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CommonWealth Bank releases cross-platform banking app, except for Blackberry

July 12, 2011 | By Surur

Picture via ZDNet.

In what is likely to become an increasing trend, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia has today rolled out a bevy of mobile apps for iPhone, Android and also Windows Phone 7, but not for Blackberry.

The new mobile banking apps consist of three core functions. The NetBank service allows customers to check transactions, transfer money and pay bills, while the app also includes the CommSec Property Guide (iPhone only) and a new foreign exchange tool kit. The latter allows users to check foreign exchange rates for 33 currencies, and also has calculators for cash rates, Travel Money Card and international money transfers. It allows users to set buying and selling currency alerts, and can track a currency’s historical performance over a two year period.

The Commonwealth Bank app also shows you the nearest branch and ATM based on your current GPS location, and includes social media integration with the Bank’s Twitter, Facebook and YouTube accounts.

As chief marketing and online officer Andy Lark why the Windows Phone 7 app was released before the Blackberry app:

On our radar, Windows Phone 7 is very small at the moment but we’re able to extend our reach by offering another device. We’re certainly looking at all devices on our roadmap. The opportunity came up to work with the WP7 guys through our Microsoft partnership, so we rook it. Long-term we want to be device agnostic.

The Windows Phone 7 Marketplace already feature more real applications than the Blackberry App World, where approximately 25% of the “apps” are themes and 1/3 “ebooks”.

The new Commonwealth Bank apps can be downloaded now from the iOS App Store, the Google Android Market, while the Windows Phone 7 app will be available in the Windows Marketplace from Thursday 14 July.

Via Lifehacker.com

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Windows Phone 7 vs Blackberry speed of development demoed

July 4, 2011 | By Surur

Update: We have been asked to remove the video by the creator.

The Windows Phone 7 Marketplace is set to zoom past the Blackberry App World in the next few months , and the above demo by Max Paulousky by shows exactly why – much better tools on Windows Phone 7.

According to an unnamed Blackberry executive Blackberry’s tools are like “a rundown 1990?s Ford Explorer”, meaning this simple project to create a RSS feed reading app takes 1/3 less time on Windows Phone 7 than Blackberry.

Add to this the huge fragmentation between the large number of Blackberry models, and this means the cost of supporting the Blackberry range is just not worth it for many developers. No wonder some of them are dropping support for the venerable messaging devices.

Seesmic drops support for Blackberry, focussing on popular platforms like Windows Phone 7

June 20, 2011 | By Surur

In a note posted on their website Seesmic has announced that they will be dropping support for RIM’s embattled Blackberry platform.

They write:

Important update for Blackberry users

Blackberry users, we have important news we would like to share:

Effective June 30th, Seesmic will discontinue support for Blackberry in order to focus development efforts on our most popular mobile platforms: Android,iOS and Windows Phone 7.

We encourage those effected by this change to try out Seesmic for Android, iOS and Windows Phone 7, as well as Seesmic Desktop and Web.

Sincerely,

Team Seesmic

RIM, who lost half of its market capitalization over the last 6 months, and which is now worth less that $13.5 billion, is believed to have lost 18% of its US subscribers in the last year, and is one of the most fragmented platforms, with numerous versions of its operating system in circulation, making it one of the most complex and expensive platforms to support.

The withdrawal of support by developers will be seen as another blow against the company, and will do nothing to halt the slide in the share price of the company, already down nearly 30% since last week.

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While UK iPhone and Blackberry market share falls Windows Phone starts turning around

June 14, 2011 | By Surur

	May-10	Mar-11	May-11
Android	9.8	38	44.9
iPhone	32.9	23	19.6
Blackberry	18.6	24.5	20.9
Windows Phone	6.2	2	2.8
Symbian	31	11.4	10.6
Other	1.5	1.1	1.2

There is no mistaking that the biggest story in the UK is Android’s amazing year on year growth, rushing to dominate the smartphone market share in the country, according to Kantar Worldpanel .

Looking past that headline however we see a good news story for Windows Phone also, struggling to be a relevant 3rd mobile ecosystem.

Comparing the figures between March and May 2011 we can see only Android and Windows Phone showed growth, while the likes of Symbian, Blackberry and even iPhone saw significant drops.

Hopefully this is a trend we will see continue as the year progresses, especially with a new wave of hardware coming in 3-4 months.

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Bing on Blackberry demoed (video)

May 3, 2011 | By Surur

Pocketberry have managed to grab a video of Bing integration being demoed on a Blackberry Torch.

The video shows how Bing Maps and Search are integrated on the Blackberry lock screen, and also shows that the Bing app remains more or less true to the Metro UI.

The app also has features missing from the Windows phone 7 app, including venue maps, street side mapping and also photo search. Apparently future updates due in December for Blackberry OS will even allow photosynth creation.

Presumable (and hopefully) much of this will also come to Windows Phone 7 eventually but it may be another case where Windows phone 7 competitors get Microsoft services well before its own OS does.

