It seems that smartphones were top of everyone’s Christmas lists this festive season with an estimate of over 20 million iOS and Android devices being activated between December 25th and 31^st according to a new report by Flurry. The report also found that a record breaking 1.2 billion apps were downloaded in the same week, known as “power week”.

The holiday “power-week” has become far more important for application makers than the run-up to Christmas and with the 60% surge in downloads in that week compared to the average, shown in the graph below; it’s easy to see why. This has led to a number of firms offering festive discount deals on apps with even Apple giving away free iOS apps through their ‘12 Days of Christmas’ app to encourage downloads.

According to Flurry’s report the US saw the most app activity with figures hitting 509 million compared to download figures of 81 million in the UK and, popular bird flinging app Angry Birds saw downloads of 6.5 million on Christmas Day alone. “Flurry expects breaking the one billion download barrier per week will become more commonplace” said vice president of marketing at Flurry, Peter Farago, as the number of mobile internet devices grows.

Last week at Apps World buzzdoes the app distribution tool exhibited at the show and CEO and founder of the tool, Assaf Kolirin presented in the New Platforms and Technology Developer Zone.

buzzdoes is an automated word-of-mouth tool that turns apps users into apps distributors. All it takes is a click on the buzzdoes icon for users to recommend an app to a selected list of friends – they just need to pick the ones they want. The result is that each happy user can steer dozens of new ones your way.

The ‘recommender’ is rewarded for every download that occurs as a result of his/her recommendation. It’s a win-win situation. The users gain from their goodwill and the developers gain new users. buzzdoes, have added a social aspect to the tool, where users can see their friends’ applications. This serves as an advertisement area where the developer can earn money from every download that occurs through the buzzdoes button on his/her application creating a new revenue stream.

“A few years ago, I was involved in developing applications for both the games and business markets. We thought our ideas were great and couldn’t wait to get them in front of users and we started looking for ways to market our apps,” says Assaf, “This is when I had my Eureka moment. Why not use the most reliable and influential marketing model – word-of-mouth? It worked for Gmail, it worked for Facebook. Why wouldn’t it work for my app?”

If you want to find out more about buzzdoes you can view their website here

Apps World exhibitor LeadBolt, the leading mobile advertising network and in-app ad monetization company announced this week the release of a revolutionary new ad format. “App Wall” is designed to allow developers to monetize their apps quicker, with more consumer engagement options and without the integration issues of an SDK.

“We set out to create a solution for developers to monetize their apps without the need for much effort over the development of the app itself. Developers should be able to focus on what they do best – developing amazing apps,” said LeadBolt CEO, Dale Carr.

Released initially as a “Top Apps” wall, this new format will ensure high returns for developers by presenting the app user with an offer wall of the top performing apps. The combination of app installs, which are amongst the highest paying offers, presented on an offer wall, a high performing ad type, will ensure superior eCPMs for developers. However, its method of delivery is what makes this ad format even more revolutionary. Top Apps requires no SDK integration.

With just simple html, developers can integrate the “Top Apps” wall into various different forms that perfectly compliment the developer’s specific app, such as a menu icon, a top apps tab, a navigation bar, a simple banner, a hyperlink or app of the day announcements. From there, users will install one of the apps from either the Android marketplace or iTunes store. Advertisers will get quality non-incentivised app installs and publisher will get paid for each of these app installs.

For more information and a short video of the new ad type visit

www.leadboltapps.com/appwall

A big thank you to those that attended the Apps World in London

Special thank you to all the speakers at the event, sponsors, exhibitors & media partners – have a look down the shots and see if you can spot yourself!!

NXP Software exhibited at this week’s Apps World Europe. The world-wide leading software vendor for multimedia specialises in innovative solutions and applications to help mobile device manufacturers and service providers deliver extraordinary media experiences.

The company used the event to launch a new release of their highly popular LifeVibes CineXPlayer, CineXPlayer 2.5, the first video player for iPad, iPhone and iPod devices to support Dolby® Digital Plus.

“NXP Software aims to help people enjoy life to the full by delivering outstanding mobile multimedia experiences. That vision has seen CineXPlayer become a top video player in Apple’s App Store. Many of CineXPlayer’s fans asked us to add true multi-channel sound and, working with Dolby Labs, that’s exactly what we’ve done. It brings the digital audio quality people know from the home theater to mobile devices,” said Peter Van de Berg, Marketing Director, NXP Software.

Dolby Digital Plus improves the quality of sound from content creation to playback. It delivers an optimal audio experience across a range of portable devices, whether listening through headphones or built-in speakers, or sending an HD entertainment experience with discrete multichannel audio to the home theater from the smartphone in your pocket.

“Dolby Digital Plus in NXP Software’s CineXPlayer allows for more high-quality entertainment across screens,” said John Couling, Vice President, Electronic Media, Dolby Laboratories. “Dolby is committed to bringing a cinema-quality experience to the home on a wide range of services, devices and applications.”

CineXPlayer lets end-users transfer Xvid movies instantly on to their iPad, iPhone or iPod without file conversion. And as it is possible to save full movie files to the CineXPlayer app, users can watch at home or on the go, even if there is no Internet connection available (e.g. on trains, planes, and so on).

CineXPlayer is available for download in the Apple App Store now and you can find out more information here

The buzzdoes stand was, well, buzzing, at Apps World this week, with developers working in consumer and b2b fields keen to learn about our viral app marketing tool. So they wanted to share their answers to the top 8 questions that cropped up.

