2. Most Downloaded apps
• Angry Birds and Facebook were the most downloaded iPhone apps of 2011, according to Apple, but some less predictable apps also made their lists.
• Craig Palli, a vice president at Fiksu, a marketing company for app developers, explained that this year's top apps incorporate three main trends: the
ability to connect with friends, discovery and games that let users past the time and pick up where they left off.
• The top app in the social networking category was Facebook. But Palli said the trend of connecting with friends extends further.
• "It also encompasses Skype, all the free texting apps and even Bump. These are all apps that lend themselves to enriching our lives through an easier
and greater amount of communication and connections with friends," Palli explained.
• In the music category, Pandora, which generates personalized radio stations for its users based on their music preferences, was the top app.
• "Pandora is such a good app that they don't really need to spend money in marketing. They just get user after user because it's such a compelling
experience," Palli said.
• TuneIn Radio Pro, which provides access to over 50,000 local and global stations, was another popular music app.
• In the games category, Words with Friends, a multi-player game, and Angry Birds were the most downloaded apps. Games captured nine of the top
ten spots on the paid apps list.
• "They fill those five minutes of time that we were otherwise waiting for a train or appointment," explained Palli.
• He added that phones are beginning to replace cameras, which explains the success of apps in the photo and video category.
• "First it was the Polaroid camera, then it was the in-the-pocket digital camera. It's now just your phone."
• Instagram, also named Apple's iPhone app of the year, topped the camera category. It allows users to take photos, add filters and share them with
friends. Camera+, which extends the iPhone's camera with features like zoom, also made the list.
• In the health and fitness category, Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker and Nike+ GPS, an app for tracking runs and workouts, were winners. But Palli said
the category has fewer downloads than others.
• "The volume of downloads that occur in this category is less than one tenth of the other categories," he said, but he predicts that this category will
grow in 2012 as people become more health-conscious and apps "augment the actual device itself with something physical."
• Groupon, the daily deal service, and Pimp Your Screen, which lets users customize their device with backgrounds and other visual features, were the
top apps in the lifestyle category.
• Netflix, the video streaming service, was the top app in the entertainment category, along with FatBooth, which lets users visualize how they might
look with a few extra pounds.
• Palli said free apps generally receive more downloads, and many more developers are starting to offer free versions.
• "During 2011, we saw a big shift in strategy from a lot of paid app developers, which was to migrate from a straight paid app experience where you
pay for the app up front to an in-app purchase or upgrade experience," he explained.
• "This way it's really compelling for the consumer because you can get started with the app and when they experience how good the app is, they can
take the wallet out of their pocket and make the extra two taps to get the full features."
• http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/09/us-apps-idUSTRE8081GP20120109
3. Angry Birds
• Angry Birds is a puzzle video game developed by Finnish computer game
developer Rovio Mobile. Inspired primarily by a sketch of stylized wingless
birds, the game was first released for Apple's iOS in December 2009. Since
that time, over 12 million copies of the game have been purchased from
Apple's App Store, which has prompted the company to design versions
for other touchscreen-based smartphones, such as those using the
Android operating system, among others.
• In the game, players use a slingshot to launch birds at pigs stationed on or
within various structures, with the intent of destroying all the pigs on the
playfield. As players advance through the game, new birds appear, some
with special abilities that can be activated by the player. Rovio Mobile has
supported Angry Birds with numerous free updates that add additional
game content, and the company has even released stand-alone holiday
and promotional versions of the game.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angry_Birds
4. Facebook
• Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by
Facebook, Inc. As of January 2012, Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before
using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as friends, and exchange messages,
including automatic notifications when they update their profile. Additionally, users may join common-interest
user groups, organized by workplace, school or college, or other characteristics, and categorize their friends into
lists such as "People From Work" or "Close Friends". The name of the service stems from the colloquial name for
the book given to students at the start of the academic year by some university administrations in the United
States to help students get to know each other. Facebook allows any users who declare themselves to be at least
13 years old to become registered users of the site.
• Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow students Eduardo Saverin,
Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. The Web site's membership was initially limited by the founders to Harvard
students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University. It
gradually added support for students at various other universities before opening to high school students, and
eventually to anyone aged 13 and over. However, based on ConsumersReports.org in May 2011, there are 7.5
million children under 13 with accounts, violating the site's terms of service.
• A January 2009 Compete.com study ranked Facebook as the most used social networking service by worldwide
monthly active users. Entertainment Weekly included the site on its end-of-the-decade "best-of" list, saying, "How
on earth did we stalk our exes, remember our co-workers' birthdays, bug our friends, and play a rousing game of
Scrabulous before Facebook?" Quantcast estimates Facebook has 138.9 million monthly unique U.S. visitors in
May 2011. According to Social Media Today, in April 2010 an estimated 41.6% of the U.S. population had a
Facebook account. Nevertheless, Facebook's market growth started to stall in some regions, with the site losing 7
million active users in the United States and Canada in May 2011.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook
5. Pandora
• Pandora Radio is an automated music recommendation service and custodian of the Music
Genome Project available only in the United States. The service plays musical selections similar to
song suggestions entered by a user. The user provides positive or negative feedback for songs
chosen by the service, which are taken into account for future selections.
• While listening, users are offered the ability to buy the songs or albums at various online retailers.
Over 400 different musical attributes are considered when selecting the next song. These 400
attributes are combined into larger groups called focus traits. There are 2,000 focus traits. Examples
of these are rhythm syncopation, key tonality, vocal harmonies, and displayed instrumental
proficiency.
• The Pandora media player is based on OpenLaszlo. Pandora can also be accessed through many
stand-alone players, such as the Roku DVP (formerly Netflix player) Reciva-based radios (from
companies like Grace Digital, Sanyo, and Sangean), Frontier Silicon-based connected audio systems,
Slim Devices, and Sonos product(s). On July 11, 2008, Pandora launched a mobile version of their
software for the Apple iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch through the iTunes App Store. Pandora is also
available for Android phones, BlackBerry platforms, HP webOS (used on the Palm Pre, Palm Pixi,
Palm Pre 2, and HP Veer), and Windows Mobile devices. Pandora was the provider for MSN Radio
until MSN discontinued their internet radio service on June 18, 2008. A modified version of Pandora
has been made available for Sprint Nextel.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora_Radio
6. Youtube
• YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal
employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share
videos.
• The company is based in San Bruno, California, and uses Adobe Flash
Video and HTML5 technology to display a wide variety of user-generated
video content, including movie clips, TV clips, and music videos, as well as
amateur content such as video blogging and short original videos. Most of
the content on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals, although media
corporations including CBS, the BBC, VEVO, Hulu, and other organizations
offer some of their material via the site, as part of the YouTube
partnership program.
• Unregistered users can watch videos, while registered users can upload an
unlimited number of videos. Videos considered to contain offensive
content are available only to registered users at least 18 years old.
• In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by Google Inc. for US$1.65
billion, and now operates as a subsidiary of Google.
