Wallapop review: the virtual flea market app for Android

Wallapop review: the virtual flea market app for Android

Scott Adam Gordon 2015-04-20T17:00:00Z2 weeks ago Scott Adam Gordon Originally from the UK, Scott graduated in Popular Music Studies at Newcastle University and attributes most of his success there to his beloved Samsung Galaxy S2. He has written for a market research company and video game website, but now only wishes to voice his opinion on the greatest open source project of all time! That's Android. Scott has never owned an Apple device, of any kind, and doesn't see this changing anytime soon.

Wallapop is a free “virtual flea market” where you can buy and sell items?to people in your area. Following the likes of Gumtree and, of course, eBay, does this app have something to set it apart from the others? Find out in our Wallapop review.

c ANDROIDPIT Good?? ?Intuitive search feature?Cuts out the middle man?Geo-based local offers around users?Huge potentialBad?? ?Could have more buyer security

The Wallapop format is simple to understand and easy to use. After you download the app, you register (or log in via Facebook or Gmail) and you can start buying and selling items straight away.

The interesting thing about Wallapop is that items are searched for based on location. You are given a scrolling list of items for sale in your area, and the further down the list you go, the wider the radius of sellers becomes.

Having a search radius which automatically widens as you scroll down is in an intuitive feature, and I don’t know why it isn’t present in more apps or services. Changing the radius of searches manually seems clumsy now when measured against the efficiency of the Wallapop search. It displays the current search area in a?subtle section at the top of the app.

The general search interface can be seen on the left, and product page to the right. / c ANDROIDPIT

While this search function is helpful, it is currently difficult to find specific items. There is a dedicated search feature, but with so few people currently selling (despite the app having been downloaded more than 3?million times), the app works more like a yard sale for impulse buys than somewhere to go for something specific.

That being said, you can pick up some bargains here and there,?but beware -?the ease-of-use of the app does open itself up to some unexpected pricing. While scrolling through items for this review, I found a microwave for 35 USD, which seemed like a fair price. But then this was followed by?somebody listing 'Nothing' for?$1. Yes,?somebody was selling nothing for actual money. I’m not saying that $1 isn’t cheap for something -?it’s just a bit expensive for nothing.

There can be some bargains to find in Wallapop, but be careful where people ask for online payment instead of in person. / c ANDROIDPIT

Wallapop does a good job of helping buyers and sellers interact, with a dedicated instant messaging feature. Here you can instantly contact any seller directly, and it’s a useful function if you have any questions or wish to meet up with the seller to see/discuss the item in person. In this way Wallapop?acts as a hassel-free way to connect two people for the exchange.?Wallapop also offers geo-based local offers around its users and?provides?a?'social shopping' experience - useful?ways that?connect?buyers with sellers, along with making the purchasing experience easier.

You don’t need to worry about delivery times,?return?troubles or seller fees because you can meet up. Just?check out the product?and take it home if you want. This is?great for cutting out the middle-man;?it means you don’t need to exchange numbers or any other information, and it’s one of the major successes of the app. ?

It's best to do some research into the products you're interested in before deciding to buy them. / c ANDROIDPIT

Private PayPal or bank transfers can be arranged between two people, of course,?but there is no guarantee that the item will ever be dispatched.?Also, the feedback system is somewhat lacking within the app, with very few ratings given, and this means that it is possible you could pay for something online and it would never be delivered.?

The app takes no learning. There are no fancy/needless gestures, all it takes is simple swipes.

Wallapop is fast during use, but it’s also prone to bugs. Sometimes images won’t load, or searches will fail to produce any results. Thankfully the developers update it often.

The app is free, and if you get some bargains, it will be absolutely worth a download.?

Some of the search categories (left) and a listing for one of my sponges which I was selling. / c ANDROIDPIT

The strength of this app ultimately lies in its users. The more sellers it has, the more exciting it would be.?I’ve got no doubt that this could be a really?impressive and useful app when?a bigger?user-base arrives.?As it is, without a large selection of products, and?some kind of "buyer protection" in place, it feels like it could be improved.

That being said, if you're careful,?the critical app functionality is definitely there to be enjoyed. You will be able to find some interesting products, save some money, and even make some, with an easy-to-use app. Download Wallapop for free today from the Play Store.?

No comparable apps are currently known to us. If you happen to know one, it would be great if you could get in touch with us.

