Lenovo Launches An Andr...

Computer manufacturer Lenovo has launched its own Android app store today, called simply, the “ Lenovo Enterprise App Shop .” As the name implies, the service is targeting the company’s businesses customers by offering custom management, deployment and publication of mobile applications. Apps can also be purchased through volume pricing. Lenovo says the app store will work on their Android-based tablets running Android 3.1 or higher, but it will also work with those tablets from other PC makers, too. One key feature of the new app store something known as the “Lenovo App Shop Manager.” Essentially, this is a tool that allows a company’s I.T. admins to build their own customized app stores which they can then fill with apps that are approved for use by the company’s end users. I.T. can also remotely disable apps when required, identify unapproved apps, alert users, or uninstall apps entirely, if need be. Lenovo says it modeled its own app store after the self-serve consumer app shops already available, while also making it available as a SaaS (software-as-a-service) cloud hosted solution. In other words, businesses don’t need to provide their own infrastructure and support for the app store – Lenovo provides it for them. Apps which are approved for the Lenovo app store, besides having a business focus, are also vetted in advance – meaning Lenovo tests them for malware, offensive content and runs them on Lenovo’s tablets to ensure they function properly. In addition to the apps found in the App Shop catalog, end users will also have access to those app found in the MobiHand Universal Android catalog, where volume licensing is available, too. The move is clearly one designed to target the increasing popularity of the Apple iPad in the enterprise – in a January study from enterprise mobility provider Good Technology, the iPad 2 was the third most popular device category in terms of enterprise activations, followed closely by the original iPad. Android tablet activations combined, meanwhile, accounting for only 6% of all tablet activations, the study found. With the third revision of the iPad (the new iPad), those numbers will again skew in Apple’s favor. Lenovo’s new app store was announced this morning, but the service has seemingly yet to go live. The company points to this URL  lenovo.com/enterpriseapp  as the new home for the enterprise app store, but it’s currently displaying a broken link. Stay tuned.

AppCod.es Launches App ...

Warsaw-based, three-person startup AppCod.es just released new tools that will appeal to mobile app developers, both of which are intent on helping developers achieve better ASO, or App Store Optimization. ASO is basically a new form of SEO, but instead of boosting search engine rankings, it’s about boosting the ranking of your mobile app in iTunes, the Android Market (I mean Google Play… sigh ), or another app store. Today AppCod.es is rolling out two utilities for ASO in iTunes: one, a keyword prediction tool which aims to guess the keywords used by your app’s competition, and two, a tool that predicts your position in the app store for a given keyword. “Traditionally, a developer had to submit a new set of keywords for the app into the app store, then he or she had to wait for a week to be approved,” explains AppCod.es co-founder Tomasz Kolinko. “After a day or so, he would see whether his ASO actions worked.” With the new prediction tool, the goal is to provide similar analysis in seconds, not a week. The tool is still very new, of course, but Kolinko says that, in tests, results have been promising. To use the service, developers would type in the name of the app and their iTunes keywords, and the results would show the chances of getting into the first page of app search results with that given combination. In a video (see below), the company demonstrates how this works using an app called “Goal Setting Workshop.” As they try different names and keywords, the percentage chance of getting into the top results updates in real-time. The tool isn’t built based on public data provided by Apple, as such a thing is not available. Instead, it’s based on AppCod.es’ own observations and analysis of app store queries and behavior. The company developed algorithms that attempt to reverse engineer Apple’s own weighting mechanism, the generalities of which are already known. “The apps which have the search query in the name, in the developer name, or in the in-app purchase name, receive more weight points,” explains Kolinko, “the apps which have the search query just in the keywords receive less points. Then, there is given a special preference to the apps who match the search query exactly, and some preference to the apps which have high download count,” he says. The devil is in the details, of course. To determine how it works, the team analyzed data related to their own apps, their knowledge of keywords, and competitors’ keywords and then tried to guess at the exact weighting function. “We didn’t get it 100% right, because we don’t have all the data Apple has, but it’s more or less right,” Kolinko says of the utility. Even if it’s a hit-or-miss offering (which requires more testing from a broad set of developers to be determined), it’s an improvement on the ASO techniques many developers use today – which is to say, none. Also new today is a tool that functions as a keyword prediction utility. This one aims to help developers figure out the keywords their competitors may be using. For example, the tool could tell you that something like Instagram uses keywords like “camera, effects, filters, free, photo, share, vintage, and hipster,” among others. (Also, LOL at “hipster.”). Knowing how competitors position themselves in the App Store is a good first step at knowing which keywords you should choose, or those to avoid. Kolinko says the company has a database with 450,000 iOS apps and 150,000 keywords, and it’s easy to check if they are the right ones. “For example, according to our database, for the app ‘Angry Birds,’ one of the keywords is ‘slingshot.’ If you enter the U.S. App Store, and type in the search ‘Angry Birds slingshot’, you’ll find the app Angry Birds,” he explains. “This can only happen when Angry Birds actually has ‘slingshot’ their list.” However, he notes that Apple also uses approximate matching, so in some cases, the AppCod.es guess is a close match of the word. That means an app using “gratis,” for instance, may be surfaced by “gratii,” “gratuit,” “gratins,” and other misspellings. AppCod.es admits that they’re a little bit behind in terms of the quality of their website’s design, especially when compared with the more professional offerings from MobileDevHQ (via AppStoreHQ), for example. We covered MobileDevHQ’s ASO tools  last month . (And yeah, AppCod.es hijacked the comments section there with links to their own offering. But that’s OK this time – this market needs more attention.) For now, tools like this are relatively easy to build, as there are only a handful of parameters used to rank app results, unlike Google and its thousands of signals used to rank webpages. Over time, though, and especially after the Chomp team gets involved in search improvements, ASO will become far more complex. The AppCod.es toolset is a paid service ($15/month) and works for the U.S. iTunes App Store only. However, TechCrunch readers can use the code TC1 to get their first month for just a dollar. And the first 50 accounts to sign up with TCFREE will get the service for free.

