On Tuesday, Apple – the operator of the world’s most lucrative mobile application storefront – directed a communication at its entire developer community. The message? Apple has no patience or tolerance for the manipulation of app rankings in the App Store.

“When you promote your app, you should avoid using services that advertise or guarantee top placement in App Store charts. Even if you are not personally engaged in manipulating App Store chart rankings or user reviews, employing services that do so on your behalf may result in the loss of your Apple Developer Program membership,” the warning from Apple reads.

Continue Reading

Just as mobile devices never left our grip during last Sunday’s Super Bowl, they are trusty devices to keep near on many a major night in Hollywood and in the music industry – with the Grammys being chief among those occasions.

Luckily for music lovers, the Grammy Live Mobile App is now available for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch users.

If this announcement sounds familiar, there’s a good chance that it is. For the third year in a row, music fans worldwide will have unprecedented access to all the VIP and backstage events leading up to and throughout the 54th Annual Grammy Awards, airing Sunday, Feb. 12 at 8p.m. on CBS.

Continue Reading

All is not dismal on the U.S. employment front. In addition to upward trending employment statistics, TechNet, the bipartisan policy and political network that promotes the growth of the innovation economy, published a new study Tuesday showing that mobile app development is creating jobs at a dramatic pace.

According to the report, there are now roughly 466,000 jobs in the so-called “App Economy” in the United States. That’s a dramatic improvement over 2007, when that number was… well, zero.

TechNet also found that these App Economy jobs are spread throughout the nation. The top metro area for App Economy jobs is New York City and its surrounding suburban counties, although together San Francisco and San Jose together substantially exceed New York.

Continue Reading

RIM may be struggling to have its BlackBerry smartphone keep pace with other industry leading devices in the mobile space today, but the company says at least 13% of its BlackBerry App World developers certainly aren’t struggling financially.

According to RIM vice president of developer relations Alec Saunders, the BlackBerry App World storefront is more profitable for devs that the competing Android Market owned and operated by rival Google.

Saunders revealed this week at the BlackBerry DevCon Europe conference that BlackBerry App World sees more than 6 million app downloads every 24 hours. Saunders alleges that App World now produces 43 percent more daily downloads per mobile app than Apple’s App Store.

Continue Reading

Mobile ad-network InMobi has released its Super Bowl XLVI Mobile Consumption Survey showing that, not surprisingly, mobile engagement was high during one of the most important advertising events of the year.

According to the survey, nearly 40% of respondents used mobile devices in response to TV ads and 45% estimated that they spent 30 minutes or more on their mobile devices during the game.  Interestingly, the survey showed that almost twice as many respondents used their mobile devices during the first half of the game compared to the second half – a powerful take-away for advertisers indeed.

Continue Reading

On Friday, the folks behind social network app PlayUp announced their partnership with St. Louis Rams Running Back Steven Jackson and Buffalo Bills wide receiver Stevie Johnson to give fans “a unique real-time interactive mobile experience around Super Bowl XLVI.”

“I am extremely excited to be able to hang out and bond with my fans in the PlayUp app in real-time during the premier event on the sports calendar,” said Johnson. “I love being able to use social media to relate with my fans in ways never before possible, and the PlayUp app is great in that it lets me connect with them over our shared passion – football. It should be a remarkable game. Hopefully next year football fans will be using PlayUp to praise my team while we’re on our way to a Super Bowl victory!”

Continue Reading

According to a thought-provoking study published Wednesday by Ypulse, “even tech-savvy millennials are baffled” by augmented reality technology, particularly when its infused in mobile apps on leading smartphones.

“Augmented reality has become the futuristic media of the moment, but many consumers,” Ypulse says, but even mobile’s core audience – young, hip, tech-wise adults – are “having a hard time figuring it out.”

Based on the findings of Ypulse’s research, only 11% of high schoolers and collegians have ever used an augmented reality app.

Continue Reading