MobileCrunch |  |
- 37% Of Published Android Apps Were Later Removed, Compared To 24% Of iOS Apps
- Google Soon To Release Source Code For Ice Cream Sandwich
- The Scourge Of Pentile Returns With The Galaxy Nexus
- RIM Already Having Legal Woes Over BBX Trademark
- Verizon Lights Up 22 New Cities With 4G LTE Coverage
- (Video Demo) Bill Gross Chimes In
- Toshiba Shows Mobile LCD With 2,560 × 1,600 Resolution And 498PPI Density
- Apple To School The World’s Developers On iOS 5 With “Tech Talk World Tour”
- Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley: “The Daily Deal Companies Are Version 1.0″
- Motorola Admiral Hits Sprint On October 23 With $100 Price Tag
- Foursquare’s Crowley Reveals The Strategy Behind Radar, Siri, And Mobile’s New Push Interface
- Will RIM and Porsche Design Unveil A New BlackBerry Next Week? (Update: Confirmed)
- AT&T Surpasses 1 Million iPhone 4S Activations
- Sony Ericsson Plans To Release Android 4.0 To The Xperia Line In 2012
- BlueStacks Raises $6.4 Million To Give You One-Click Access To Android Apps On Windows Devices
| 37% Of Published Android Apps Were Later Removed, Compared To 24% Of iOS Apps Posted: 21 Oct 2011 04:55 AM PDT  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:
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. 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. 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...
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| Google Soon To Release Source Code For Ice Cream Sandwich Posted: 20 Oct 2011 08:47 PM PDT  Well, developers, it looks like Google will soon be releasing the code for Ice Cream Sandwich to the Android Open-Source Project. Thanks to a Google+ post penned by Jean-Baptiste Queru, the Technical Lead of the Android Open Source Project, and his link to an email written by Google engineer Dan Morrill, we do indeed have confirmation that Android 4.0 source code will see the light of day. “We plan to release the source for the recently-announced Ice Cream Sandwich soon, once it's available on devices”, Morrill said in his Google Groups post. This week, Google officially announced Android 4.0, a.k.a. Ice Cream Sandwich, at an event in Hong Kong, in which it revealed the sexy new Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the first phone to run ICS. You can check out Greg’s mega-video here for more. While Ice Cream Sandwich may usher in a new era of awesomeness for Android, developers were quick to note that the introduction ceremony (so to speak) was lacking in the release of any and all Ice Creamy source code. Some wondered if Google would take the same approach to Android 4.0 that it did to its predecessor, Honeycomb, and avoid releasing the source code to the public. At the time of its release, Google decided not to make Honeycomb available due to its being targeted at tablets, and, as Google VP of Engineering Andy Rubin told BusinessWeek: “To make our schedule to ship the tablet, we made some design tradeoffs … we didn’t want to think about what it would take for the same software to run on phones”. Google didn’t want to take a chance of “creating a really bad user experience”, so it kept Honeycomb’s code out of public hands. Google also explained in its own blog post today that it will be publicly documenting its calendar and text-to-speech APIs for Ice Cream Sandwich. Which will mean some changes for those who have been using undocumented APIs. For more on that, see the post here. More to come. Google provides search and advertising services, which together aim to organize and monetize the world’s information. In addition to its dominant search engine, it offers a plethora of online tools and platforms including: Gmail, Maps and YouTube. Most of its Web-based products are free, funded by Google’s highly integrated online advertising platforms AdWords and AdSense. Google promotes the idea that advertising should be highly targeted and relevant to users thus providing them with a rich source of information.... Android is a software platform for mobile devices based on the Linux operating system and developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance. It allows developers to write managed code in Java that utilizes Google-developed software libraries, but does not support programs developed in native code. The unveiling of the Android platform on 5 November 2007 was announced with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of 34 hardware, software and telecom companies devoted to advancing open standards...
