Hasta La Gadget!

While Apple recently boasted surpassing 50 billion app downloads, the Google Play store isn’t that far behind it seems, and at the rate that Google Play downloads are at, it’s said that Android app downloads will overtake iOS app downloads this year, possibly as soon as October, according to a report.

The Telegraph says that Google Play is currently seeing over 500 million more app downloads per month than the iTunes App Store, which means that total app downloads for Android could surpass iOS by October if the numbers continue at that rate, but it seems no matter when exactly the overtake will happen, 2013 will most likely be the year that Android apps surpass iOS apps.

Of course, this could have something to do with the larger number of Android devices that have been activated. Android is now at 900 million total devices that have been activated, while iOS is at 600 million. Even with a lower apps-per-device figure, Android still has the steam to overtake iOS app downloads at some point this year.

Based on recent numbers of both the iTunes App Store and Google Play store, Android is approximately two billion app downloads behind iTunes at 48 billion total app downloads since the Google Play store’s conception. It’s said that around two billion iOS apps are downloaded every months, while Android gets 2.5 billion app downloads per month.

Asymco analyst Horace Dediu says that “the total downloads/install base are currently 83 apps per iOS device sold and 53 apps per Android device activation,” meaning that “the sheer weight of Android units will generate more downloads, but on a per-device basis, the iOS devices do seem to consume more apps, and the gap is not narrowing.”

SOURCE: The Telegraph

Google Play app downloads to surpass iOS by October is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apple published its WWDC 2013 application, which will help attendees of its show stay connected.

Like It , +1 , Tweet It , Pin It Original content from Ubergizmo.

The highly-anticipated sequel to Plants vs. Zombies now has an official release date. Plants vs. Zombies 2: It’s About Time will be arriving on July 18 and will only be available on iOS at launch time, although as with the previous title, PopCap will launch the new game on other platforms at a later time.

PopCap Games also released a new trailer for the upcoming games, which shows a CGI’ed look into what to expect come July. In the trailer, we see botanist Crazy Dave again as he looks to fend off cone-wearing zombies with his swarm of peashooters and other projectile-launching plants. We don’t see any actual gameplay in the trailer, but it does give us hints as to what to expect.

For example, we see a handful of new plants in the trailer, including a five-way peashooter that we haven’t seen before, as well as what looks to be a punching plant of some kind that aims to take on zombies with its leaf fists. There’s also a plant that fires boomerangs and comes back to the plant to be used again. Other than that, PopCap says that there will be new worlds to play in, as well as new ways to play.

We also get a look at Crazy Dave’s time machine-equipped RV, and from the looks of it, the RV may play a critical role in the game, as the subtitle of the game may hint to the possibility of a time machine component. However, we’re merely just speculating at this point and quite sure what to expect in the upcoming sequel. However, we can probably expect in-app purchases to make their way to the series for the first time, as PopCap mentioned that there would be weapon upgrades and such, although they could keep the usual coin system that the original game had, but we’ll see.

PopCap also confirmed that Plants vs. Zombies 2 will heading to other platforms after its initial iOS launch. They say that “Plants vs. Zombies has always been a game that we want to bring to everyone…and we will.”

Plants vs. Zombies 2 arriving July 18 on iOS is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Windows Phone continues to sweep up featurephone upgraders, cementing its third-place position in the US smartphone market according to new research. Microsoft’s platform rose year-on-year by 1.8-percent by the end of the three month period finishing April 2013, though its overall market share didn’t shift quarter-on-quarter; however, the OS proved particularly popular for those upgrading to their first smartphone.

In fact, 42-percent of new Windows Phone users came to the platform having previously used a featurephone, according to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech‘s market research. That’s versus 31-percent who jumped from a featurephone to an iPhone in the same period.

Windows Phone has always had strengths in the first-time-upgraders segment, not least because of the straightforward Metro-style interface Microsoft developed. However, while between 2011 and 2012 Microsoft’s biggest gains were in customers 50-64, in the past year that’s also shifted to those aged 25-34.

Nonetheless, for all Microsoft’s incremental gains, it still lags far behind Android and iOS. Google’s platform has the biggest share, with 51.7-percent giving it control over more than half of the US smartphone market according to Kantar’s numbers. iOS is in second place with 41.4-percent; both are growing, but iOS is growing slightly faster, up 2.3-percent versus Android’s 1.4-percent rise.

The loser is predominantly BlackBerry, which has seen its market share in the US slip from 5.6-percent to 3.8-percent. Other platforms have halved in prevalence, from 0.6-percent to 0.3-percent.

Unsurprisingly, it’s Nokia’s Lumia range that gets the credit for predominantly driving Windows Phone demand. The company announced rising sales of handsets in its April quarterly results, though that wasn’t enough to avoid a $196m loss.

Windows Phone a hit among featurephone upgraders for 5.6% US share is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Buying official accessories is usually an expensive affair, although this usually comes with peace of mind knowing you bought a product that will work, or if it doesn’t will allow you to return it. So in the future if you […]

Like It , +1 , Tweet It , Pin It Original content from Ubergizmo.