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Admob have released their monthly figures on Android and iPhone/ iPod touch handsets.
Have a look to see where in the world has the biggest market share for each handset. Something to be aware of when developing for each handset.

Its pretty encouraging to any developer or potential client thinking about the smartphones, to hear that Apple are going to hit about 78million handsets before the end of the year in a couple of weeks.

What we always have to remember is that when you release an app, its global and not just local or national.

We are currently about to release 2 more iPhone applications with an additional 2 in mid development. We also have 1 great application for a national client which should see us in development for the first quarter of 2010. The latest figures help us bring these clients more comfortably into the world of mobile.

So have a look at the figures. Kindly provided by Admob.

For Android there are two interesting factors.

1: 885 of Android traffic was from the US, with the UK at 4% trailing 2nd.

2: There has been a 20% growth in Android traffic in general in the last quarter of this year.

]]> http://www.mercurygirlinc.com/blog/latest-iphone-android-global-growth-figures/feed/ 0 http://www.mercurygirlinc.com/blog/today-fm-app-updated/ http://www.mercurygirlinc.com/blog/today-fm-app-updated/#comments Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:52:49 +0000 admin http://www.mercurygirlinc.com/?p=412

The very popular Today FM app has now been updated to feature background listening.

When you open the app you can choose the background listening option which uses Safari to let Today FM play while you keep browsing.

Download the updated app for free here.

Media Intern wanted for MercuryGirl Inc., Ireland’s leading website and mobile software development house.

Help us to help you: As an unpaid intern you’ll work with our production team in MercuryGirl Inc H.Q. Projects include high level websites and mobile applications.

You’ll ideally have some experience or knowledge of graphic design and/or video editing skills. Must have knowledge of Adobe CS4 particularly Illustrator and Photoshop. Final Cut Pro for video editing or Sony Vegas will be an advantage.

You’ll be working roughly three days a week in our Rathmines office which we share with MercuryBoy Inc, our brother production company.

If you’re interested in becoming an intern with us send a CV and any portfolio work you have to mediainterns@gmail.com.

Storyland, RTE’s competition to find a new online drama series, is entering its second year and Mercuryboy Inc have teamed up with writer Emma Cahill to create ‘The Junior’.

The submission is a satirical look at the ad industry through the eyes of a junior copywriter. Shane and Joel have been in the industry 11 months and are desperately trying to make a name for themselves before their first year review. Shane, the copywriter and main character, is neurotic and self-loathing and hates his team mate Joel. The show will monitor Shane’s consistent self-sabotage and crumbling personal life.

The Juniors from Mercuryboyinc on Vimeo.

Storyland requests entries aimed at an 18+ audience will be broadcast as a web series between January and June 2010. Check out last year’s entries and winners, the Hardy Bucks, here

Our brother company Mercuryboy Inc has received two nominations at the Irish Music Television Awards which held in the Sugar Club on the 27th of November.

The first is in the category of Best Dance Video for ‘Here and There’, directed by Eoghan Kidney and produced by Tim Duggan. It was filmed at Wicklow’s Brittas Bay and is a surreal short film/extended music video featuring the sounds of Simon Cullen, formerly of Le Bien.

The second nomination is in the Best Video category. The video for Valerie Francis’s song ‘Punches’ was again produced by Tim Duggan and directed by Eoghan Kidney. It’s a delicate, gentle and stunning video to suit the vocals of Valerie and has been given kudos by Mr. Kanye West.

We’ll keep you posted following the announcements on the 27th. Congratulations to everyone involved.

On-line advertising revenues just aren’t paying the bills, this Observer article covers an analysis suggesting that the average print newspaper reader is worth £155 a year (£90 from price, £65 from advertising), whilst the same on-line newspaper reader is worth just £5.

So how can newspapers make money from their digital assets? The answer may be through mobile applications, Apple’s recent decision to enable “in app purchases”, supplementary content purchased from within iPhone applications, has been adopted by the Spectator magazine, their application costs .79 cent and “expires” after a week, thereafter you must pay .79 cent for the current weekly edition.

This strategy could be a lucrative play for news titles with large amounts of multimedia content. For example, the forthcoming Guardian iPhone app could easily incorporate in app purchasing for their highly successful audio podcasts covering the premiership. Apple also recently decided to allow in app purchasing from within free applications, previously in app purchases were only available within paid apps.

Closer to home the new iPhone application released by the Irish Independent newspaper seems to be doing very well. The app sells for 2.39 and is top of the paid application chart in Ireland, which means it has certainly paid for itself already, and will be making profit from here on. It is a relatively simple RSS feed style application which doesn’t use in app purchasing, it displays 4 categorises of news: National, Sport, Entertainment and Top Stories.

There is no sign of an iPhone application yet from The Irish Times or the Examiner, but Maeve Donovan of the Times recently suggested that mobile is a big part of their strategy.

We are currently developing a number of iPhone applications which distribute large amounts of audio, photo and video content using the in app purchase model,  we are also developing a backend CMS to manage the sale of this content. Get in touch if you’d like to hear more.

John Callaghan, October 2009

Apple have now gone back on their decision to block in app purchases in Free to download applications.

This turn around in the business model would lead us to believe that they have had pressure applied form a lot of their media partners worldwide in Newspapers, Movie studios and Music labels. We expect to see a lot more movement in traditional media moving to iPhones now with this news.

See here for the full story

The application gives real-time information and timetables on all trains arriving in the next hour. NEXT Dart will also tell you where the nearest station is and guide you there with directions on a map. Travel alerts are also built in. Get it for free here in the Android Market (Android device link).

Get it for free here in the Android Market (Android device link).