Mobile content delivery startup Myxer has officially delivered over 10 million free ringtones to iPhone users.

Source: TechCrunch

Procter & Gamble’s Tide brand has launched Stain Brain, an iPhone app that consumers can use to find and share ways to remove stains at home and on the go.

The free application lets consumers search for step-by-step cleaning instructions from the experts at Tide and other iPhone users to get answers before stains have a chance to set in. For those iPhone users who have a secret recipe for removing tough stains, Tide Stain Brain lets them instantly share their own tips and tricks within the application.

Source : Stain Brain

Adobe Systems, the developer of software for PCs and mobile phones that allows devices to create, display and interact with rich-media content, has revealed that development of its Flash Player software for mobile phones is well underway, in partnership with a growing number of hardware and software firms, including most of the leading handset manufacturers.

Read through the press releases I’ve linked to here and you’ll see that beta versions of Flash Player 10.1 are on track for release by the end of the year for the Windows Mobile and Palm webOS operating systems. Versions that will work with Symbian and Android are expected early in 2010, with BlackBerry likely to follow soon afterwards now that Research In Motion joined Adobe’s Open Screen Project at the weekend.

The aim of this initiative is to create a common media platform for mobile phones, computers and TVs, which should facilitate interoperability but, most importantly, should significantly cut development time for rich media content and applications thanks to the use of a single standard. There are now almost 50 companies involved in the project, up from 16 at its inception last year.

In turn, it will become quicker and, therefore, more cost-effective to develop a broader range of applications and content for the mobile environment – such as social networking, gaming, video and music, advertising, and location-based services, to name but a few.

Although some incompatibility hurdles will remain – particularly the issue of screen sizes and processor capacities which vary from one device to another – Juniper Research welcomes this exciting development, which will go a long way towards encouraging the usage and consumption of rich media services and, by default, should then encourage more consumers to take up smartphones.

A Juniper report published earlier this year found that around 13% of all mobile phones shipped in 2008 were smartphones. We believe that such devices will account for an increased percentage of shipments this year, despite the recession, to almost 16% of the total. By 2014, smartphones will account for more than a quarter of all new phones sold.

There is one key industry player that has yet to participate in the project, however. Apple has, so far, declined to involve itself in the project (perhaps preferring to time any such announcement for a moment that best suits its own marketing and publicity machine: its quarterly results are due on October 19th!), but with RIM – its main rival in the smartphone arena – now having signed up, it does seem inevitable.

The industry’s warm welcome to Adobe’s news also chimes with another finding in our smartphone report: the hardware race is over and, going forward, innovation and development is mostly being focused on advancing software that underpins the performance of these devices. And, as we’ve seen in our recent report on Operating Systems, increased use of ‘open’ platforms with common functionality will help keep development costs – and therefore overall handset and service costs – down.

Roughly five months after the App Store crossed the 1 billion iPhone and iPod touch application download threshold, Apple announced that downloads have now exceeded the 2 billion mark. According to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, consumers downloaded half a billion apps in the third quarter alone. Apple adds that there are now over 85,000 applications in the App Store and more than 125,000 developers in its iPhone Developer Program. More than 50 million iPhone and iPod touch customers in 77 countries are downloading applications in 20 categories, including games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel.

In a research report published Thursday, Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi estimates the App Store currently generates between $60 million and $110 million in quarterly revenue for Apple–a tiny fraction of the computing giant’s total Q3 revenues of $8.34 billion. Sacconaghi believes the App Store contributes between two cents and four cents a share in profit to Apple a quarter–minus the 30 percent cut Apple takes on App Store downloads, the analyst estimates that iPhone software developers currently generate between $140 million and $250 million a quarter.

Read more: Fierce Content

ArabCrunch has reported the launch of Yahoo!Maktoob’s first application for the iPhone called “Maktoob Dictionary.”

Maktoob Dictionary is a text translation app from English to Arabic and vice versa, it has around 160,000 Arabic and English words and phrases and enables you to bookmark words.

Source : ArabCrunch

Fierce Mobile Content recently announced the top Mobile Applications of 2009.

The overwhelming success of Apple’s App Store–1.5 billion downloads in the virtual storefront’s first year alone–has nurtured a mobile environment where it does indeed seem that there is an application for any situation or context, no matter how uncommon or absurd.

FierceMobileContent’s fourth annual Top Mobile Applications Awards honor apps designed for the long haul–apps that simplify your life, not once but on a recurring basis. These are applications that promise to improve the average day of the average user, pinpointing tasks that are woven into the fabric of modern life–for example, navigating the morning commute, finding a place to eat lunch or more effectively communicating with contacts and colleagues.

These year’s top Mobile Applications are:

1. Aha

If the daily commute is driving you crazy, try Aha, a free application that connects iPhone users from across major U.S. cities including Los Angeles, Dallas, Seattle and Washington, D.C., to share real-time information on traffic conditions.

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2. MotionX GPS

MotionX GPS puts the whole world in your hand. A premium location app optimized for the iPhone 3GS, complete with accelerometric-assisted GPS for improved accuracy, it indicates and tracks the user’s position wherever they go–not just on street maps, but also topographic and satellite maps, which explains why the software is so popular with runners, hikers, skiers and boaters (over 1.5 million downloads so far).