( Labels: Android, Market, Review, virtual, Wallapop ) Read more

The iOS and Android Two-Horse Race: A Deeper Look into Market Share

The iOS and Android Two-Horse Race: A Deeper Look into Market Share

Posted by Mary Ellen Gordon, PhD on Thu, Jun 06, 2013

Over the past four years, Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android have been locked into a two horse race for mobile OS ownership. In the past year, there has been a lot of focus on the rise of Android and its lead in device market share. More recently, many analysts started questioning the true value of Android’s market share especially in the high-end smart phone and tablet markets. At Flurry, we felt that it was important to take a step back and look beyond straight device or activation numbers to simply understand what market or markets are being contested.?

In this report we do just that, arguing that there is more than one race for mobile market share occurring simultaneously. We analyzed four years worth of Flurry’s data to understand who is ahead in which contests, discuss the apparent strengths and weaknesses of the competitors, and consider the implications for the overall mobile ecosystem.

It is clear from announcements from device manufacturers such as Apple and Samsung that Android is winning the race for device market share. Flurry’s own data supports this. The number of Android devices we are tracking worldwide doubled in the past year, reaching 564 million as of April of 2013. While the installed base of iOS devices that we track has also grown over that time, Android pulled ahead in active device share in late 2012 and has maintained that position ever since. This is shown in the chart below. This lead followed a period of just over a year in which the number one spot was changing hands. Prior to that Apple dominated the connected device market following the launch of first iPhone and then iPad. Approximate launch dates of some of the major iOS and Android devices are also shown on the chart as points of reference.

In spite of Android’s rapid rise and current lead in device market share, iOS continues to lead in terms of time spent in apps. Total time in Android apps nearly equaled that in iOS apps in March of 2012, but it has declined somewhat since then, after the launch of the 3rd generation iPad.?

Considering that there are more active Android devices than iOS devices but iOS users collectively spend more time in apps, it’s not surprising that more time per device is spent in iOS apps than in Android apps. The exact proportion of time spent in apps per Android device relative to iOS devices is shown below.

An obvious question that arises when looking at the charts above is why app usage shares don’t follow device shares. We think there are at least three possible explanations.

One is that at least up until now the two dominant operating systems have tended to attract different types of users. Once Apple established the app ecosystem many of the consumers who purchased iOS devices were doing so to be able to run apps on those devices. They were buying a computer that fit in their pocket or purse. In contrast, many Android devices were provided free by carriers to contract customers upgrading feature phones. To the extent that those customers were just buying replacement phones, apps may be a nice add-on, but not a central feature of the device.?

A second possible reason for why Android’s share of the app market lags its share in the device market is that the fragmented nature of the Android ecosystem creates greater obstacles to app development and therefore limits availability of app content. Hundreds of different device models produced by many manufacturers run the Android operating system. App developers not only need to ensure that their apps display and function well on all of those devices, but they also need to contend with the fact that most devices are running an old version of Android because the processes for pushing Android updates out to the installed base of Android devices are not nearly as efficient as those for pushing iOS updates to iOS device owners.?

The final possible explanation for the differences in device and app usage shares relates to the first two. It is that the arguably larger and richer ecosystem of apps that exists for iOS feeds on itself. iOS device owners use apps so developers create apps for iOS users and that in turn generates positive experiences, word-of-mouth, and further increases in app use.?

While app share and device share are two key races in the competition for mobile supremacy, they are not the only races. Another that has been in the news recently is the race for profits, in which Apple is the clear leader. Apple also currently appears to be winning the race for developer attention – probably both because of its share of app usage as described above and because both surveys and anecdotal evidence indicate that iOS?device owners?tend to generate greater advertising and in app purchase revenue.

A side race that Android appears to be winning is that for the emerging world, where its lower prices and open architecture give it an advantage. Apple has taken notice of that and is fighting back with incentives, monthly payment plans and cash backs in several emerging countries. In India, for example, a Times of India article suggests that these programs have given the iPhone a 400% boost in sales in the past few months. ?

As we’ve shown, there are multiple contests for mobile market share occurring simultaneously. That raises a question about whether that is a temporary state that will eventually give way to a clear overall winner or if there can be multiple long-term winners. For the moment it seems as though the consumer is winning in that they are able to choose devices from two dominant ecosystems as well as several smaller ecosystems.

