App Store infested with zombie software, claims analytics startup Adeven
By David Meyer
Jul. 31, 2012, 5:26am PT
Zombies may provide a perennial source of material for mobile games, but no developer actually wants their app to be the walking dead.
Nonetheless, according to new mobile analytics and ad verification firm Adeven, that’s what almost two-thirds of the iOS App Store constitutes.
The Berlin company’s Apptrace tool launches on Tuesday and as a result it’s showing off several stats as a way of strutting its stuff. The most interesting one is the revelation that around 400,000 App Store apps get no downloads, are invisible to users and have no ranking.
“The reality is there are only a couple of thousand apps that really make some kind of downloads,” Christian Henschel, Adeven CEO, told me. “This is based on Apple’s closed system — it’s tough to discover those kinds of apps. You don’t have proper search, so the only way to discover new apps is through the top listing.”
“If you’re not on those lists, it’s not sure that you’re being discovered by anyone else. The top 25 tend to be the same companies who spend millions of dollars to get to the top of those lists. If you’re an independent, small app publisher, then it’s really tough to be discovered.”
Apptrace finds itself in a busy market, with the likes of Keen.io, Count.ly and (to an extent) Flurry all trying to court developers with the sharpest insights.
But Apptrace takes a different angle. For a start, it’s a free resource that is initially providing something closer to AppData’s outside-view app rankings, only through a prettier interface and with a deeper segment view. Android analytics will come in the fourth quarter, but for now Apptrace collates iOS data from the 155 countries where the App Store is present.
And with a seven-figure Series A round from Target Partners in the bank since April, Adeven already has some key enhancements ready for the rest of this year. The big one will be the addition of in-app analytics: something that will take Apptrace squarely up against Keen.io et al, but Henschel says the combination of the internal and external perspective will be unique.
“We’re not only measuring success within the app, but also within the ecosystem,” he said. “We will also soon be launching a feature where you can compare apps against each other, which is something that’s not available at the moment.”
Apptrace also has a feature lined up for developers with an ad-funded model: at the moment, they need to integrate multiple SDKs into their apps to handle all the different ad brokers such as AdMob and InMobi, but Apptrace will soon come out with a unified SDK that can manage the analytics for all these disparate networks.
And as for making money out of all this?
“The main reason we founded Adeven is to bring transparency into this mobile ecosystem,” Henschel said. “We believe if we provide the transparency then a lot more app dollars will fly into this ecosystem and we will find ways to participate in these revenues. But first, we’re really focusing on getting app developers using our service.”
Which is where those attention-grabbing, suspicion-confirming stats come in. Did you know that the App Store has 1,899 flashlight apps? Madness.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Rona rejects take over bid from Lowes
Rona rejects Lowe’s buyout offer
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Reuters
Tuesday, Jul. 31, 2012
Rona Inc, a Canadian home-improvement retailer, rejected Lowe’s Cos Inc’s unsolicited US$1.8-billion takeover offer, saying it was not in the best interests of shareholders.
Rona said it received a US$14.50 per share proposal from U.S.-based Lowe’s, the world’s second-largest home improvement chain, on July 8.
Shares of Rona, which has a market value of $1.44-billion, closed at $11.87 on Monday on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The stock has risen 12% in the past three months amid speculation that Lowe’s could be interested in the company.
Lowe’s Chief Financial Officer Robert Hull said in April the company was open to all options should the Canadian chain put itself up for sale. He called Rona a “very interesting company”.
Rona, Canada’s home-grown answer to Home Depot Inc and Lowe’s, has maintained it was not up for sale.
The company should remain focused on executing its business plan with a view to capturing significant opportunities that it sees for its business, Rona said in a statement.
It is now closing or splitting up 23 of its 79 biggest outlets after facing sluggish consumer confidence and smarting from falling sales at established stores.
Scotiabank and BMO Capital Markets were Rona’s financial advisors for the deal.
© Thomson Reuters 2012
Posted in: Investing Tags: Retail, Lowe’s Cos Inc, RONA Inc.
Facebook | Twitter | Email | Instapaper
Reuters
Tuesday, Jul. 31, 2012
Rona Inc, a Canadian home-improvement retailer, rejected Lowe’s Cos Inc’s unsolicited US$1.8-billion takeover offer, saying it was not in the best interests of shareholders.
Rona said it received a US$14.50 per share proposal from U.S.-based Lowe’s, the world’s second-largest home improvement chain, on July 8.
Shares of Rona, which has a market value of $1.44-billion, closed at $11.87 on Monday on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The stock has risen 12% in the past three months amid speculation that Lowe’s could be interested in the company.
Lowe’s Chief Financial Officer Robert Hull said in April the company was open to all options should the Canadian chain put itself up for sale. He called Rona a “very interesting company”.
Rona, Canada’s home-grown answer to Home Depot Inc and Lowe’s, has maintained it was not up for sale.