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3. Put Things Off

There are dozens of task management applications available for the iPhone, but what separates Put Things Off is that it expressly targets procrastinators. (And let’s face it–if you’re not already actively using this kind of app, that’s exactly what you are.) A simple, efficient tool for creating notes and lists, Put Things Off (available for $2.99) encourages users to focus on what’s important each day and “put off stuff that’s not”–its touch-based filing system incorporates a series of virtual trays that separate tasks according to priority level, with completed chores disappearing in a puff of smoke. And after three days, the “auto-nag” feature moves tasks you’ve put off back to the Today tray.

A free local discovery application optimized for Android and powered by a learning engine dubbed GENIE–i.e., Geodelic ENgine for Interest Evaluation–Sherpa promises a customized user experience that improves each time you use it, recommending retailers, restaurants and attractions as it begins to understand your likes, dislikes and behavioral patterns.

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5. Snac

The Snac Dashboard offers live, interactive icons (a.k.a. “Snacs”) from a series of categories including News, Sports, Communications and Search, as well as lists of Top Rated and Featured widgets–users browse, add and customize the widgets they want, and regardless of whether the icons provide access to social media, headlines or any other mobile web content, Snac makes sure the information is kept refreshed and up-to-date. Pre-caching solves concerns over snail-paced browsers and associated data costs, and unlike rival aggregator apps optimized for specific carriers or software platforms, the free app supports more than 300 devices across all operator networks, meaning almost everyone can chew on this Snac.

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6 3deep
7 Vlingo
8 WeatherBug Elite
9 Wertago
10 Zagat to Go ‘09

Source: Fierce Mobile Content

iNapkin is a note taking / drawing application for the iphone. Priced at $ 1.99, this application is great for jotting down quick ideas, diagrams, drawings important phone numbers.

Its features include:

* 1st note-taking app with TRUE PAN AND ZOOM
* FIVE different pen colors
* Variable pen and eraser sizes
* The ability to save your works as photo images
* Multiple napkin backdrop sizes and designs
* You can send your napkins directly to Facebook using Facebook Connect!

Source: justanotherphoneblog.com

Social networking giant Facebook announced the introduction of Facebook Connect for iPhone, enabling mobile developers to integrate social components into their iPhone applications. Facebook Connect offers developers the tools to tie their websites and applications back to Facebook–with Facebook Connect for iPhone, developers may now make API calls to access users’ profiles and share information on Facebook, publish to Facebook via Feed forms and ask users for extended permissions, like offline access, in order to interact with their data even while they’re offline.

For more on Facebook Connect for iPhone read this Facebook Developers Blog entry

Mobile Applications, Smartphones will drive industry growth; AppStore “miles ahead” of its rivals

Despite the economic downturn, it is expected that the latest mobile applications for smartphones like BlackBerry and iPhone will drive industry growth in the coming years, providing alternate sources of revenue for operators.

A new report by Juniper Research forecasts that smartphones will account for 23% of all new handsets sold by 2013 (Cellular News). Another report by Informa forecasts 35 percent growth in sold smartphones in 2009 and according to The Washington Post, Gartner expects smartphone sales to jump in 2009.

The common element in these reports is the potential that innovative devices and applications have to promote mobile data consumption. This has industry players scrambling to secure their place in the value chain, including content providers, handset vendors and application developers.
Handset vendors need to diversify into high-value content to offset falling margins on handset sales. On the side of content providers, Facebook is reported to be in talks with a number of mobile phone manufacturers to more tightly embed access to its services within the phone menus. RIM, who is launching BlackBerry App World later this month; Microsoft announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona the launch of Windows Mobile marketplace, which will allow developers to build and sell Windows Mobile applications. Both will compete head to head with Apple’s AppStore

Read the full write up by Raul Castanon here.

There is a tremendous potential for developing such content and  applications for the Arab world.

Source: VAS News & Marketing

Major mobile phone vendors are set to cash in on the growing demand for multi-touch handset technology in the Middle East and are expected to boost their product line-up catalysed by Apple’s highly successful iPhone.

Research firm iSuppli forecasts global market for touch-screen panels to grow to 341 million units and earn $3.4 billion in value this year.

In a market dominated by so-called resistive touch technology, Apple’s iPhone uses a different technology called projected capacitance that enabled the multi-touch functionality that had been lacking in resistive-based touch panels.
HTC launched its first touch-screen phone – HTC TyTN and HTC P3300- in 2006 and LG launched its Prada in 2007 and Samsung in 2008 while Apple launched its iPhone in 2007, but iPhone is not officially available in the Middle East.

Samsung has four main sleek touch-screen phones – the Omnia, the Haptic, the F490 and the Instinct and LG has the Prada, the Viewty, Venus and the Voyager while HTC has the HTC Touch, Touch Dual with Touch FLO, TyTN II, HTC Shift HTC Advantage X7510 lined up to take on Apple.

HTC, which has been pioneering touch-screen technology for nearly a decade, continued to innovate the touch-screen market and its intuitive touch-screen technology has enabled consumers to access to the most commonly used content, contacts and features with a simple flick of a finger.

The launch of iPhone has really boosted the touch-screen concept but the market is still small. People have started recoginising the concept.

LG uses two different technologies – Electrostatic Charge and Pressure Responsive for its handsets. The future is going to be touchy.

Rivals Motorola and Sony Ericsson are most at risk as Nokia is expected to launch a series of touch-screen devices in the second half of the year, with the first model – likely the 5800 Tube – is expected to hit the market by the close of summer.

iSuppli forecasts that the market will grow to 833 million units by 2013, expanding at an annual growth rate of 19.5 per cent from 2008. touch-screen module revenue is forecast to grow to $6.4 billion by 2013.

Source: Gulfnews