Google Nexus 6 review: still the biggest, but is it the best?

Google Nexus 6 review: still the biggest, but is it the best?

Loie Favre 2015-03-30T14:00:00Z1 month ago Loie Favre Loie Favre found her way to her present passion for Android and smartphone technology after experiencing an epiphany when she held her Galaxy Note 2. From that point onwards, you can find her with her nose buried in countless Android apps and different smartphone models, and thanking her lucky stars that she gets to work at something she loves.

Ever since the Galaxy Nexus appeared on the scene, Nexus phones have been associated with exceptional value for money, and flagship quality. The?Nexus 6?bucked that?trend a bit, with a lofty price tag and a six-inch screen that was beautiful, but too big for many peoples' hands.?Our initial skeptical feelings towards the Nexus 6 were eventually quite positive, as we gave it a four-star review when it was released. But several months on, and with fierce competition in the form of the Samsung Galaxy S6 and HTC One M9, does it still stand strong among flagship smartphones? Read our updated Google Nexus 6 review to find out.

c ANDROIDPIT Good?? ?Huge screen (for big hands)?Stereo speakers?Quality camera?Great battery lifeBad?? ?Huge screen (for small hands)?Problems with wireless Nexus charging dock?Relatively dark display, with slight pink hue at lowest brightness

The Nexus 6 price is higher than previous Nexus phones when they first came out. It?is available to buy now in the US and UK at Amazon, the Play Store and Motorola, and other outlets. The 32 GB variant costs 649 USD, while the 64 GB version costs 699 USD (￡499 and ￡549 in the UK, respectively). It's available in Cloud White and Midnight Blue colors.?

US

The Nexus 6 looks like an oversized Moto X (2014), which may leave some thinking that Motorola took a bit of a shortcut on the design. But let's not nitpick -?the Moto X is a wonderfully-designed phone, and the Nexus 6 is well-crafted and?feels great to hold. It has?an elegant yet practical?design thanks to the slightly rounded back.

The back side in convex and gets thinner near the bottom, which makes it lie comfortably in the hand. / c ANDROIDPIT

Then there is the matter of the size. The Nexus 6 is so big that?you could even hide a?Galaxy Note 4?behind it. The phone is definitely not great for people with small hands, and even a relatively big-handed person like me had to get used to it. Top-of-the-phone tasks like pulling down the notifications bar and tapping the Google search bar will most likely require the use of a second hand.?This should be clear to all those who are considering buying the Nexus 6, but I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I acclimatized to its large size, which also?has obvious usability advantages - typing, greater precision with navigation, bigger text etc.

In this picture, it's quite apparent how much bigger the Nexus 6 is compared to the Nexus 5. / c ANDROIDPIT

The raised stereo speakers unfortunately attract?dust particles and dirt, and the?display suffered from the same slight stickiness as?the?Nexus 5. ?On the plus side, the Nexus 6 is more resistant to fingerprints than its predecessor, so at least the screen stays looking fresh even if it could feel a bit better.

The backside with the reputed font: the letters don't peel off either. / c ANDROIDPIT

Also, worrying rumors about the letters on the back of the Nexus 6 peeling off proved unfounded in our review. We gave them a good scratching and rubbing (no scalpels were involved), and the letters stayed visible and in place. So there's another malicious Nexus 6 rumor quashed.

Google and Motorola planted a 6-inch AMOLED display with QHD (2,560 x 1,440) resolution on the Nexus 6, with?a pixel density of 493 PPI. Individual pixels could only be distinguished with a magnifying glass and even then they are hard to make out. The text is razor sharp, colors vibrant yet not oversaturated.

The maximum brightness is slightly?darker on the Nexus 6 than other smartphones. When placing the Nexus 5 next to the Nexus 6, with both displays at 100% brightness, the predecessor was clearly brighter. That said, I had no?issues reading the screen in the bright outdoors nor in any other scenarios thanks to the well-functioning auto-brightness.

Pure whites?on the screen have the slightest pink hue, though not enough to be a distraction to the casual observer. For a pricey flagship phone however, you don't expect such niggles - however minor - and in this regard the Nexus 6 falls just short of the flagship competition.

Sharp colors: the Nexus 6 has a nice, big display with only a few weaknesses. / c ANDROIDPIT

There was some talk of screen burn-in among certain users, but we didn't manage to reproduce this, so as far as we know these were just isolated incidents.