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| The Scourge Of Pentile Returns With The Galaxy Nexus Posted: 20 Oct 2011 02:51 PM PDT  As a man once said: “Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.” How true that saying is regarding the promises of high-definition mobile screens. Samsung fooled me once with the Galaxy S series, the Pentile-based display of which gave me headaches just to look at. And now, after they fix that problem with the Galaxy S II, I hear they’ve brought it back for the Galaxy Nexus? Can’t get fooled again, Samsung. Can’t get fooled again. If you’re not familiar with Pentile displays, here’s a quick rundown: in traditional LCDs, each pixel is made up of one red dot, one green dot, and one blue dot or sub-pixel. If you look closely at the screen from some angles, you can usually make them out. A Pentile display, however, lets pixels share dots by using a different dot layout and algorithms for determining what pixel gets which dot and when. The end result is technically a higher resolution, since you can get more pixels out of the same number of dots: No better demonstration of this than the Galaxy Nexus itself: the total number of red, green, and blue dots in its screen is 1,843,200. Coincidentally, that’s the exact same number of sub-pixels as the iPhone 4. But those sub-pixels are making up 1280×720 = 921,600 pixels on the Galaxy Nexus, and 960×640 = 614,400 pixels on the iPhone. Does it seem logical to you that a display can increase the number of pixels created by a number of sub-elements by a third and suffer no ill effect? They couldn’t do it on the Galaxy S, and it was visible to the naked eye. Text and borders had a sawtooth effect from the way dots were shared between pixels. The Galaxy Note shows a polychromatic artifact effect on high-contrast things like black-on-white text. Will it be the same with the Galaxy Nexus? I haven’t held one in my hand so I can’t be sure, but I’m guessing that the combination of Pentile sub-pixel layout and a larger pixel pitch to begin will indeed make it visible. Some people don’t notice, and some don’t care. But if you’re picky about the quality of your display, make sure you set eyes on this thing before you buy it. For me personally, it’s a dealbreaker sight unseen. A man’s got to have principles.
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| RIM Already Having Legal Woes Over BBX Trademark Posted: 20 Oct 2011 02:02 PM PDT  Poor RIM. They just can’t catch a break. Just two days after the official unveiling of their new BBX platform (the company’s last bullet, so to speak), they’re already having legal papers thrown in their face. As it turns out, the BBX name (while rather fitting, given that it’s a merger of BlackBerryOS and QNX) wasn’t free for the taking. BASIS International, a software development company out of New Mexico, claims the trademark is theirs and that they’re willing to fight for it. BASIS International’s claim to the trademark lays in a product called BBx (short for Business BASIC eXtended), which they’ve been building since 1985 as an interpreter for the Business BASIC programming language. Never heard of it? Don’t worry — you’re not the only one. BASIS International isn’t filing their lawsuit just yet. They say they’ve given RIM until October 31st to respond to a cease and desist, essentially requesting that RIM stops using “BBX” immediately (read: they won’t.) And if RIM doesn’t comply? The company says they’ll “take the next logical legal step”. Meanwhile, RIM tells Reuters that they haven’t received the complaint — and even once they do, they see no problem. “We do not believe the marks are confusing, particularly since our respective companies are in different lines of business”. Research In Motion (RIM) is a Canadian designer, manufacturer and marketer of wireless devices and solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. The company is best known as the developer of the BlackBerry smart phone. RIM technology also enables a broad array of third party developers and manufacturers to enhance their products and services with wireless connectivity to data. RIM was founded in 1984. Based in Waterloo, Ontario, the company has offices in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.
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| Verizon Lights Up 22 New Cities With 4G LTE Coverage Posted: 20 Oct 2011 01:13 PM PDT  Get ready, Verizon subscribers. You may have reason to upgrade to a brand new LTE-capable device — like the freshly announced Motorola Droid RAZR — now that Verizon has extended its 4G LTE coverage to 22 new cities. The LTE extension into these 22 new cities will bring Verizon’s 4G coverage to a total of 165 cities today, with 13 more areas lighting up on November 17. New cities getting the LTE love today include:
Verizon also extended its existing 4G LTE coverage in Los Angeles, San Diego, Washington D.C. and Erie, PA. With today’s roll out and another one scheduled for November 17, Verizon’s 4G LTE network will cover a total of 178 cities in just under a month. By then, Verizon said it would offer at least 13 LTE-capable devices to customers. Verizon Communications Inc. delivers broadband and other wireline and wireless communication innovations to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America’s largest wireless network that serves nearly 102 million customers nationwide. Verizon’s Wireline operations include Verizon Business and Verizon Telecom, which brings customers converged communications, information and entertainment services over Verizon’s fiber-optic network.
