Apps News & Articles

2012 will see further pushes in the way stores try to get us to buy stuff, but don't just be a passive consumer this year, expect appeals for you to fund or work on apps and games to become increasingly common.

Rumors and conjecture have circulated about a possible SharePoint App store since the release of SharePoint 2010. A number of independent attempts currently exist, though they amount to little more than website catalogs. An official app store was thought to be part of Microsoft's launch plans for SharePoint 2010, but it is believed that logistical and technical issues prevented it from becoming a reality. With the success of the iOS version and official plans for a Windows 8 store, it's almost certain we will see something soon for SharePoint.

Consumers these days can’t seem to get enough mobile apps, games, videos and other content. Mobile web usage has exploded and mobile search has quadrupled in the past year. Many people search on their smartphone when viewing a TV or print ad, looking for products via a search engine or through a clever speech recognition application such as Siri. And they expect to find the answer at their fingertips. Actionable content, right there, in seconds flat. Mobile has created a monster -- and it’s you and me.

Microsoft is continuing to earn its open source stripes. The company’s latest Windows Azure updates added support for several open source tools. The open source love isn’t stopping with Azure though: Microsoft is also allowing open source applications in the Windows Store, which is being launched for Windows 8.

Android users have millions of apps to enjoy, but there's still some envy for iOS's best-in-class products. Another of those pins will fall down soon, with the upcoming release of mega-popular photo app Instagram while a faster updated Facebook app is out now.

Google has reason to celebrate, with Android Market breaching the 10 billion app download mark. To celebrate, Android developers are offering 10-cent downloads for select premium applications on a limited time basis.

"If you build it, they will come" appears to be Microsoft's approach as it shows off the Windows Store for a product that won't be available until mid-2012.

Word on the street is the humble app, which turned the cell phone into an all-purpose Super Smart Phone device, is getting close to the 1 million milestone. That includes everything from mobile games like Angry Bird and Civilization to retail banking links like Chase and Bank of America, to full-blown enterprise apps.  Mobile analytics firm Mobilewala said Apple, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile 7 combined have collectively hit almost 992,000 and are due to hit the 1 million mark sometime next week. And the growth is just getting started -- the group said that number more than doubled this year with only 484,000 apps developed by the end of 2010.

With the popularity of smartphones and tablets in both enterprise and consumer settings, mobile phones, tablets and other portable devices have become a big part in the professional's job search arsenal.

Many organizations, enterprise software vendors not the least, have treated employees and consumers as discrete categories of people, almost as if they were different species. The truth is, of course, that we are both employees and consumers depending on the context.

During recent years, we have seen how our changed attitudes and behaviors as individuals when it comes to information seeking, sharing, communication and socializing with people are also affecting our attitudes and behaviors at work. Although we often find ourselves being held back by legacy IT and existing power structures, as well as by old habits and the dominating communication culture, we expect to be treated in the same way and have access to the same IT superpowers at work as we have as consumers.

Social network behemoth Facebook (news, site) is receiving criticism yet again for acting first and explaining later -- this time with developers on its application framework. Facebook implemented a “new enforcement system” that resulted in several popular applications being disabled.

As tablet makers struggle to come up with a way around Apple's dominance, HP (news, site) thinks its new magazine/store will help users choose the best apps.

Proving that browser-based apps are where it's at, Conduit (news, site) reported that more than 250,000 app publishers and 170 million users are now connected to their network.

This week in web publishing, e-Reader prices get lowered, the Economist examines the viability of mobile news apps and WordPress launches version 3.0.

With Google's Chrome gathering pace in the browser market, you might want to get your brand on a Chrome App, and Conduit (news, site) are the people who can help.