The Nexus 6 supports Qi wireless charging, if you buy?a Qi charging dock seperately. This feature worked well with the?Nexus 5, which was magnetically attached to its official?charging dock and didn’t budge when the phone vibrated.?Unfortunately, the curved back on the Nexus 6 means it?has issues laying on flat surfaces, so when it received messages while lying on the dock,?it would steadily rotate as it vibrated. This is also due to the fact that the magnetic docking function of the Nexus 5 is missing with the Nexus 6.?

The aluminium frame gives the Nexus 6 a classy look. / c ANDROIDPIT

The Nexus 6 comes with a Turbo Charger cable, which delivers on its promise to deliver a six-hour charge in just 15 minutes.

The Nexus 6 comes with?stock Android 5.0 Lollipop, and is first in line to receive the latest OS updates.?Lollipop is the biggest update in the history of Android and brings with it many functional and visual changes.

The Nexus 6 comes with Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box, and the stock Android user interface. / c ANDROIDPIT

A new software feature which is for now exclusive to the Nexus 6, is called the Ambient Display, which displays important notifications in black-and-white?as soon as you receive them or pick up your phone (similarly to Moto Display on the Moto X). The feature is extremely practical, because?all you need to do is reach your hand towards the devices for the notifications to appear. It does, however, replace the trusty LED light on the front of your phone, which is a bit disappointing. The Nexus 6 does actually have an RGB LED light, but it's disabled unless you do a bit of software tweaking to the phone.

The Nexus 6 runs buttery smooth, which is to be expected with?its powerful specs.?Apps start?quickly, animations are?silky, and most games can be played without any jitters (which is exceptionally fun on a 6-inch screen). Having said that, the QHD resolution is much more demanding than 1080p?and this was noticeable now and again, especially with very demanding games, which inevitably run less smoothly than on Full HD screens. This problem isn't unique to the Nexus 6 though, as other?QHD devices like the LG G3, Galaxy Note 4, and even the Galaxy S6 suffer from the same symptoms.

Nexus 6 in the AnTuTu Benchmark test. / c ANDROIDPIT

The stereo speakers on the Nexus 6?look and sound great. They're loud and crisp (as smartphone speakers go), but please don't?get carried away using them on trains and buses - unless you're surrounded by audio enthusiasts, no one will appreciate their sound in the way that you do. When you start hitting parks in the summer with your friends though, then the Nexus 6 speakers will serve you well.

Reception and voice quality on the Nexus 6 get straight full marks. On the same network as the Nexus 5, ?the Nexus 6 would sometimes get three bars of signal where its predecessor would only get one. Phone calls sounded crystal clear, with no background noise or other nasty interference getting in the way. With the incoming Android 5.1 update, Google has also promised to include HD audio calls, which should further boost phone call quality.

The 13MP camera in the?Nexus 6 takes great pictures. Pictures taken in low light conditions have very little noise and the amount of detail is satisfactory. Sometimes the camera needed a little longer to focus, but otherwise?there is very little to complain about. We didn't notice any?advantages to the ring-shaped Dual LED flash on the phone, with flashed pictures not looking any better or worse than on other phones.

The Nexus 6 camera with its dual LED ring. / c ANDROIDPIT

Take a look at our image gallery to see the results of our camera test.

Blasting away all worries that a massive 6-inch display would be a battery drain, the 3220 mAh battery on the Nexus 6 ?ensures that you'll?have more than enough juice to get through the day. During my testing, I took countless pictures, watched videos, listened to music,?and surfed the internet. After about 27 hours of use, the battery was down to 17% with the display having bee?active for three hours. The Nexus 6 isn’t as long-lasting as the Sony Xperia Z3,?but at least you?won’t have to worry that the battery will be drained after just half a day's use.

Nexus 6 battery consumption: you can manually adjust the screen time on. / c ANDROIDPIT Model:Sorry, not yet available! Dimensions:159.26 x 82.98 x 10.06 mmScreen:2560 x 1440 pixels (493 ppi)Android version:5.0 - LollipopRemovable storage:Not availableChipset:Qualcomm Snapdragon 805Connectivity:HSPA, LTE, NFC, Bluetooth 4.1

Google and Motorola pushed the bar way up for future Nexus phones, with the Nexus 6 addressing past problems with the camera and battery. If you can deal with its formidable size and?want to stay on the front-line of Android updates?then the Nexus 6 is for you.

