Thursday Mobile Round-Up: Yudu's Subscription Product, Android Shipments

Yudu Launches Way For Publishers to Avoid Apple's 30% Cut: How long will this one last? This service lets users download new editions of publications via the web, allowing them to not give up 30 percent of subscription revenue to Apple. Of course, we doubt the user experience will be as seamless as in-app payments, which might lead to a lower conversion rate for publishers. News Corp.'s The Daily Gains 800,000 Downloads, Loses $10 million: The company's president Chase Carey said that the company expects to spend $30 million on the iPad app through year-end including $7 million in the second quarter. The company didn't disclose the conversion rate from free to paid subscriptions. Microsoft Tries to Spur Interest Among iOS Developers For Windows Phone 7: Trying to come from behind after making a late entrance, Microsoft is giving a guide to iOS developers to help them translate their work from iOS APIs to Windows Phone ones. This still doesn't make up for the fact that the Windows Phone 7 is still quite small compared to iOS and Android's footprints at this point. Back-of-the-hand estimates suggest that there might be 1.5 million activated devices at this point. Android Shipped 33.3 Million Devices in Q4 2010, While iOS Did 16.2 Million: Canalys releases another estimate supporting Android's momentum, saying that the platform grabbed nearly one-third of all global phone shipments in the last quarter of 2010. That's up from 8.7 percent share in the same period a year earlier. Android Market May Overtake The iOS App Store In Terms of Number of Applications in August Android Market is getting more competitive; both it and the iOS app store will reach 425,000 total applications offered in August before Google's store plows ahead faster. This isn't really a surprise given that Android has overtaken Apple's platform in terms of device shipments, making it relatively more attractive to developers. Android Market also doesn't have a review process, meaning that any developer can automatically put apps of varying quality into the store. PopCap's Plants Vs. Zombies Turns 2: PopCap's hit Plants Vs. Zombies, which spawned a veritable font of zombie-themed games on the iOS platform turns two today. An Android version should be coming soon. Chillingo Releases Puzzler Spider Jack: EA-owned publisher Chillingo just released a new title, Spider Jack, which is a puzzle game reminiscent of Cut The Rope where the player has to help a spider weave its way around a number of obstacles to find its next meal.

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Thursday Mobile Round-Up: Yudu's Subscription Product, Android Shipments

Kim-Mai Cutler

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Kim-Mai Cutler