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Microsoft partner with RIM: Blackberries now to come with Bing Maps, MS to promote Blackberry : Updated with press release

May 3, 2011 | By Surur

bingmapsblackberry

Bing Maps on Blackberry

At Blackberry World Microsoft has just announced a partnership between the company and Research In Motion.

The deal would extend initially to having Bing Maps pre-installed on all Blackberries and Bing Search would be the default search engine, but will also include further cooperation, including Microsoft promoting Blackberry Enterprise Server to their clients and offering the Blackberry platform in addition to Windows Phone 7.

Bing Search and Bing Maps will also be the default clients on the Blackberry Playbook tablet

The deal was announced by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who told attendees at Blackberry World that Microsoft would invest "uniquely" in BlackBerry services, according to Business Insider.

Microsoft also promised further integration of Bing into the core Blackberry OS would occur around Christmas.

The move could be seen as Microsoft showing lack of confidence in Windows Phone 7, but also alternatively it could be seen as Microsoft being opportunistic and taking advantage of companies who see Google’s Android is their biggest threat at the moment and are looking for search and mapping alternatives. This motivation has prompted Nokia to adopt Windows Phone 7 in February this year.

Bing became one of the available search options on the iPhone in January 2010.

Update: See the official press release after the break:

Continue reading →

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Business Insider: When I asked the audience "Does anybody think RIM will still be around in 2015" the response was silence

April 28, 2011 | By Surur

windowsphone7-funerallg3 Business Insider reports from an AppNation panel on mobile platforms which included developers and marketers from app companies, as well as reps from other parts of the mobile industry like carriers and chipset makers.

While for those present the first and second mobile platform was clear, the third was no longer Blackberry.

Based on Microsoft’s resources and the Nokia deal, Windows Phone 7 was now a clear contender. "Microsoft is buying developers and it will buy distribution" one said.

In response developers are taking the resources they put into RIM and gradually moving them over to Windows Phone. This has been confirmed recently by a survey by AppAccelerator in which Windows Phone 7 overtook Blackberry in developer interest. Distimo estimated Marketplace will overtake Blackberry App World within the year.

RIM has also been seeing market share losses in USA, while Windows Phone 7 has been seeing gains. Significantly, when the audience was asked "does anybody think RIM will still be around in 2015" the response was silence.

Update: As if to underline the prediction RIM lowered its profit forecast for the first quarter of 2011 Thursday amid weak shipments of its BlackBerry devices. RIM also said it expects revenue to come in slightly below its previous guidance of between $5.2 and $5.6 billion.

RIM blamed the earnings and revenue shortfall on weaker than anticipated shipments of its BlackBerry phones. The company also said that more of its sales have shifted toward lower cost handsets. Trading in RIM shared were briefly halted after the announcement, and when resumed fell more than 10% in after hour trading.

RIM’s QNX-powered handsets are also at present rumoured to be delayed, with their 6.1 OS expected to be renamed Blackberry OS 7.0

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Zombies!!! Developer confident of Windows Phone 7 success

April 27, 2011 | By Surur

Andreja Djokovic – CEO and founder of Babaroga and developer of the Zombies!!!, Zombies!!!, Need for Speed, The Sims 3 and Monopoly has spoken to PocketGamer.biz about his experience of Windows Phone 7 Marketplace and how he sees the future of the platform.

His titles, which are mostly recognizable big names and which have consistently been in the top 10, has been performing great earnings-wise:

My feeling that all four of our games – Zombies!!!, Need for Speed, The Sims 3and Monopoly – have been performing quite well, and if you look at the charts, their standing is pretty high. Zombies!!! has a pretty strong following from fans of the board game, but I also think it’s very accessible to new users.

Zombies!!! has been in the top 10 for an extended period of time. So we are quite happy with its position. Obviously, it doesn’t generate the same number of sales as a top 10 spot on iOS, but it outweighs other platforms like BlackBerry with much higher device coverage and much higher port cost.

A recent developer survey has indicated Windows Phone 7, despite its much smaller installed base, has overtaken Blackberry in developer interest.

Asked about Marketplace in general he noted:

It’s no secret that WP7′s market share is not high, but I agree with the projections that say it will grow, and Microsoft is taking the platform seriously.
The same was said for Android a couple of years back when it launched. Many suggested that it would not perform well against iOS. Look at it now.
Marketplace is performing well. Initially, its performance was modest, but with every passing month the numbers are getting better. Anecdotally, I can say a couple of Xbox Live games have done better on WP7 that the same games on RIM devices, with less expense and trouble.

His company planned to continue to invest in Windows Phone 7.

We worked on four launch titles for WP7, we just finished two more, and we are looking to start a few more this quarter.
We will be releasing updates and downloadable expansion packs as well as introducing really cool features to our Zombies!!!. We are strongly embedded into the WP7 platform – we see a growing potential.

Read the full interview, with more detail on his view on Nokia, at Pocketgamer.biz here.

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Windows Phone 7 crosses the half a million monthly Facebook user mark, growing faster than Android

April 21, 2011 | By Surur

fbwp7

facebookwebos The question of how many Windows Phone 7 handsets are out there still remains unanswered, but what we do know at the very least is that the number of active Windows Phone 7 users of the Official Windows Phone 7 Facebook app has crossed the 500,000 mark.