In terms of processing power, it's no longer a match for the likes of the HTC One M9 and Samsung Galaxy S6, but it can also be found for quite a bit cheaper now, and its phablet screen is unmatched for its combination of size and quality. The Nexus 6 is a unique and bold phone, and is still worth considering even in light of recent competition.

What do you think of our Nexus 6 review? Has it persuaded you to get a Nexus 6,?or are you waiting to see what flagship phone?Google has in store for us in 2015?

Updated 30/3/15 by Robert Zak, Translated from AndroidPIT Germany's Nico Heister.



 Previous

 Next

( Labels: biggest, Google, Nexus, Review, still ) Read more

Google Play game services announced

Google Play game services announced

Google has announced the launch of Google Play game services, an initiative designed to serve as a gaming platform for Android, iOS, and other connected devices.

The service allows game developers to incorporate achievements, cloud saves, real-time multiplayer, and public leaderboards. Integration with Google+ grants the ability for users to track high scores of those in their circles.

Google Play has already been launched with several games for Android devices, including World of Goo, Beach Buggy Blitz, Kingdom Rush, Eternity Warriors 2, and Osmos.

The service is currently available via a source development kit for Android and a native iOS SDK for iPhone and iPad games.

In 2012, Google revealed that more than 300 million Android devices had been sold, with a 250 percent growth rate year-over-year.

By Zorine Te, Community Manager Zorine is the Community Manager at GameSpot Australia. She enjoys competitive gaming, eating and winning. Is prone to gamer rage.

View the original article here

( Labels: announced, Google, services ) Read more

App Annie Index: Games – Puzzle & Dragons Leads Revenue on iOS and Google Play

App Annie Index: Games – Puzzle & Dragons Leads Revenue on iOS and Google Play

Puzzle & Dragons remains top-grossing game in iOS App Store and Google Play, while Candy Crush Saga and Temple Run 2 are top-downloaded on iOS and Google Play, respectively
In this Games Index, we bring you the hottest mobile gaming properties across both the iOS App Store and Google Play in March 2013. To find out what’s happening with apps outside of games, please check out our Apps Index.

Electronic Arts (EA) and King were the two publishers that ranked in the top 10 throughout the March Games Index – by both downloads and revenues, for both iOS App Store and Google Play. EA’s success came from a combination of Real Racing 3 and The Simpsons?: Tapped Out. Meanwhile, King’s success was due to a single app, Candy Crush Saga. This match-3 puzzle game has now made it into the top 5 across the board this month – by downloads and revenue, across the iOS App Store and Google Play. Meanwhile, Puzzle & Dragons extended its reign as the top-grossing game in both iOS App Store and Google Play.
Top Publishers by Monthly Game DownloadsiOS March 2013

In March 2013, Electronic Arts (EA) retained its spot at the top of the charts, due to the success of Real Racing 3. Meanwhile, Rovio moved up 4 places to #2, driven by the strong performances of its classic Angry Birds game and The Croods, a new game based on the upcoming DreamWorks motion picture of the same name. Glu Games also rose up a notable 7 spots to #6.
Top Publishers by Monthly Game DownloadsGoogle Play March 2013

Rovio topped the Google Play publisher download rankings in March 2013. Similar to what we saw in the iOS App Store, Rovio’s downloads growth in Google Play was driven by a combination of Angry Birds and the newly launched game The Croods.

Electronic Arts rose close to 50 spots to #3 this month, driven by Real Racing 3.

Real Racing 3 earns Electronics Arts the #3 spot on Google Play

Fingersoft, the small Finnish startup that published Hill Climb Racing, rose up to #4, thanks to the success of its recently launched game Benji Bananas.

LOTUM came in at #7 on Google Play, as well as #5 in the iOS rankings mentioned earlier. Its word-guessing game, 4 Pics 1 Word, has been popular across both stores.

Future Games of London shot up to number 10 in March. This was driven mostly by its Hungry Shark Evolution game, but also through growth of its three earlier apps in the Hungry Shark series.
Top Publishers by Monthly Game RevenueiOS March 2013

The top five grossing iOS publishers remained the same in March as they were in February, with Supercell and GungHo Online at the very top of the charts. Kabam, Storm8, and DeNA all inched upwards, while Gameloft and Zynga rounded out the Top 10.
Top Publishers by Monthly Game RevenueGoogle Play March 2013

GungHo Online continued to lead the Google Play revenue charts, thanks to its Puzzle & Dragons game.

