Welcome to day two of Apps World North America 2013, we hope there aren’t too many sore heads following last night’s official show party in downtown San Fran, thanks to everyone who came and helped make it such an excellent event.

It’s time to get the game-faces back on this morning, as we have a whole heap of top-level apps industry discussion to look forward to. Here’s a short selection of some of the in-depth, not-to-miss sessions you can catch today. (more…)

With Mobile Marketing forecast to be worth £14.4 billion by 2016, this year’s Social Media World Forum event (27-28^th March) sets out to deliver a wealth of practical advice around using mobile social media and integrating mobile into your existing marketing strategy.

The growth in this market is due to the surge in smart phone ownership, which has also led to a knock on popularity for location based services. Research from Deloitte suggests that apps location features are significantly more popular than other apps.

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Apps World and Social Media World Forum Asia are almost upon us. Two shows designed specifically to help delegates build valuable connections in Asia and the rest of the digital world.We have compiled our top suggestions for how you can get the most out of getting connected at the show.

Twitter wall – a feature hard to be missed, located central to the networking hub within the expo area.  To see your tweets broadcasted on our big screens and be in with a chance of becoming the top tweeter at the event don’t forget to include the #AppsWorld and #SMWF hashtags in all your tweets!
Event app - download our event app and Talkbox to allow you to communicate with our speakers and delegates in a completely unique way.   Full details can be found here
Social shindig – come join the party at the annual Social Shindig Asia, this year located in the quirky Clarkes Quay at the Rupee Rooms kicking off from 7.30pm, an excellent opportunity to catch up over a few beverages in a chilled atmosphere
Tweet our speakers – twitter will of course be the order of the day, below you can find a list of many of our speaker’s and special guests twitter handles so you can get the conversation started ahead of the show. If you have a question for one of the speakers don’t forget to use the #SMWFQ and #AppsWorldQ hashtags. View all our speakers here. (more…)

The world of payments as we know it is changing and with it the way people shop and take or make payments. NFC, contactless payments, in-app payments or payment apps are the words on everyone’s lips.

Technology advances including broadband internet and mobile have reached critical mass, the continuous growth of smartphone penetration worldwide (up by 73% in Q2 2011 according to Canalys) and the ever increasing development of new apps have paved the way for this shift towards mobile payments. In the UK alone, one in three adults now uses a smartphone according to the latest report by telecoms regulator Ofcom. So why has the time come for Marketers and Retailers to be ready for Mobile Payments?

1 It’s only going to be the ‘next big thing’…
Mobile money apps have been on the peripheral for some time without many huge strides into their development. Juniper Research has now predicted mobile money transfer services will see users exceed 500 million worldwide by 2014 tripling in value by 2015 to reach $670bn. With Paypal releasing its new Android widget that will allow you to transfer money using near field communication. So it seems the mobile money train is finally leaving the station, and if other recent digital developments are to go by, it’s probably better to be on board. (more…)

Apple announced Tuesday that more than three billion apps have been downloaded from its revolutionary App Store by iPhone and iPod touch users worldwide.

“Three billion applications downloaded in less than 18 months–this is like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “The revolutionary App Store offers iPhone and iPod touch users an experience unlike anything else available on other mobile devices, and we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon.”

The news comes nine months after it hit 1 billion downloads, with the second billion taking a further six months.

When the 2 billion mark was reached, Apple also announced that 85 000 apps were available in the App Store at the time. This time, the company chose to stick to download numbers only.

However, in November 2009, Apple did say that 100 000 apps were published to the store.

Application stores will exceed 4.5 billion downloads in 2010

App Store

Consumers will spend $6.2 billion in 2010 in mobile application stores while advertising revenue is expected to generate $0.6 billion worldwide, according to Gartner. Analysts said mobile application stores will exceed 4.5 billion downloads in 2010, eight out of ten of which will be free to end users.

Gartner forecasts worldwide downloads in mobile application stores to surpass 21.6 billion by 2013. Free downloads will account for 82 per cent of all downloads in 2010, and will account for 87 per cent of downloads in 2013.

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There’s been some useful discussion recently about using the app store model for distributing enterprise software and services within organizations. Up until now, most IT needs in the majority of businesses have been met through one-size-fits-all delivery of solutions that are either hand-crafted or purchased and then imposed on all. It’s been this way for at least three decades, but now this aging and inadequate process is beginning to improve. (more…)

Social news aggregator Digg.com has released its free iPhone app in the App Store. Packed with a slick, feature-rich interface, the app is a strong start for the popular website, though there’s plenty of room for it to grow. (more…)

Buongiorno

Mobile Communication, like the printing press, personal transportation and the advent of mass media – is delivering new levels of personal independence, choice and opportunity. Through the most popular gadget in history, billions of people are beginning to interface with their world in completely new ways. More than 3 billion people now carry personal mobile devices, which can offer far more than just voice and text.

Social networking has clearly been an exciting, if unexpected, success on the web. This success has attracted hundreds of millions of users who connect to each other on their own terms, actively creating content and defining the links between this content. Social networking has proven to be the natural expression for the Web 2.0 movement, allowing users to wrestle the publishing power from established media to become both consumer and supplier. (more…)

The Cloud Computing Congress (http://www.cloudcomputingcongress.com/), has just announced a range of free to attend workshops on mobile cloud computing, co-located with the Mobile Social Media forum (http://www.mobilesocial-networking.com/).

The workshops examine why mobile and cloud computing are the perfect fit, and how this can be used to generate the next generation mobile experience. The workshops also cover practical demo of hybrid and mobile cloud computing, and how core functionality can be expanded to mobile devices for the cloud. View the free to attend workshops here: http://www.cloudcomputingcongress.com/exhibition/workshops.html (more…)