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”. (more…)

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. (more…)

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. (more…)

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. (more…)

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. (more…)

Apps industry growth is still significant in the UK and throughout Europe, though the really rapid growth areas are Asia and Africa, according to Terence Eden, head of developer community at InMobi.

Developers need to recognise the global nature of apps, he says; your market isn’t just limited to the country or even continent that you live in.

“The UK market is getting saturated,” he adds. “If developers want to unlock the power of what they’re doing they have to translate their apps to all the different app stores around the world.”

Not only that, but he believes developers need to think more strategically about how they’re going to monetise their apps over their entire lifecycle. “Think about that first sale and think about how you’re going to follow that up,” he says. “We can monetise your apps by putting advertising in them.”

With growth in app downloads predominantly around free apps, offering a free version of your app is often a smart way to go. “Once they’ve got your free version, you can upsell them, get them to buy the premium version,” says Eden. “If you want to sell extra functionality or features, we can provide a payment solution for that.”

Eden says his big issue is making developers aware that mobile advertising is also an option for their own business.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re the biggest brand on the planet or some guy in his bedroom working on the next big thing; you can use advertising to get your app out to millions of people, he says. “You can actually make a big splash worldwide with not a huge amount of budget.”

Embarcadero will be exhibiting at Apps World next week, come along to stand 126 and see how you can target both Win and Mac from a single codebase – making Mac development easy.

FireMonkey from Embarcadero provides the only single native Win/Mac development solution helping developers rise to the challenge of providing compelling, fast and highly functional software for both Windows and Mac simultaneously. (more…)

Good morning, welcome to the first day of Apps World Europe 2011!  We’re taking over the Olympia 2 here in London with some of the leading brands and people in the industry for two days of apps discussion, insight and networking.

If you’re heading down to the event this morning, the first sessions will be kicking off at 9am. Here’s a link to the full agenda.

Last minute booking has been furious but there are still a small number of places left on the free and paid for conference streams, so if you’re in the area, feel free to come down.

We’ve got some fascinating sessions today, with brands such as Nokia and Spotify taking part; as well as global operators such as Vodafone, Orange, Telefonica and Singtel all offering the benefit of their experience and industry viewpoint.

Here’s some interesting food for thought around some of our key sessions today. In the morning we’re looking at operator strategies for Apps & content:

Mobile Europe: Mobile application stores: what’s the opportunity?

Txt4ever: Operators need to embrace apps for new revenue streams

OVUM: Operator billing for third party app stores: changes ahead

In the afternoon we are looking at advertising your app and the media strategies available within the apps business.

Smashing Magazine: How to market your mobile application

Apps Tech News: 10 ways to make your app stand out in the mobile crowd

.NET: 10 step approach to marketing your app

Over in Developer Zone 1 Samsung are taking over with a whole afternoon dedicated to bada developers. Here’s what’s in store

2:00 Welcome
2:10 The UK bada developer challenge
2:15 bada ecosystem/from idea to published app
2:45 bada: show us the money
3:30 Coffee Break
3:45 Tools: implement, test, optimize
4:15 bada and iOS
4:45 Q+A
5:00 End of workshop

Manfred Bortenschlager, Platform Evangelist, Samsung
Keith O’Brien, Head of Content, Samsung
Sameer Ballewar, Technical Consultant, Samsung
Keith Bauwise, Technical Evangelist, Samsung
Jon Lansdell, Technical Writer, Samsung

So there are some things to think about today… If you’ve got something to add to any of the sessions you see, or harbour a burning question that needs answering, you can tweet it into the #AppsWorldQ hashtag; our panel moderators will be keeping an eye on this. Or you can earn maximum kudos by asking it directly over the Q&A mic.

Don’t forget about the official after show drinks will be at the Old Firehouse in Hammersmith. There’ll be complimentary drinks, networking and general merriment for all paid delegates. Doors open at 7.30, come along!

Microsap will be joining the exhibition at this year’s Apps World Europe event on 29-30^th November at London Olympia.

Microsap will be located at stand 120 and will be doing live demonstrations of their latest offerings including Augmented Reality apps. Augmented reality technology has enabled a virtual vision of objects to understand the pros and cons of products and global revenues from AR apps and services are expected to reach $1.5b by 2015. Microsap’s TV buying guide app helps the user to visualize a virtual image in the real world. This means you can decide your purchase even before visiting a retail shop all you need to have is a smart phone and a smart app.

Augmented reality looks set to be the future of buying! Boosting the buyer’s interest in the product and building a strong brand value. Augmented reality will enhance the selling medium, making it more reliable and portable for the retail industry and Microsap has taken a lead in showing the way it can be done.

To meet Microsap and see their demonstrations at Apps World you can register for a free exhibition pass here.

Related articles

• Retail Chain Uses Augmented Reality to Render Catalog in 3D (mashable.com)
• The Magic of Augmented Reality [Video] (geeksaresexy.net)