NHN moved up 2 spots in March. In April, NHN split its subsidiary NHN Japan, which developed hit messaging app LINE, into NHN Japan Corporation and LINE Corporation in order to make the company more competitive and agile. Now NHN Japan Corporation manages the games division, while LINE Corporation focuses on the LINE and web products.

Notably, this month’s Google Play revenue rankings were not made up solely of Japanese and South Korean publishers, as they were last month. With the success of Real Racing 3, Electronic Arts entered the top 10 by Google Play revenue, as it did with Google Play downloads. In addition, UK-based King rose to #7 as Candy Crush Saga continued to gain momentum. US-based Kabam also made the top 10 this month.

Candy Crush Saga puts King in top 10 by Google Play revenue

Top Game Apps by Monthly DownloadsiOS March 2013

* Icomania was released in March 2013, so it had no ranking in February. Mini Golf MatchUp also did not have a ranking in February, so Rank Change is not available.

In March, many of the top-downloaded games in the iOS App Store continued to be Action or Arcade games.

Candy Crush Saga from King has been growing steadily in downloads since it was released on iOS in September 2012. In March 2013, it reached the #1 spot after hovering within the Top 5 the last few months.

Electronic Arts’ #1 publisher ranking was driven by Real Racing 3. This recently released app had a strong March showing and raced up the charts to #2.

The classic Angry Birds game shot up in the download rankings to #8 in March. Note that the spike in the daily rankings below coincided with broad iTunes home page promotions across nearly 150 countries around the world from March 7 to 13 as well as a price drop from $0.99 to free from March 7 through 18. The app also had smaller iTunes home page promotions in a subset of these countries throughout the rest of the month.

Hungry Shark Evolution jumped over 50 spots to take the #9 ranking. Initially released October 2012, the game began an
upward rise in the United States and United Kingdom with its February 16 version update and maintained that throughout the entire month of March.

Outside of Action and Arcade games, a new “guess the images” puzzle game called Icomania debuted at number five. Mini Golf MatchUp was the other new entrant to this month’s top 10 rankings, debuting at number seven. Finally, flight simulator game Flight Unlimited Las Vegas debuted in the top 10 in March. Its rankings spike below coincided with free pricing from February 27 through March 19.

Flight Unlimited Las Vegas downloads soared while the app was free

Top Game Apps by Monthly Downloads Google Play March 2013

In March, the most downloaded games on Google Play were primarily Arcade & Action games, similar to what we saw in the iOS App Store.

Endless running games Temple Run 2 and Subway Surfers kept their number one and number two rankings from February 2013.

Angry Birds moved up two spots to take the number five ranking. (In contrast to what was done on the iOS App Store, there was no temporary price drop for its Google Play version, as that app already is freemium.)

Yet another running game in the top 10 was Vector from Russian publisher Nekki. This fast-mover gained 29 spots to take the number six spot.

Benji Bananas, an endless swinging game developed by TribeFlame, was the first app that Fingersoft released as a publisher. Released in late February, it shot up the charts to number nine in March, just ahead of Hill Climb Racing, another hit game from Fingersoft. This gave Fingersoft two top 10 games within the month of March.

Benji Bananas swings into the top 10

Outside of Action & Arcade games, highlights included Candy Crush Saga, which continued its steady ascent on Google Play as well as the iOS App Store. The app made its top three debut on Google Play in March, after having reached #8 in February and #10 in January. In addition, image-guessing game 4 Pics 1 Word moved up 33 spots to take the number eight ranking.
Top Game Apps by Monthly RevenueiOS March 2013

The top five grossing iOS games have now remained the same for each month of Q1 2013, which is remarkable given how quickly many games tend to rise and fall in popularity. Real Racing 3 was the fast mover in March, gaining over two hundred spots to claim the number seven ranking after being released in February. It joined Candy Crush Saga as the only other app to make the top 10 iOS games in terms of both downloads and revenue in March. Additionally, now there are three publishers who each have two apps in the top 10: Supercell, Kabam, and EA. Modern War, a social military combat game, moved up seven spots to take the number ten ranking.
Top Game Apps by Monthly RevenueGoogle Play March 2013

Similar to the February rankings, the March rankings were made up entirely of Arcade & Action, Brain & Puzzle, and Casual games.