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| (Video Demo) Bill Gross Chimes In Posted: 20 Oct 2011 01:03 PM PDT  Earlier this week, UberMedia (and Idealab) CEO Bill Gross launched a new product at the Web 2.0 Summit called Chime.in. It is an interest stream for following people and things you care about. You can even follow part of a person (only what they share about tech, and not what they share about cats). Gross gave me a demo of the iPhone app, which you can see above. Person: Bill Gross Website: idealab.com Companies: Compete, Snap Technologies, eSolar, Idealab, UberMedia, Feedback.com Bill Gross is a lifelong entrepreneur and proponent of solar power. While still in college, Mr. Gross founded Solar Devices, a firm that sold plans and kits for solar energy products. As the CEO of the technology incubator Idealab, Mr. Gross has founded several extremely successful companies, including Overture (acquired by Yahoo!), CarsDirect, and Picasa (acquired by Google). Idealab recently moved into the renewable energy market with Energy Innovations, a sister company to eSolar that focuses on the retail...
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| Toshiba Shows Mobile LCD With 2,560 × 1,600 Resolution And 498PPI Density Posted: 20 Oct 2011 12:00 PM PDT  If you thought the 4.5-Inch LCD screen with 720×1,280 pixels resolution Hitachi showed three weeks ago is cool, think again: Toshiba today took the wraps off a mobile LCD that’s even better. Sized at 6.1 inches, it boasts 2,560×1,600 pixels resolution and 498 pixels-per-inch density. Needless to say, the direct-view-type screen is the first of its kind. It has a contrast ratio of 1,000:1, displays 16.7 million colors and offers a 176° viewing angle (horizontally and vertically). Here’s how a set of Japanese characters looks like with different PPI: Toshiba plans to showcase the LCD next week at the FPD International 2011 exhibition in Yokohama, Japan. In August, the company announced it will merge its small LCD business unit with those of Sony and Hitachi.
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| Apple To School The World’s Developers On iOS 5 With “Tech Talk World Tour” Posted: 20 Oct 2011 11:14 AM PDT  Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) is a pretty great event for developers — but, contrary to the implications of the “Worldwide” name, it’s not quite as great for folks who can’t make their way to San Francisco. Looking to sing the word of iOS 5 to developers who just can’t justify the trip, Apple is once again setting out on what they call the “Tech Talk World Tour”. They held similar events in 2008 and 2009, with an unexplained hiatus in 2010. Also unlike WWDC: the Tech Talks are free. You’ll need to be a registered iOS developer (and they’ll give priority to folks who already have apps in the store), but it’s otherwise on the The Dates
Looking at the agenda, it’s clear what the focus of the talks will be: iOS 5 and iCloud. If you’ve never been to one of these events and have a serious interest in development, it’s well worth the (non-existent) entry fee. Apple brings out some of their finest engineers, and you get actual face time with the guys who know this stuff better than anyone. You can sign-up or find more info here. Don’t expect to hear much in the way of secret new details at these events — but hey, if you do… you know who to call. Started by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, Apple has expanded from computers to consumer electronics over the last 30 years, officially changing their name from Apple Computer, Inc. to Apple, Inc. in January 2007. Among the key offerings from Apple’s product line are: Pro line laptops (MacBook Pro) and desktops (Mac Pro), consumer line laptops (MacBook) and desktops (iMac), servers (Xserve), Apple TV, the Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server operating systems, the iPod (offered with...
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| Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley: “The Daily Deal Companies Are Version 1.0″ Posted: 20 Oct 2011 11:00 AM PDT  In Part II of my TCTV interview with Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley, we get down to brass tacks: How will Foursquare make money? (In Part I, we talked about Radar, Siri, and how mobile interfaces are changing). Foursquare is already experimenting by partnering with various daily deal companies, including Groupon, to show nearby local deals to Foursquare users. But Foursquare is ultimately taking a different approach. “”The daily deal companies are version 1.0 of great things you can build with the Internet that help local merchants drive foot traffic into the door. What we are doing with Foursquare is version 2.” Groupon is great at driving lots of customers into stores, he acknowledges, “but there is always a question of whether they are repeat customers.” Foursquare is focused more on loyalty—identifying loyal customers and rewarding them (with Mayor and Check-in specials). Crowley thinks the bigger opportunity is to give local merchants the data to segment their customers. People who check in a lot are loyal, those who don’t check in any longer are lost (and maybe there are ways to bring them back), and people checking into similar places in the vicinity are good potential prospects. “The best thing about Groupon and Livingsocial is they taught an army of merchants that there are better tools,” says Crowley. “We know we are going to be very good at helping merchants identify their best customers and building the tools that drive new customers into the business.” With Radar and Explore, Foursquare is starting to recommend places to go. I asked Crowley if there would ever be paid recommendations popping up in Foursquare. It is not something he is planning, but he did not rule it out. Of course, Groupon is also trying to come up with ways to reward loyalty and not just first-time visits. I pressed Crowley on what many see as Foursquare’s biggest weakness. There is no way to tell whether people who check in actually buy anything. Foursquare needs a way to close the redemption loop between an offer and a purchase. “We have thought of different ways to get involved in the payment process,” says Crowley. One way is to strike more deals with credit card companies like its AmEx deal, which offers check-in specials redeemed at purchase by swiping your credit card. Foursquare is working on getting some of that transaction data so that it can help merchants determine which promotions work and which ones don’t. (Watch Part I of this interview as well). Dennis Crowley is a co-founder of Foursquare, a location-based social networking service. Previously, he co-founded Dodgeball, a network of the same nature which sold to Google in 2005. He has been named one of the "Top 35 Innovators Under 35" by MIT's Technology Review magazine (2005) and has won the "Fast Money" bonus round on the TV game show Family Feud (2009). His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Time Magazine, Newsweek, MTV,... Foursquare is a geographical location based social network that incorporates gaming elements. Users share their location with friends by “checking in” via a smartphone app or by text message. Points are awarded for checking in at various venues. Users can connect their Foursquare accounts to their Twitter and Facebook accounts, which can update when a check in is registered. By checking in a certain number of times, or in different locations, users can collect virtual badges. In addition, users...
