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April 14th. The middle of the month and a date remembered by some as the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003 or perhaps the unprecedented tie result for the Academy Award for Best Actress in the ’60s. Here in 2013, we use this date to mark the culmination of another week of Android news.
It seems like it was only yesterday that Google celebrated its ten billionth app download with a ten cents, ten apps, ten days promotion. Yet here we are, less than a year later with the 25 billionth download milestone crossed.
In true Google fashion, another promotion has been launched on the Play Store to celebrate this new achievement. Aside from offering a collection of 25 discounted books, music albums and movies, the Play Store is running a 25 cents apps and games deal for 5 days. The offer should run until Sunday with a new collection of apps and games every day.
The promotion started yesterday — and is still available as of the time we published this post — and offered such stellar apps as OfficeSuite Pro 6+, Runtastic Pro and Tasks amongst others. There were also many great games like Angry Birds Space Premium, Granny Smith, Asphalt 7 : Heat and Draw Something.
Personally, I have bought several of the games and apps that were offered yesterday, and plan on doing the same for the next four days. I think it’s a great way to discover content that you would otherwise overlook, and stock on newer games and time-wasters. Plus, during the ten cents promotion last year, I bought a few apps that I didn’t need at the time but have found quite useful later on.
For instance, even though I had a Desire Z with a hardware QWERTY, I bought Swiftkey Keyboard which I didn’t even need or use. Then I switched to a Galaxy S3, started looking for a decent keyboard replacement and found that Swiftkey was marked as Purchased on my Play Store account. I downloaded it and thanked my lucky stars for making that purchase. To say that it’s the best ten cents I ever spent would be an understatement.
This year, I plan on doing the same. If an app seems remotely interesting, I will buy it even if I don’t need it right away. After all, it’s only a quarter of a dollar, and I might find it invaluable later on. Also, it’s a great way to support as many developers as possible without breaking my piggy jar.
It’s impossible to visit a tech site now without seeing some mention of Google’s first foray into the tablet market – and rightfully so. The release of this tablet is a really, really big deal.
As it stands, the iPad is without a doubt the king of the tablet market. It has great features, build quality and most importantly, a great selection of tablet optimized apps. The story for Android tablets is completely different. Many of them have dodgy features (the manufactures instead opt to change the skin and add bloatware), a lot of the tablets are made out of cheap and creaky plastic frames and intuitive Android tablet optimized apps aren’t exactly a commodity.
But with the Nexus 7, Android tablets might just be able to topple the king.
I have seen countless applications released on Android months or even years later than on iOS. This seems to be a strange choice for the developers to take, as statistics show that it may actually harm their profits. In this article I will discuss my views, and share the evidence that supports them.