In March, Puzzle & Dragons continued its extraordinary reign as the top-grossing app across both iOS App Store and Google Play. In addition, it surpassed ten million cumulative downloads across platforms in Japan alone. In mid-March, Puzzle & Dragons also worked with Google Play to introduce the Android robot as a character within the game in honor of the app store’s one-year anniversary. This is one example of how Puzzle & Dragons often collaborates with other games and brands for promotional purposes.

The Google Play Android robot appeared in the Puzzle & Dragons dungeon for the app store’s one-year anniversary

Popular Kakao games Windrunner and Everybody Cha Cha Cha remained within the top three.?Candy Crush Saga continued its steady ascent on Google Play as well, moving up to #4 in March, up from #6 in February, #10 in January, and #29 in December.

????? (Million Arthur), the Korean version of the Japanese hit game by Square Enix, kept its #5 ranking in March. Square Enix has since brought Million Arthur to the Sony PlayStation Vita platform in April 2013. While we traditionally have seen popular console games being ported to smartphone platforms, this an example of how the reverse is starting to happen as well. As another example, it was recently announced that “Puzzle & Dragons Z” would be released on the Nintendo 3DS in the winter.

The biggest mover this month was The Simpsons?: Tapped Out. Introduced on Google Play in February, it made its top 10 debut in the revenue rankings in March with a 19-spot jump, joining Candy Crush Saga as the only other app by a Western publisher.

In March, Anipang for Kakao ranked within the top 10 by revenue on Google Play yet again. This match-3 puzzle game has become a familiar fixture in these rankings, having achieved this for over half a year now based on its strength in South Korea. Publisher SundayToz explained to App Annie why their game has had such staying power:

“Making it into the top 10 apps for Google Play worldwide monthly revenue is not an easy task, and maintaining a position in the top 10 for half a year running is even more challenging,” said Angus Lau, VP of Global Business Development, SundayToz, Inc. “Anipang was the first game on Kakao to take advantage of all the possible social features on the platform. This early mover advantage, as well as its appeal to a wide demographic of users and the ability to keep users engaged with increased challenges, has propelled its successful ranking and revenue growth.?Unlike other games that have been incredibly popular only to fall off the radar, SundayToz has focused on keeping users through frequent updates and in-game promotions, as well as effective cross-promotions with our newest game, Anipang Mahjong, and partner brands. We are thrilled to be in the top 10 in the App Annie Games Index again and look forward to continued strong performances in the app stores.”

For those of you who also are looking for an update on apps other than games, please check out the Apps Index.

For an update on the overall app store market in Q1 2013, be sure to see our App Annie Index market report.

Want to put our app store market data behind your business decisions??Check out App Annie Intelligence.

Want the latest news and insights about the app economy?

Subscribe to the blog below, follow us on?Twitter (@appannie)?and?‘like’ us on Facebook.

Notes:

While the Games Index covers games, the Apps Index covers everything but games. ?Note that the Top Publishers rankings in the Games Index are based solely on games downloads and revenue, while the Top Publishers rankings in the Apps Index are based on the publishers’ non-games downloads and revenue.

In the iOS App Store, an app can be categorized under a Primary Category as well as an optional Secondary Category. ?If an app has a Primary Category of Games and a Secondary Category of Entertainment, it is a candidate to be included in this Games Index. ?If the app’s Primary Category is Entertainment and its Secondary Category is Games, then it will not be included in this Games Index; it is a candidate for the Apps Index.

Note that the ranking approach used in the App Annie Index differs from that used in the iOS App Store. ?In the latter, app rankings for a given category will include all apps whose Primary Category or Secondary Category matches that given category. ?So an app can appear in the rankings for more than one category within the iOS App Store or in App Annie Store Stats rankings.

In Google Play, an app can be categorized under only one category, so there is no double-categorization.

Occasionally, a publisher may decide to shift an existing app from one category to another category. ?In these cases, the App Annie Index will rank that app based on its categorization in the subsequent month. ?Given that the App Annie Index now has a Games report and an Apps report, the only scenario where an app’s recategorization could shift it from one Index to another is if its category changes from Games to a category other than Games or vice versa.

All publishers have been grouped together under their parent publishers, where available. ?For example, the publisher Mobage Japan is included under the parent publisher DeNA.

Any non-App Annie trademarks or images used in this report are the property of their respective owners. ?App Annie claims no rights in those trademarks.

View the original article here

( Labels: Annie, Dragons, Games, Google, Index, Leads, Puzzle, Revenue ) Read more

Look for App Annie at Google I/O 2013!

