Microsoft (MSFT) is willing to pay app developers $100 for every Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 app they develop, but the company insists that payouts aren’t its main strategy for improving its app ecosystem. A Microsoft spokesperson told AllThingsD that the company believes “the best apps come from those partners who are invested in the platform and own their experience now and in the future” and that its limited-time $100 offer “is not representative of an ongoing program.” Microsoft has put a lot of effort into attracting developers to both Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 as it tries to generate developer enthusiasm for its platforms that matches the level of enthusiasm for iOS and Android. A recent study by PCMag showed that Windows Phone 8 now offers 63% of the 102 most popular apps available for iOS and Android.
Microsoft’s (MSFT) attempts to merge desktop and tablet functionalities with Windows 8 have left it with an “awkward” operating system that consumers have been slow to adopt, says Nomura Equity Research analyst Rick Sherlund. Per Barron’s, Sherlund released a new research note this week saying that it will take much more time for Microsoft to fully develop Windows 8 to the point where it can “deliver more compelling form factors and lower prices and a richer ecosystem of developers and apps for the Microsoft store.” More →
Andy Rubin’s departure from his post as Google’s (GOOG) Android boss on Wednesday was surprising because Android under his watch has steadily risen to become the world’s most popular mobile operating system. A new report in the Wall Street Journal, however, hints that Rubin’s departure was more about speeding up the integration of Android and Google’s Chrome operating system than anything else. More →
As we’ve said many times before, BlackBerry 10 has an app problem. And now PCMag has taken the time to figure out just how big this problem is and has found that BlackBerry’s (BBRY) new platform offers only 34% of the 102 most popular apps available for iOS and Android. By contrast, PCMag found that Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows Phone 8 currently offers 63% of the most popular iOS and Android apps, giving its app ecosystem a significant advantage over BlackBerry’s. PCMag’s study counts both native platform apps and “functional equivalents,” so it’s likely that the publication counted all the Android apps that have been ported over to the BlackBerry 10 store in recent months.
iPhone users who miss having Firefox on their devices shouldn’t get their hopes up that it will arrive anytime soon. CNET reports that Mozilla vice president of product Jay Sullivan told a panel at South by Southwest this weekend that the organization would not design any new versions of Firefox for iOS until Apple (AAPL) allows users to set it as their default browser and allows Mozilla “to carry over its sophisticated rendering and javascript engines to iOS.” The issue for Mozilla, as CNET reports, is that it “doesn’t feel like it can build the browser it wants to for Apple’s platform.” The tricky thing for Mozilla, however, is that there doesn’t seem to be all that much demand at the moment for Firefox on mobile platforms, especially since the latest numbers from NetMarketShare show that its share of the mobile browsing market is less than 1%.
Windows 8 has taken its share of lumps over the past few months, but one analyst thinks its troubles all began with Microsoft’s (MSFT) decision to omit the Start button from its user interface. In an interview with CNET, IDC analyst Bob O’Donnell says that not having a Start button is a big turnoff to many users who have spent years working with Windows and who have come to expect it as a central feature of any Windows device. More →
It’s no secret that Microsoft (MSFT) decided to build the Surface on its own because it wanted to set a benchmark for its OEMs to follow when creating their own Windows-based tablets. And now The Verge reports that Microsoft chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie this week said bluntly that the company had made a mistake by giving OEMs a free rein over design without providing any sort of input or feedback. The result, he said, was that users had wildly different experiences with Windows-based devices based on the device they bought, which hurt Microsoft’s reputation for delivering a consistent experience across all devices. More →
The signs of doom are all aligned for Windows RT, which looks like it could soon inhibit the same plane of oblivion currently occupied by Microsoft Bob. Ars Technica’s Peter Bright has written a thorough pre-obituary for the current incarnation of Microsoft’s (MSFT) first attempt at creating a tablet-centric operating system, which he calls “a lemon” that consumers are “avoiding… in droves.” Bright lists several reasons for Windows RT’s failure so far, but most of them boil down to the fact that the operating system as it’s currently built has no reason to exist. More →
Whether or not you agree that Samsung (005930) is the “shameless” copycat Apple (AAPL) has repeatedly accused it of being, there is no denying that the South Korean technology giant has borrowed a few pages from Apple’s playbook. If the design elements in its devices and the launch of features like S Voice and Blocking Mode rolling out on Samsung phones immediately following Siri and Do Not Disturb aren’t telling enough, this 132-page internal Samsung document is pretty damning. Of course, Apple is hardly innocent in all this and has borrowed from plenty of companies in the past as well. The latest chapter in this tiring tale came Tuesday as Samsung unveiled its new Wallet app for Android. More →
Google (GOOG) has officially taken the training wheels off the Web Speech application programming interface it first launched as part of a Chrome beta release last month. Google announced on Thursday that the latest version of Chrome now includes the Web Speech API that it says will help developers “integrate speech recognition capabilities into their web apps” so that users can use their voices for functions traditionally covered by mouse and keyboard, such as composing email. Google’s efforts to give Chrome web apps more speech recognition capabilities come after some developers late last year started a new Chromium project dedicated to bringing the voice-enabled Google Now personal assistant to the Chrome browser.
Sony (SNE) finally took the wraps off its next-generation PlayStation 4 on Wednesday evening, and the upcoming gaming console is packed with premium specs that will help usher in the next stage in the evolution of gaming. Sony touted some great tie-ins with the PlayStation Vita during its two-plus-hour-long presentation, but its mobile ambitions extend beyond its own beleaguered portable console. Within Sony’s PS4 press release, the company announced that it will soon launch second screen experiences on the iPhone, iPad and Android devices thanks to its upcoming “PlayStation App.” Few details were provided, but the relevant section from Sony’s press release follows below. More →
Popular sexting app maker Snapchat on Thursday updated its Android application of the same name with the ability to send self-destructing videos to Snapchat contacts. The video function had been available in the Snapchat Android app as part of a closed beta, but it is now available to all users in Snapchat 2.0. Snapchat bills its app as a way to “build relationships, collect points, and view your best friends,” though the most widely discussed use for the service is sending nude photos — and now, videos — between devices that are automatically deleted after a set amount of time… unless the recipient decides to use a simple trick to save the files permanently. Snapchat 2.0 is available immediately for free in the Google Play store, which is linked below.