The Government Wants To...

The US Department of Defense Explosive Ordinance Disposal unit is look for a few good coders to help build apps and an entire app store for bomb technicians and soldiers involved in ordnance handling. This is when sliding to unlock could mean the difference between life or death. The request for proposals is as dull as dirt (you can read it here ) but the requirements are clear: they’re looking for apps that will replace paper pocket guides and references used by the folks that blow up the big badda booms. If you’re interested the funding can run as high as $750,000 and $1,250,000, according to an engineer familiar with the proceedings and all you have to do is ensure the product is encrypted and password protected and that it involves lots of cool, wire-frame graphics so it looks like all of those computer programs used by hackers in the movies. Develop a Smartphone Software Applications (Apps) and distribution system and procedures (known commercially as an App Store) or individual Apps for Joint Service EOD and/or public safety bomb technicians that would provide immediate access to required technical and tactical information and preclude the need to carry paper pocket guides and reference material on site. The application distribution system or individual Apps shall be accessible to all EOD and/or Bomb Squad personnel to view and/or download information as needed and must be compatible with one or more major operating systems of commercially available smart devices (e.g., Android, Apple, Blackberry, etc.). This developed Joint Service EOD distribution system shall adhere to military regulations for distribution of unclassified but limited distribution information. The Apps shall be encrypted (e.g., AES-256) and password-protected or otherwise controlled for limited access to only bomb squad and EOD technicians. A requirements analysis shall be conducted to determine the most feasible and effective method for conversion of existing and future publications and system oversight, including information access, password issuance, and periodic updates of publications. The deadline is March 9, 2012, so get cracking. Don’t keep the Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office waiting.

Audi iAd: Slide to Unlo...

Here’s a clever little iAd from Audi. They’ve used a nice play on Apple’s “slide to unlock” feature to get users to engage. This campaign is for the new Audi magazine app which recently launched in Brazil and appeared within publications on the iPad. Once users saw it they instantly recognized the swipe gesture used Related Digital Buzz Posts: Audi A6: Interactive YouTube Driving Experience Audi Japan: World’s Biggest QR Code Ad Audi: Electricity Untamed Viral Campaign

37% Of Published Androi...

Research firm research2guidance this morning published a (free) report , offering key findings from an analysis of mobile applications store Android Market. According to the firm, the number of active mobile apps in Android Market stood at 319,161 at the end of last month, compared to 459,589 apps that are available in Apple’s App store (the company claims there are 500,000 apps , actually). Android developers appear to have more appetite for distributing multiple apps than iOS developers, however. Research2guidance asserts that the average Android Market app publisher has made more than 6 applications available since the launch of the store, compared to just over 4 apps that have been published by iOS developers, on average. Also worth noting: 37% of the applications that were published on Android Market were later removed – for a variety of reasons – while Apple has kicked off only 24% of published apps, as of the end of September 2011. Here’s how the research firm explains the discrepancy: Although Apple regularly cleans up its store from inappropriate or outdated content, its active application share still exceeds that of Android. It is likely that the more rigid application submission requirements prevent developers from publishing multiple trial or low quality applications whereas publishers in the Android Market place a lot of market testing, trials, demo and malware content. Over 78% of the apps removed from the Android Market were free, which could mean that publishers put more effort into the applications they place with the pay-per-download business model, thus ensuring that it is kept longer in store. Still according to research2guidance, the total number of applications that have been published on the Android Market to date surpassed 500,000 in September 2011. Apple’s App Store clocks in at just over 600,000 successful submissions (or 20% more). Considering Android’s growth rate ( 190 million Android devices and counting), it’s safe to assume there will be more applications for Android than iOS at some point next year. Crunchbase RESEARCH2GUIDANCE ANDROID Company: research2guidance Website: research2guidance.com research2guidance is an independent mobile industry market research and consultancy provider. We provide market reports, bespoke research and strategic consultancy helping our clients to be successful in the mobile industry. Our services include: regional market analysis, developer surveys, expert interviews, app store evaluation and comparison, mobile application strategy development, market entry strategy, etc. For all our engagements we leverage our broad contact base into the industry to the benefit of our client. Learn more Company: Android Website: android.com In July 2005, Google acquired Android, a small startup company based in Palo Alto, CA. Android’s co-founders who went to work at Google included Andy Rubin (co-founder of Danger), Rich Miner (co-founder of Wildfire), Nick Sears (once VP at T-Mobile), and Chris White (one of the first engineers at WebTV). At the time, little was known about the functions of Android other than they made software for mobile phones. This began rumors that Google was planning to enter... Learn more