China has overtaken the US to become the world's largest smartphone market for the first time, according to new research, reported by Bloomberg. Data from Strategy Analytics shows that, over the last...

Read More: Smartphone market in China now bigger than the US, says report

In September, Google's smartphone and tablet application store, the Android Market, surpassed 500,000 total published applications, according to a new report from research firm Research2guidance. With Apple's App Store seeing...

Read More: Google’s Android Market surpasses 500,000 successful submissions

With all of the talk about sending physical cards with the Apple Card app and postcards from Postagram, an iOS app called Howdy decided to stick with the good old...

Read More: E-cards live as Howdy tries to refresh a stagnant market

Samsung has launched its new group-messaging application ChatON, pushing the app live on Google's Android Market to provide Android users with a way to (in the near future) to chat...

Read More: Samsung’s new group-messaging app ChatON hits the Android Market

Android Market is now accessible in China after the app store had been blocked and lagging for many phone owners in the country, as we reported earlier this week. Despite...

Read More: Google fixes technical issue to unblock Android Market in China

Google's rocky relationship with the Chinese government is under further strain after it emerged that the Android's app store, Market, is unavailable for many users in China, with others reporting lag and time-out issues accessing the site. Blocked In China, a site which tests whether URLs are accessible across five major provinces in the country, [...]

Read More: Android Market blocked in China again – but for how long?

Google's rocky relationship with the Chinese government is under further strain after it emerged that the Android Market place is unavailable for many users in China, with others reporting lag...

Read More: Android Market blocked in China again – but for how long?

The UK housing market wouldn't normally receive too much attention here on The Next Web. But when an entrepreneur with a desire to disrupt the way houses are bought and sold across the country builds the technology to help make his vision happen, it's certainly worth a look. So without any further ado, here's the [...]

Read More: How AssuredSale plans to disrupt the UK housing market

The UK housing market wouldn't normally receive too much attention here on The Next Web. But when an entrepreneur with a desire to disrupt the way houses are bought and...

Read More: How AssuredSale plans to disrupt the UK housing market

Research plays a fundamental part in enabling businesses to make better decisions. Amidst a recession and

Read More: Not Your Typical Survey Tool: What a New Online Survey Tool Means for the DIY Survey Market

How do you sell the Facebook phone in a Facebook-free environment? Luckily for HTC, China isn't short on homegrown social networks, one of the largest being the instant messaging service QQ.

So as the HTC Status (once known as the ChaCha) migrates toward China, where our favorite social network has been banned, Facebook will be left behind to make room for a dedicated QQ button (pictured at left).

Read More: HTC “Facebook Phone” Dumps Facebook For Chinese Market

photo by: Dan HellerPeople are spending a lot more time online in Latin America, and a report shows that 90 percent of that is Facebook.

Read More: Latin America’s Social Networking Market Sees 88 Percent Gain in Engagement

The Android Market continues to explode. Recent statistics published by research firm Ovum predict that app downloads in Android's marketplace could reach 8.1 billion this year, compared to 6 billion for iOS, with total growth in app downloads expected to be as much as 144 percent this year. Today, mobile research firm Research2Guidance is releasing a report that gives a detailed look into the Android marketplace's current escalating growth, what's trending, and what categories of apps are makin [...]

Read More: Report: Android Market Nearing 6 Billion Downloads; Weather Apps Are Makin’ It Rain

Many of the most successful iOS games are not sold by big name publishers like Electronic Arts. Rather, they're from smaller developers and are not even sold at all, but given away in the App Store’s Free section, earning their revenue via in-app payments. Flurry, a mobile app analytics company, recently reported that of the Top 100 grossing iOS games this June, 65% were freemium. This analysis is consistent with data samples taken from AppData.com, Inside Network’s service that tracks app and d [...]

Read More: REPORT: How Free-to-Play iOS Game Developers Thrive in a Market Forecast to Be 200M by 2012

Flurry's look at freemium game play time and money spent by age groups focuses on generations X and Y which in their age categories are people between 25-to-34 (X) and 18-to-24 (Y). However, Flurry's age groups are actually different from the conventional view of Generation X extends in age range to people who are now in their early to mid-40s. These Gen Xers are mixed in with the lower (younger) age range of baby boomers (late 40s to early 50s) which forms a very interesting 35-to-54 year old a [...]

Read More: Aging Baby Boomers & Gen Xers May be the Next Core Mobile Gaming Market

headshot_bw_ulovei.jpg This guest blog is by David J. Neff, author of The Future of Nonprofts as part of our themed content hosted the first week of each month, with September focusing on social good and non-profit causes.David J. Neff has been doing things that have been been done in nonprofits for the last 10 years. He is the current Presidnet of Social Media Club Austin, and a co-founder of internet start up HelpA [...]

Read More: What does the mobile market look like for Nonprofits?

Android has outnumbered the sales of iPhone for the first time in Australia. During the last 12 weeks Android accounted for 42.9% of the total smartphones sold in Australia compared to 37.2% of Apple’s iPhone, according to new figures revealed by Kantar’s ComTech WorldPanel.If we consider only the last four weeks, Android stands on 54% of the smartphones sale (compared to 29 per cent for Apple). This gives a clear indication of Android’s increasing dominance in Australian market synonymous to th [...]

Read More: Android Beats iPhone in Australian Smartphone Market

Lomg before Apple even hinted that the iPhone would be available from Verizon, there was a lot of doomsday speculation that huge number of AT&T iPhone customers would defect to Verizon to get improved call quality (fewer dropped calls). However, while Verizon now has an estimated 23.9% of U.S. iPhone customers, it appears that defections from AT&T is not the only big factor.


Read More: Verizon Android Market Share Dropping Due to Verizon iPhone? Maybe Not

Android-based tablets have captured 20 percent of the tablet market, according to a fresh data release from ABI Research. A flood of lower cost devices and Android fragmentation are considered to be the key factors in the increasing market share.

Read More: Android Captures 20 Percent of the Tablet Market

A significant factor in the success of social network services is related to the the increase in people using smartphones with good quality cameras, GPS and the ability to install and use apps. Twitter, Foursquare and Instagram are just a few examples. So, it is an intersting exercise to look at trends in smartphone platform marketshares. Asymco compared smartphone unit shares for Q2 2008 and Q2 2011 (three years) to gauge the change in smartphone platform market shares. Note that the first Andr [...]

Read More: Smartphone Market Shifts From 2008 to 2011. More Changes by 2014?