1. How does an end user recommend my app to a friend using buzzdoes?

By clicking on the buzzdoes icon, an end user is given the option to recommend buzzdoes to friends in the Facebook, phone or mail contacts list.

2. If an end user shares my app on Facebook via buzzdoes, do you take a commission?
No. One of the added services provided by buzzdoes is the ability to share or ‘like’ an app via Facebook. If this leads to new downloads, that’s an added bonus for you, the developer.

3. What happens if I integrate buzzdoes into my app then a user downloads it, not from a recommendation, but because they saw an advertisement or a review?
buzzdoes only takes a commission on successful recommendations that come from buzzdoes. Of course, the developer does not pay for other downloads.

4. What rewards does an end user get for sharing my app?
An end user is rewarded with buzzdoes points for sharing your app. These can be exchanged for money, vouchers (e.g. Amazon) or donated to charity.

5. Can I as a developer can track recommendations of my app, including how many distributors I have and how many leads they are creating?
Yes, we share that directly with developers who use buzzdoes.

6. How do I add buzzdoes to my app?
Just add a single line of code into your app and everything will be done automatically from there.

7. Where can I find out more?
Follow us on Twitter @buzzdoesApps, visit our website www.buzzdoes.com or contact me directly on assaf@buzzdoes.com

8. What is your website address?
Our website is address is www.buzzdoes.com

Thank you to everyone who came to Apps World over the last two days; we’ve had an awesome show and we hope you got what you came for.

We’ve been lucky to have some of the leading minds in the industry here with us this year, delivering top-class insight and advice into the state of the apps industry, what it has to offer numerous business sectors, and how organisations can harness their power.

There have been some key themes running through a lot of the conference. The shift in ownership within companies seeking to move their brand into the apps sector seems to be swinging from mobile-curious CEOs to marketing departments.

This trend is welcomed among development companies we’ve spoken to, who see analytics-driven, strategic marketing professionals coming up with mobile app strategies based on numbers rather than a vague wish to move the brand into the space.

One to watch from our TV Apps Track, ZeeBox, the social TV company that seems to be on everyone’s lips. TV apps are the hot ticket for the apps industry over the next two years, and with a number of the key players all making moves in the space, we can’t wait to see what the landscape looks like next year.

Developer recruitment has been a large topic of conversation on the exhibition floor, with many companies on the hunt for fresh developer talent; great news for developers and a pretty good indication that we’re all part of a healthy, growing industry.

HTML5 has been receiving incredibly mixed views, with a number of people hailing it as the biggest technological event since the invention of the light bulb; others dismissing it as a complete waste of time. “By the time it’s finally ready we’ll have moved on to the next thing,” said one nameless developer.

The free-to-attend Developer Workshops provided a wealth of technical and business advice, discussing the major challenges of app creation, distribution and monetisation. The Samsung bada workshop pulled a massive crowd; and there was massive interest in the introduction to WP7 design session.

Thanks again to everyone who came down, speakers, sponsors, delegates and exhibitors. If you’ve blogged or covered the show in any way, please tweet it at us and we’ll promote you in our post show round-up. We welcome your feedback.

Stand by for information on next year’s exciting plans. We’ll be back, building on this week’s success with a bigger and better show; striving to help people make valuable industry connections.

Sophisticated geo-location technology will be able to compose a predictive customised schedule  for your day, reacting not just to where you are, but also what’s around you and what you’ve done in the past. This was a vision of the future delivered by the Geo-Location panel on day 2 of Apps World Europe.

For instance, your future app will be able to use location to realise you’re about to hit an area of forehead-slapping traffic congestion, calculate how late you might be for your important business meeting, then reschedule for you while you fight through the jam.

This fascinating panel session, chaired by Peter Swain, CEO of Always on Message, included Patrick Connolly from ABI Research, Ian Holt from Ordnance Survey, Anwar Ahmed from NAVTEQ and Phillip Gontier from Poynt. In the future our location apps will be jaw-droppingly amazing, they agreed, but right now, no one’s really come up with the killer location product.

“We’re at that transition point,” said Connolly. “We’re going through the service stage where location is the key point of the service. But GPS is going to triple over the next few years and high accuracy location is going to sit under so much of what we do in mobile; location is becoming important for developers, and it’ll improve marketing and analytics.”

Privacy

But what about issues around privacy? I’m not sure if I want my every movement tracked on some marketing database somewhere in California.

“There is problem with privacy,” admitted Connolly. “It needs to become more explicit and people need to know what the benefits are. Regulators are pushing change that way. And as people get more educated it will catch on.”

Platform owners like Apple and Google have taken a legal approach to regulation of this data, claiming it’s the responsibility of developer, said Connolly. “I think it’s up to them to actually take control,” he added. “And I think regulation is pushing them that way.”

Phillip Gontier looked incredulous at the suggestion that Poynt might sell data around the location of its users. “It’s about value exchange,” he said. “What we do is give the user something really useful that allows them to connect with local businesses.

“It’s a utility tool. If we provide enough value and location advertising that relevant and valuable, in terms of context, then I don’t think it becomes an issue. When you push stuff that not relevant, that’s when it becomes an issue.”

Developers itching for access

So what needs to happen before we get to the point where my location app can book me onto a later train because it knows my important business meeting over-ran and I’m not going to be able to make the earlier one I’d booked?

Gontlier would like to see a lot of organisations open their data up to developers. Imagine what could be done with the information that TFL folds, ahead of the London Olympics. “These are basic things to have in place,” he said. “App developers could do really cool stuff with that, and it needs to happen across the board.”