View the original article here

( Labels: Android, Deeper, Market, Share, TwoHorse ) Read more

The South Korea Report: Device and App Trends in The First Saturated Device Market

The South Korea Report: Device and App Trends in The First Saturated Device Market

Posted by Mary Ellen Gordon, PhD on Mon, Oct 14, 2013

In August of this year Flurry Analytics measured 33,527,534 active smartphones and tablets in South Korea. While that was only 2.8% of the entire worldwide connected device installed base Flurry measures, South Korea is an important market for connected devices for several reasons. First, it is the first connected device market in the world to approach saturation. Second, it is Samsung’s home market, and largely as a consequence of that, more of the devices in use there are manufactured by domestic firms than is the case for any other country. Finally, it is home to more phablet fans than anywhere else.

Worldwide the installed base of connected devices measured by Flurry grew by 81% between August of 2012 and August of 2013, whereas growth for South Korea during the same time period was only 17%. It was a different story just a couple of years ago. During late 2011 and early 2012, the South Korean connected device market grew more rapidly than the worldwide market, as shown by the divergence of the black line from the red in the chart below. This was the period during which Samsung introduced the Galaxy Note. It was the first successful ‘phablet’, enabling Samsung to capture two-thirds of the South Korean mobile phone market, and driving rapid growth in that market. As shown in the graph, that growth has slowed markedly in the past year or so, and has even been negative in some months. That implies that the South Korean connected device market either already is, or will soon be, the first in the world to reach saturation. As such, it provides a good early indicator of what other markets can expect once the rapid growth period the mobile market has experienced over the past few years ends.

Even as growth in its domestic market has slowed, Samsung continues to dominate the South Korean connected device market. It had a 60% share of a random sample of 3,124 of the devices in our system in South Korea that run iOS or Android apps. Between them, two other South Korean device manufacturers, LG and Pantech, had another 25% of the market, meaning that the vast majority of the smartphones and tablets being used in South Korea (85% of the devices in our sample) are manufactured in South Korea. That dominance of local manufacturers is unique in the world now that Apple’s share of the US market, Blackberry’s share of the Canadian market, and Nokia’s share of the market in Finland have all weakened.

Given that South Korea’s rapid period of connected device growth was ushered in by the phablet, it is perhaps not surprising that it continues to surpass the rest of the world in its preference for that form factor. As shown below, in a worldwide sample of 97,963 iOS and Android devices, only 7% were phablets, but for South Korea that percentage was 41%. The appeal of phablets in South Korea appears to suppress the tablet market there. Worldwide, 19% of the devices in our sample were tablets compared to only 5% in South Korea.

Games are the most popular app category in South Korea, as they are in much of the rest of the world. SK Planet's T Store, the largest app store in South Korea, provided data to Flurry showing that 68% of its revenue from apps plus other digital content comes from games. On average, their gaming customers generate ?5,657 (~U.S. $5.27) per user per month in gaming revenue alone compared to an overall average of ?3,135 (~U.S. $2.92) per user per month in revenue across all forms of digital content for all customers.

Social networking accounts for a significant share of app activity in South Korea, as it does in many other countries. Tool apps are used heavily by South Korean Android users, and entertainment apps capture a lot of time spent in iOS apps.

Compared to app users elsewhere, South Koreans over-index on Entertainment apps on iOS and several Android app categories (Media / Video, Photography, Lifestyle, Shopping, and Tools).

As in the U.S., the vast majority of apps used in South Korea – 96% of those available through the T Store – are free.

The fact that the South Korean connected device market is saturated (or very close to being saturated) makes it an interesting test case for considering the future of the connected device market worldwide. What happens once more or less everyone who is likely to is carrying at least one smartphone or tablet?

One area to keep an eye on is new uses for connected devices, such as mobile payments. South Korea is a world leader in mobile payments – probably in part because of the prevalence of NFC-enabled devices. For example, SK Planet has a mobile payment system called T Cash, which is used for 54% of in app purchases, and also can be used to pay for off-device transactions such as train and taxi fares. Interestingly, another third of in app purchases are paid for using gift certificates, demonstrating the potential of mobile devices as a mechanism for giving and receiving gifts. It doesn’t seem like a big leap for that to go from in app purchases to physical goods that could be delivered or picked up with the mobile device used for authentication. Already merchants in South Korea are using tablets to manage payments, inventory, and even promotion.