While the number is still far off from the 75 million on iOS or 36 million on Android, it is not far off from Facebook for webOS, which only has 672,000 users, and in fact dropping rapidly.

Compared to the other major mobile operating systems and the number of users of their official Facebook apps, it is clear that the Windows Phone 7 installed base is still pretty small, less than 1.5% of the size of Android and Blackberry and 0.7% of the iOS devices.

	22th March	21th April	Growth	Relative size
Windows Phone	443561	505047	14%
Android	32152626	36098871	12%	1.4%
iPhone	69226955	72025920	4%	0.7%
Blackberry	31657500	32665566	3%	1.5%

On the other hand over the last 30 days Windows Phone has been growing faster in relative terms than Android, and certainly a lot faster than the iPhone and Android. And of course we expect a major boost in absolute numbers when Nokia introduces devices in later 2011 and early 2012.

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Statcounter shows iOS losing market share, only Android and Windows Phone 7 growing

April 1, 2011 | By Surur

Mobile OS Market Share %	Jan 11	Feb 11	Mar 11
SymbianOS	30.25	30.66	30.61
iOS	25.02	24.56	24.38
BlackBerry OS	15.03	14.52	14.1
Android	14.61	15.16	15.8
WinCE	0.37	0.35	0.32
webOS	0.25	0.21	0.19
Windows Phone	0.14	0.26	0.28
Maemo 5	0.13	0.12	0.11
Palm	0.02	0.01	0.01

The Statcounter data for March is now available, and it continues to show Windows Phone 7 growing , albeit at a slower pace than immediately after launch.

StatCounter aggregates data from a sample exceeding 15 billion page views per month collected from across the StatCounter network of more than 3 million websites, and shows web activity of the installed base.

While WP7 growth was not as robust as immediately after launch, at 8% MoM it still exceeded the 4% of Android, and certainly beat the negative of all the other relevant mobile operating systems.

iOS, which includes iPhone, iPad and the iPod Touch, lost 1% market share, Blackberry 3%, Maemo 8% and of course webOS a massive 10%.

At the rate RIM is losing market share, it is likely the OS will have less than 10% by the end of the year, lending support to the IDC prediction that Windows Phone 7 will overtake the OS by 2015.

While at this rate of growth it will take a long time for Windows phone to close the installed base gap between it and its rivals, it does demonstrate that the OS remains a worthwhile investment for OEMS, and consumers continue to chose the OS at ever increasing numbers.

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Windows Phone 7 Winning Young Developers

March 15, 2011 | By Pradeep

The Great Canadian Appathon is a competition for post-secondary students across Canada to showcase their skills in developing great games. Students can get together in teams of up to 4 people to develop their game together for 48 hours. The competition takes place at University of Waterloo which has strong ties with Blackberry maker RIM. Financial Post when speaking with students taking part at the event, came up with a general comment that Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 platform is pretty straight forward and lot easier to use for development than Blackberry, iOS,etc. Students find that developing apps for Blackberry now creates bad reputation. Building on its positive note, Microsoft is sponsoring the event as Official Platform Sponsor. Again, a good work by WP7 Developer Experience team. Hit the source link for more details on what students were building on WP7 platform.

Source: Financial Post

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Marketplace hits 9000 apps, already has more ‘real apps’ than Blackberry App World

March 1, 2011 | By Surur

appworldvsmarketplace

A little over 2 weeks ago, on the 11th February we hit 8000 apps, and today, Marketplace crosses the 9000 app milestone. The number is rapidly closing in on the 20,000 apps claimed by Blackberry app world in February 2011, and of course is devoid of the wallpapers and themes which form about 5500 or around 25% of the so-called “apps” there, and the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace only has 507 “books and reference” apps versus the massive 6100 in App World, 4000 of which come from the same spam publisher in App World.

Effectively, in terms of real apps, Windows Phone 7 is already the 3rd ecosystem, in USA at least where Symbian is not a factor.

Via WPCentral.com

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Microsoft Executive On Developers: “Every developer matters. Every. Single. One”

February 28, 2011 | By Pradeep

Brandon Watson, Director of developer experience of Windows Phone team at Microsoft has blogged about the recent incident related to the Blackberry Application development platform. The issue started when Jamie Murai, a Blackberry developer who blogged his recent experience with the Blackberry application development process. He described the entire process starting from registering as a Blackberry app developer to running a code. The entire experience was a total mess. His thoughts soon spread across the web, so Blackberry tried to control the damage by a blog post by Tyler Lessard from RIM . Here is what Brandon did( excerpt from his blog),

Last week when I read Jamie’s excoriation of the Blackberry Playbook dev platform (so many people forwarded it to me), it made me sad. Sad because a developer was hitting friction on a platform on which he clearly wanted to develop apps.

Even if we build the platform one developer at a time, that’s one more developer than we had last week. Every developer matters. Every. Single. One. I effing love my job.

Good Job Brandon Watson.

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