Look for App Annie at Google I/O 2013!

App Annie will be at Google I/O talking all things Android and handing out App Annie Index playing cards

From May 15th to 17th, in San Francisco, over 5,000 of the worlds leading developers gather for the Android event of the year. Generally we can expect lots of Google releases across their product line, but with over one million new android activations every day, all eyes are on Android.

This year, new Android boss Sundar Pichai has announced the conference will be more developer focused. Developers will be waiting on bated breath to find out what’s new for Android. So if you’re one of the lucky few at Google I/O or just in the San Francisco area be sure to meet up with App Annie!

Catch up with App Annie at Google I/O

Our very own Luis Guitierrez, Director of Business Development (USA) will be in attendance. He’s excited to meet our App Annie users or anyone who just wants to talk about what’s new with Android. Tweet Luis directly (@L_A_Gutierrez) to meet up.

Find Annie for some great App Annie schwag!

First GMIC and now Google I/O, the real life Annie is racking up the flight mileage this year! Find Annie (look for the bright orange dress) and pick up a set of our App Annie Index playing cards with the Top 52 publishers of 2012. Be sure to snap a picture with Annie and tweet us (@appannie).

Walk a few blocks and come meet the team at App Annie

In the spirit of being more “developer focused,” App Annie wants to get to know its customers better. If you’d like to stop by our new office, shoot the breeze or talk shop, tweet us (@appannie) to set up an appointment. We can’t promise that everyone will be able to come, after all…it’s still a Wednesday and some work should get done, but we’ll try.

View the original article here

( Labels: Annie, Google ) Read more

Google Pulls In More Google Play App Data Into Your Google Developer Console

Google Pulls In More Google Play App Data Into Your Google Developer Console

Great news for app developers and App Annie users as Google integrates revenue and usage metrics as well as developer services into the Google Developer Console

Today was the opening day at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco, and with it came a host of new announcements that are sure to rock the world of app developers worldwide. With the Google Play Store being one of the most popular platforms for our Analytics users, we thought we’d give you the rundown of how these announcements affect your Google Developer Console, what does it mean for you the interested app developer, and how you can leverage these new features through your App Annie Analytics dashboard now and in the future.

The overarching theme is that Google is positioning the Google Play Developer Console as a key hub of data and tools for your Google Play apps, allowing developers to pull in other important sources of data from Google Analytics and Google Wallet into your Google Play Developer Console dashboard.

Some in-app usage metrics from your Google Analytics dashboard will this summer be made available in your Google Play Developer Console.

Google has introduced a new app revenues tab in the Developer Console that summarizes your global app revenue over time, broken down by app and by country. It’s not too dissimilar from the App Annie Analytics revenue dashboard that you folks have been enjoying the last twelve months. Obviously in terms of analytics dashboards, great minds think alike.

In addition, Google is piloting a range of services integrated into your Developer Console including an app translation service, alpha and beta testing rollouts and app optimization tips.

App Annie Analytics connects to your data through the Google Play Developer Console, so this is great news for App Annie users. As we work to integrate all of this extra data into your dashboard, it will mean that you can access even more Google Play data and visualize that side-by-side with your data from your iOS, Mac and Amazon Appstore apps. A cross-platform dashboard delivered to your inbox everyday that you can share with your colleagues, and that you can also access through the App Annie Analytics API.

We’ll have updates for you as soon as this is all integrated, and yes, Annie will be working overtime to make sure you have all of your freshly-baked data delivered to your developer doorstep.

View the original article here

( Labels: Console, Developer, Google, Pulls ) Read more

App Developers Signal Apple Allegiance Ahead of WWDC and Google I/O

App Developers Signal Apple Allegiance Ahead of WWDC and Google I/O

Posted by Peter Farago on Thu, Jun 07, 2012

This month, the world’s two largest mobile app platform providers, Apple and Google, enter what is arguably the most critical month of the year for each company, when each hosts their annual developer conference, the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) and Google I/O.? While engaged in a multi-year platform war, their success largely depends on innovation provided for their platforms by the third party developer community.? If the developer community embraces one platform over the other, developers will build the software that infinitely extends the value of the consumer experience, giving a platform a meaningful edge.? The perceived availability of a large, steady stream of high quality apps is a key reason for consumers to initially choose an Android or iOS device, and then to remain loyal.? Moreover, given that the mobile industry is among the leading sectors in the worldwide economy, the outcome of these two conferences can largely impact the fate of some of the most prolific, innovative forces in the world’s economy today.?? Combined, Apple and Google have a market cap of approximately three quarters of a trillion dollars.