Another area to watch is interoperability across connected devices. The fact that Samsung manufactures smartphones, tablets, and connected TVs (as well as other consumer electronics that are becoming part of the Internet of things) makes it well-positioned to better integrate those devices and the content that runs on them. With Samsung being so dominant in South Korea and that market being so well developed for connected devices, it is a logical test market for products and services that take advantage of that type of cross-device integration.

Download The South Korea Report with additional data

View the original article here

( Labels: Device, First, Korea, Market, Report, Saturated, South, Trends ) Read more

The New Global App Market

The New Global App Market

Posted by Mary Ellen Gordon, PhD on Thu, Feb 21, 2013

Flurry recently revealed that China’s installed base of smartphones and tablets surpassed that of the United States. Further, two thirds of all app sessions now occur outside the United States. With the app market becoming increasingly international, developers need to better understand how app consumer behavior varies across different countries to remain competitive.

This report focuses on how the top 30 heaviest app using countries vary in terms of app usage. As developers build apps for the largest international markets, they need to consider deviating from what has worked in the United States, the former number one market. Can developers simply localize for different markets, or are there meaningful cultural differences in app usage to consider? How different is behavior in China and India, the world’s two most populous countries?

For this study, Flurry grouped countries according to their similarity in app category usage using cluster analysis. Cluster analysis is a statistical technique that creates groupings based on associations; in this case, among the proportions of app users who use different categories of apps. This technique controlled for differences in populations, device penetration rates and app store taxonomies. We ran this analysis for the top 20,000 apps in the 30 heaviest app using countries as of January 2013. For purposes of this report, we focus on app categories used by at least 5% of app users in at least one country cluster. We also excluded social networking, since use of those apps tends to be more country-specific.

Membership in the resulting country clusters are discussed next, followed by a description of some of the differences in app engagement across country clusters.

The cluster analysis process produced six country groupings shown in the map below and the country list that follows.

As shown in the map above, the first group of countries in blue is made up of countries that tended to be early adopters of mobile technologies.

The second category, in purple, is comprised of the most hyper-connected parts of Asia: South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

China and Japan had app usage patterns that were unique to them, making each country its own cluster.

Most of the countries in green are neighbors in South East Asia; however, app usage patterns across the Pacific in Mexico also put it in that same category.

The final category, in yellow, includes many large countries, such as Brazil, Russia and India as well as smaller but influential countries such as Switzerland and Israel. Besides sharing similarities in app usage, these countries tend to have lagged behind the Mobile Pioneer and Connected Asia countries in adopting mobile technologies.

Countries shown in gray were not included in the analysis because they are not among the 30 heaviest app using countries.

The chart below shows the proportion of app users who used apps within each of the gaming categories shown, as defined in Google Play, during January 2013.

Overall, games are the most-used types of apps in each country cluster, with the biggest Android game category being Arcade and Action games for all country clusters. While Android game categories follow a similar rank ordering across country clusters, there is clear variation between clusters. For example, compared to app users in Japan, almost twice the proportion of app users in the Equatorial Pacific country cluster use Android Arcade and Action games. And while countries in the Mobile Pioneers’ cluster are among the most enthusiastic users of Casual Games and Brain and Puzzle Games, they are less enthusiastic users of Arcade and Action games compared to those in most other country clusters.?

The chart below shows similar data for iOS apps within each of the gaming categories as defined by the Apple App Store.?Please note that these classifications have changed over time and that games are assigned to categories by developers; however those things are common to all countries and therefore should not, on their own, result in differences between countries.

Once again, note that the main Games category attracts a large proportion of people who use any iOS apps, and that the Equatorial Pacific has the greatest proportion of users and Japan has the least though the differences are not as great for iOS as they are for Android. It’s interesting to note that while Japan tends to lag the other country clusters in the proportion of device users engaging with most game app categories, the country that gave us karaoke leads in the proportion of app users who use iOS Music Games.

While Japanese app users are disproportionately unlikely to play most types of games (with the exception of music, as noted above), they are disproportionately likely to use productivity and utility apps. Chinese app users are also disproportionately heavy users of these more functional types of apps.

?

