TamsPalm – the Palm OS / web OS Blog

In the Micro ISV space on the desktop, selling your company to a larger vendor is a very popular “exit scenario” for founders. So far, it has not been too much of an option in mobile.

Olga Steidl, long-serving press officer of the company, has just sent out the following:

SPB Software, a leading mobile software developer is acquired by Yandex (NASDAQ: YNDX), the leading internet company in Russia.

With this acquisition Yandex starts offering a key component for various mobile platforms – a user interface configured to integrate the company’s key services based on SPB best known technology – SPB Shell 3D. This move boosts Yandex’s opportunities to partner with the players in the mobile ecosystem.

SPB Shell 3D, developed by SPB Software, will be enhanced to integrate Yandex’s cloud services and technologies. In addition, users will have easy access to the company’s services including its search capabilities featured on a wide variety of mobile devices.

“Mobile is a vital part of our growth strategy. The acquisition of SPB Software creates new market potential for us and a plethora of possibilities for innovative solutions for our partners”, said Yandex’s CEO Arkady Volozh. “SPB Shell 3D is an ideal foundation on which to build up our mobile opportunity.”

“SPB Software is excited to join Yandex”, said Sebastian-Justus Schmidt, CEO of SPB Software. “This allows us to unite efforts in developing and marketing new cutting-edge mobile solutions. SPB Software will continue its mission to produce innovative mobile products of the highest quality.”

Looking back to past congresses, the UI system took more and more prevalence over consumer applications at SPB’s booth.

As to why Yandex buys the company outright rather than just license the relevant parts: don’t ask me…

When it comes to web analytics, it sometimes gives us extremely interesting insights – users tend to stop visiting web services if they have an app to access the service.

Data from Opera’s ad division AdMarvel now contains the following gems:

Windows Phone users are more likely to visit email and communications sites compared to users of other platforms.
Are Android users more educated than users of the other platforms? Maybe, as they are the biggest group in the Education category. Education includes the websites for universities and general education.
Android users are the least likely to visit social media websites using their browser.

Not much to add here – except that I never opened my webmail with a Symbian or Android phone…

The folks at Comscore’s have sent us the latest interesting tidbits on the mobile market.

First of all, Android has now overtaken the iPhone as the top games platform – it is now second only to dumbphones:

In the EU5 region (DE, FR, IT, ES, UK), Symbian’s losses were almost entirely eaten up by Android. It is now the number two platform:

Looking at the Android data on a per-OEM level, we see HTC and Samsung battling one another for the top position:

Finally, a bit of data on “who does what”:

Find out more via the URLs below:
http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2011/9/Android_Captures_number_2_Ranking_Among_Smartphone_Platforms_in_EU5
http://www.comscoredatamine.com/2011/09/top-smartphone-platforms-for-mobile-gamers/

In traditional markets, the amount of consulting needed to achieve an end product is smaller than the amount of revenue the finished product will bring.

In mobile computing, this has reversed. A press release by the German market research company research2guidance now contains the following, somewhat alarming statement:

The development service market today is already twice as big as the app download market.

The market for app development services, including application creation, management, distribution and extension services, will grow in value to US$100 billion in 2015. In only a year and a half after the launch of the Apple App Store the application developer market overtook the app download market in revenue size.

Given the ever-increasing amount of free applications, one can state that the app is on the way to become the next advertising channel (rather than a productive tool).

What do you think?

Shortly after the webOS 2.0 SDK release, here comes the webOS 3.0 SDK in Early Access:

The HP webOS 3.0 SDK developer beta is now available for download through the webOS Developer Early Access Program. This is the first webOS release specifically targeted at the HP TouchPad*, and we want to make sure you have time to make great apps ready for this exciting platform. Here’s what you need to do to start developing using the newest version of HP’s groundbreaking mobile operating system, and developing great apps for the TouchPad.

Source: https://developer.palm.com/content/resources/develop/webos_3_0_developer_beta.html

JezzBall is an evergreen. Tamoggemon’s award-winning BallZ series has brought JezzBall fun to PalmOS and Symbian heads – bada users are now a target, too.

Effective immediately, users can use Samsung Apps on their Wave smartphone to download a free trial version of JezzBall. BallZ Free contains the following features:

• 8 levels
• Background music
• Full SFX

A full version containing 30 colorful levels will be released in the near future, and will be announced in a separate release. Support for QVGA devices is being implemented as you tread this, and will become available along with the paid version.

Tam Hanna, CEO of Tamoggemon states the following:

Developing applications and games for Samsung’s bada OS was a fascinating experience. Tamoggemon is always interested in supporting new and promising platforms – and Samsung bada has the potential to be a smash hit!”.

Further information can be obtained here:
http://www.tamoggemon.com/bada/balz/index.html

Mobile advertising is one of the fastest-growing monetization venues for third-party developers – the late Berthold Thomae’s warning (the numbers can’t add up) apparently was not heard.

App data was passed to advertisers secretly in order to optimize yield. ThinkDigit now reports the following:

In the case of Lalo versus Apple Inc. et al, Apple and few major iOS developers are being sued by Jonathan Lalo for selling his personal data from his iPad and iPhone to advertisers, data which included his age, sex, and location information.

…

Even though moving your company to a safe offshore country will likely keep you safe as an ISV, don’t complain that you haven’t been warned…