integration
of third-party applications, you can do nearly everything with your
device — be it gaming, working, fooling around, and of course phoning.
Good Mobile Messaging: Executives and professional field forces spend an increasing amount of time on the road tending to business.
Mobile Apps - Native or Web?:
You probably have a plan to build a mobile app, but you've struggled
with the basic question - Should I build it using open web standards
such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, or should I build it as a native app
for the devices I want to target?
iBike Coach App- a new “Always On” feature always gathers data
Nike+ GPS App- for sports tracking, recording and sharing
Featured Events
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will give you key insights on how in-vehicle connectivity is being
revolutionised as OEMs integrate dynamic content to stay relevant
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