Hobbies often associated with Japan came through in app usage for music games, and also in use of lifestyle-oriented apps in terms of Japanese enthusiasm for photography. Japanese device owners are more likely than device owners in other country clusters to engage with photography apps on both iOS and Android devices. Entertainment categories within both app stores are fairly broad so it’s not entirely clear why, but those from China and the Lumbering Giant country clusters are disproportionately heavy users of Entertainment apps on both of the major mobile operating systems.?

While this analysis only scratches the surface of variation in usage of 20,000 apps across more than 800 million devices being used in 30 different countries, it shows systematic variation across country clusters even at a high level. This has important implications considering the great potential for growth of connected devices and app use in countries and country groupings such as China and the Lumbering Giants, given their large populations and relatively low current rate of device penetration. App usage patterns in those places don’t always mirror those in Mobile Pioneer countries, which up until now have been the source of a lot of app development. For example, productivity and utility apps are more popular in China and Japan than they are in the United States. Differences such as these suggest that app developers in Mobile Pioneer countries may need to give greater consideration to the usage patterns and preferences of those in other countries or else that we may see growing app developer communities in some of those other countries.

View the original article here

( Labels: Global, Market ) Read more

Flurry Five-Year Report: It’s an App World. The Web Just Lives in It

Flurry Five-Year Report: It’s an App World. The Web Just Lives in It

Five years ago, the iPhone ushered in the era of mobile computing. Today, more than a billion consumers are “glued” to these devices and their applications, impacting nearly every aspect of their lives. For businesses, opportunities seem endless and disruption is everywhere. The list of disrupted industries is long, including communications, media and entertainment, logistics, education and healthcare, just to name a few.

( Labels: Android, Market ) Read more

The Rise of the App & Mortar Economy

The Rise of the App & Mortar Economy

Retail is among the world’s largest industries. The top 10 global retailers are made up of 5 from the U.S. and 5 from Europe, collectively driving annual revenue in excess of $1.1 trillion. The U.S. Commerce Department estimates that U.S. domestic revenue exceeded $4.7 trillion in 2011 and is growing. Two thirds of the U.S. GDP, the world’s leading economy, comes from retail consumption.?

( Labels: Android, Economy, Market ) Read more

China Knocks Off U.S. to Become World's Top Smart Device Market

China Knocks Off U.S. to Become World's Top Smart Device Market

Just days into the Chinese New Year (Year of the “Snake” for anyone keeping track), China has passed the U.S. to become the world’s top country for active Android and iOS smartphones and tablets. This historic milestone takes place a year after Flurry first reported that China had become the world’s fastest growing smart device market. Since then, it took China’s rapidly growing middle class just twelve months to close the gap on the U.S.

( Labels: Android, China, Device, Knocks, Market, Smart, Worlds ) Read more

For Generating App Revenue, Amazon Shows Google How to Play

For Generating App Revenue, Amazon Shows Google How to Play

The economic boom created by Apple and Google through their iOS and Android platforms has precipitated a renaissance among entrepreneurial developers.? With some of the lowest barriers to entry in the history of software development and distribution, apps are getting built and downloaded at breakneck speeds.? Earlier this month, Apple crossed a record 25 billion downloads from more than 550,000 available apps.? Google announced in December 2011 that it had crossed 10 billion downloads from 400,000 available apps.

( Labels: Amazon, Android, Google, Market, Revenue, Shows ) Read more

Christmas 2012 Shatters More Smart Device and App Download Records

Christmas 2012 Shatters More Smart Device and App Download Records

More iOS and Android devices are activated on Christmas Day than on any other day of the year. This year was no exception. On this Christmas Day 2012, more iPhones, iPads, Galaxys, Kindle Fires, and more, were activated than on any other day in history.?Moreover, as soon as we could tear the wrapping paper off our cool new devices, we started downloading a record volume of apps. ?Let’s get into the numbers.

( Labels: Android, Christmas, Device, Download, Market, Records, Smart ) Read more

Electric Technology, Apps and The New Global Village

Electric Technology, Apps and The New Global Village

Marshall McLuhan popularized the idea of the “global village” in the 1960s through his books The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of the Typographic Man
and Understanding Media.?? McLuhan, who is credited with predicting the concept of the Internet decades before it actually existed, described the instantaneous movement of information from every quarter to every point at the same time, enabled by electric technology.? The result is that the globe contracts into a village.

( Labels: Android, Electric, Global, Market, Technology, Village ) Read more