This report compares developer support for iOS versus Android and explores the underlying factors that could explain varying levels of developer loyalty.? We use the data set collected by Flurry Analytics, now powering consumer insights for more than 70,000 companies across more than 185,000 mobile apps.? Each day, Flurry tracks more than 1.2 billion anonymous, aggregated end user sessions across more than 100 million unique devices.? Each month, Flurry tracks over 36 billion end user sessions across more than a 500 million devices, a number that is more than 60% of Facebook’s monthly active user base.

At Flurry, we track developer support across the platforms that compete for their commitment. When companies create new projects in Flurry Analytics, they download platform-specific SDKs for their apps. Since resources are limited, choices developers make to support a specific platform signal confidence, as they invest their R&D budget where they expect the greatest return.? Further, because developers set up analytics several weeks before shipping their final apps, Flurry has a glimpse into the bets developers are making ahead of the market.

The chart above shows that Apple continues to garner more support from developers.? For every 10 apps that developers build, roughly 7 are for iOS.? While Google made some gains in Q1 2012, edging up to over 30% for the first time in a year, we believe this is largely due to seasonality, as Apple traditionally experiences a spike in developer support leading up to the holiday season.? Apple’s business has more observable seasonality.

Among the reasons iOS appears more attractive to developers is the dominance by Apple in the tablet category.? Not only does Apple offer a large, homogenous smartphone base for which to build software, but also when developers build for smartphones, their apps run on Apple’s iPad tablets as well. ?That's like getting two platforms for the price of one. ?Apple offers the most compelling ‘build once, run anywhere’ value proposition in the market today, delivering maximum consumer reach to developers for minimal cost.

?

The pie chart above demonstrates just how much Apple dominates the tablet category.? The Galaxy Tab and Amazon Kindle Fire hold very distant second and third places in terms of consumer usage.? To build the chart, Flurry aggregated total worldwide user sessions across the first five months of the year, January through May.

Opposite to the efficiency Apple offers developers through their homogenous device base, Android fragmentation appears to be increasing, driving up complexity and cost for developers.? Further, this fragmentation is concentrated primarily in just smartphones, as there is no serious Android tablet contender to the iPad.? For Android, Flurry observes fragmentation along two significant vectors, devices and firmware. ?Let's look at device fragmentation first.

The chart above shows the number of consumer application sessions across the top 20 Android devices in May 2012.? Four major OEMs – Samsung, Motorola, HTC and Amazon – have Android devices in the top 20.? 17 of the top 20 hold a share of 6% or fewer, among the top 20, meaning that each additional device a developer supports will deliver only a small increase in distribution coverage.? However, on Android, both devices and firmware contribute to fragmentation, so let’s look at firmware fragmentation next.

The above chart reveals that the majority of devices in the market run Gingerbread, which is only the third newest iteration of the Android OS.? Honeycomb, more optimized for tablets, and Ice Cream Sandwich, which put a lot of effort into the user interface, have a combined 11% of penetration in the market.? Froyo, which shipped before Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich, alone has a higher share of firmware penetration than the two newer, more advance firmware versions combined.? This means that the majority of consumers are running on an Android operating system that is three to four iterations old.

Running a comparison of revenue generated by top apps on both iOS and Android, Flurry calculates that the difference in revenue generated per active user is still 4 times greater on iOS than Android.? For every $1.00 a developer earns on iOS, he can expect to earn about $0.24 on Android.? These results mirror earlier findings from similar analysis Flurry conducted in Q4 of 2011 and Q1 of 2012.?

At the end of the day, developers run businesses, and businesses seek out markets where revenue opportunities are highest and the cost of building and distributing is lowest.? In short, Android delivers less gain and more pain than iOS, which we believe is the key reason 7 out of every 10 apps built in the new economy are for iOS instead of Android.

Over the next two weeks, the momentum of two of the world’s most innovative, influential and prolific technology companies will be impacted by the reaction of the development community to their conferences, Apple WWDC and Google I/O. ?And as developers watch Apple and Google, the world should watch developers.

View the original article here

( Labels: Ahead, Allegiance, Apple, Developers, Google, Signal ) 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