app store

The hullaballoo surrounding Facebook's IPO, the eye-watering $100bn headlines and the subsequent bickering, has largely passed by the social giants' 901m users.

Last week's launch of the App Center could make a much bigger impression and may prove a canny move in answering criticism of Facebook's slow progress in monetising it's half-a-billion (yup, you read it right) active mobile users.

If the IPO critics are to be believed, the company's valuation and its future is all about advertising revenue, but the App Center launch launch hints at a longer-term strategy. If successful, it could establish Facebook at the heart of the app ecosystem, as well as seeing the coffers swell with mobile ad and targeting revenue.

Woah there. Run that past me again? Yup, you read it right. Travel and listings publisher, Time Out, announced a staggering 6,000% increase in the number of downloads of their travel apps after going free.

"In June, Time Out has made the decision to make all travel apps free for the foreseeable future – a move which saw the average weekly download per app jump from 140 downloads a week to over 8000, a rise of a staggering 6000%"

Maybe it's the over-developed thumbs of the smartphone natives? Maybe the news doesn't have the draw that it used to. Either way, it's games that dominate app purchases in the US according to the latest Neilsen research.

NMA reports that of the 300,000 users surveyed in May, 93% bought mobile games, compared with 76% paid for apps with a news flavour. Surprisingly, bearing in mind thse figures relate to a US audience, the second most popular category of downloads was weather. I thought it was just us Brits who were obsessed.

The statistics reveal the top 10 categories of apps downloaded in the last 30 days are:

This series of posts about Ecommerce is brought to you in conjunction with Vodafone, who are currently recruiting a Head of Ecommerce, see Chinwag Jobs for more information.

Mobile e-commerce has been talked about for more than a decade. Back in 2000 publications like vnunet were asking "Mobile commerce - big or REALLY big?". It has been a long journey since the days of WAP sites and slow data services. Today's mobile phones give users web browsing and video playback just as happily as dealing with phone calls.