The company should remain focused on executing its business plan with a view to capturing significant opportunities that it sees for its business, Rona said in a statement.
It is now closing or splitting up 23 of its 79 biggest outlets after facing sluggish consumer confidence and smarting from falling sales at established stores.
Scotiabank and BMO Capital Markets were Rona’s financial advisors for the deal.
© Thomson Reuters 2012
Posted in: Investing Tags: Retail, Lowe’s Cos Inc, RONA Inc.
Facebook has just introduced a new feature for their official Facebook for iPhone and iPad app that gives users Instapaper-like abilities to save posts shared on Facebook to read later. Now you too can collect your friends’ most embarrassing social network blunders in a favorites folder for posterity! Oh, and links you want to read later too, of course.
The feature — which is available on both Facebook.com and Facebook’s mobile apps — hasn’t rolled out to us yet, but according to others, it works like this: just by pressing and holding on any Facebook post, you can save it to a folder to read again later. On Facebook’s full site, you simplt click “Save” in the post’s dropdown menu. Saved items show up in a new “Saved” tab under “Favorites” in your sidebar.
Like many of Facebook’s feature updates, you don’t need to update your Facebook app: everything’s done on servers behind the scenes.
Anyone think they’re going to use this feature? I’m not really sure I need yet another inbox of “read later” links in my life. I haven’t even got through my Instapaper queue.
Via: AppAdvice
The feature — which is available on both Facebook.com and Facebook’s mobile apps — hasn’t rolled out to us yet, but according to others, it works like this: just by pressing and holding on any Facebook post, you can save it to a folder to read again later. On Facebook’s full site, you simplt click “Save” in the post’s dropdown menu. Saved items show up in a new “Saved” tab under “Favorites” in your sidebar.
Like many of Facebook’s feature updates, you don’t need to update your Facebook app: everything’s done on servers behind the scenes.
Anyone think they’re going to use this feature? I’m not really sure I need yet another inbox of “read later” links in my life. I haven’t even got through my Instapaper queue.
Via: AppAdvice
Twitter rolls out clickable stock symbols, or “Cashtags”, so you can keep up with your investments
Twitter is now rolling out the ability for you to click on stock symbols with a $ sign in front of them. Once you click them, you’ll be able to see all of the conversation about a particular company, much like you would a hashtag.
Twitter
✔
@twitter
Now you can click on ticker symbols like $GE on twitter.com to see search results about stocks and companies
Loving our new roll out! Ticker symbols now LIVE! Check out the convos around $APPL $FB #
Now $ + stock symbols (like $GOOG $APPL) are clickable on twitter.com. Feels so nice to see it working on production!!
Sadly, the embeds haven’t been updated to reflect the feature yet.
For example, when you click on $AAPL in a tweet, you’ll be directed to all of the conversations and mentions of that company. A few Twitter employees shared their glee with the wrong symbol for Apple ($APPL). Right now, it looks like Twitter is only making actual stock symbols clickable, as a test of $thenextweb didn’t do the trick.
This is functionality that is extremely similar to what StockTwits provides on its site, but isn’t as full-featured obviously. Ironically, StockTwits founder Howard Lindzon just sold off the rest of his Twitter shares, as we reported last week. Coincidence?
This would have been extremely helpful during the Facebook earnings call, to gather information about everyone’s thoughts on what Zuckerberg and company shared.
On the other hand, “Cashtags” are a primary example of Twitter getting away from its core value, the 140 character commentary that it invented.
Twitter is now rolling out the ability for you to click on stock symbols with a $ sign in front of them. Once you click them, you’ll be able to see all of the conversation about a particular company, much like you would a hashtag.
✔
Now you can click on ticker symbols like $GE on twitter.com to see search results about stocks and companies
Loving our new roll out! Ticker symbols now LIVE! Check out the convos around $APPL $FB #
Now $ + stock symbols (like $GOOG $APPL) are clickable on twitter.com. Feels so nice to see it working on production!!
Sadly, the embeds haven’t been updated to reflect the feature yet.
For example, when you click on $AAPL in a tweet, you’ll be directed to all of the conversations and mentions of that company. A few Twitter employees shared their glee with the wrong symbol for Apple ($APPL). Right now, it looks like Twitter is only making actual stock symbols clickable, as a test of $thenextweb didn’t do the trick.
This is functionality that is extremely similar to what StockTwits provides on its site, but isn’t as full-featured obviously. Ironically, StockTwits founder Howard Lindzon just sold off the rest of his Twitter shares, as we reported last week. Coincidence?
This would have been extremely helpful during the Facebook earnings call, to gather information about everyone’s thoughts on what Zuckerberg and company shared.
On the other hand, “Cashtags” are a primary example of Twitter getting away from its core value, the 140 character commentary that it invented.
Monday, July 30, 2012
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