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| Motorola Admiral Hits Sprint On October 23 With $100 Price Tag Posted: 20 Oct 2011 08:59 AM PDT  Move over, Kyocera DuraMax — Sprint has just officially announced the Motorola Admiral, the first Android smartphone in their growing Direct Connect lineup. The Admiral takes a 1.2GHz processor, 4GB of internal storage, and 3G hotspot support and wraps it all in a mil-spec 810G compliant body. The 3.1-inch VGA display swathed in Gorilla Glass sits above a 4 row QWERTY keyboard, and a 5MP camera occupies the device’s rear. Durable body aside, the Admiral’s other claim to fame is its support for Sprint’s CDMA-powered Direct Connect. With the iDEN network slated to be shuttered in favor of bolstering their CDMA coverage, Direct Connect allows users to chirp to fellow Sprint and Nextel customers with the same reckless abandon as before. If you’ve been waiting for a rough-and-tumble smartphone that lets you bark orders to your crew as well as it lets you fire off a few emails, the Admiral may be worth a second glance. Expect it to hit Sprint’s sales channels on October 23 for $99 after a $50 mail-in rebate.
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| Foursquare’s Crowley Reveals The Strategy Behind Radar, Siri, And Mobile’s New Push Interface Posted: 20 Oct 2011 08:45 AM PDT Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley doesn’t think that you should have to open up a mobile app to interact with it. I caught up with Crowley a couple days ago at the Web 2.0 Summit, where he was a speaker. In the video interview above, he compares Foursquare’s newest feature called Radar to the Siri personal assistant on the new iPhone 4S. For Crowley, it’s all about getting mobile apps to push relevant information out to you at exactly the right place and time. “If you have a problem to solve with your phone, you don’t have to go to the search box.” Radar taps into Foursquare’s Explore recommendations and pushes them out to you automatically via notifications. “What we have been doing with Radar is finding a way for people to use the app really without having to actually use it,” says Crowley. It runs Explore in the background, which tells you when you are near a place on your to-do list, where someone you know has left a tip, or where a lot of your friends are at that moment. Siri is similar in that it pushes out reminders and other information to you without you having to tap on the screen. Radar takes advantage of Foursquare’s one billion check-ins and other data entered by its 10 million users to surface recommendations “Even a check-in is asking a lot of people,” says Crowley. “Now that we want to leverage all the data, what is the easiest possible on-boarding experience for the next 20M users?” In part II of this interview, coming up, Crowley talks about how Radar fits into his overall strategy and plans to make money. Dennis Crowley is a co-founder of Foursquare, a location-based social networking service. Previously, he co-founded Dodgeball, a network of the same nature which sold to Google in 2005. He has been named one of the "Top 35 Innovators Under 35" by MIT's Technology Review magazine (2005) and has won the "Fast Money" bonus round on the TV game show Family Feud (2009). His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Time Magazine, Newsweek, MTV,... Foursquare is a geographical location based social network that incorporates gaming elements. Users share their location with friends by “checking in” via a smartphone app or by text message. Points are awarded for checking in at various venues. Users can connect their Foursquare accounts to their Twitter and Facebook accounts, which can update when a check in is registered. By checking in a certain number of times, or in different locations, users can collect virtual badges. In addition, users...
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| Will RIM and Porsche Design Unveil A New BlackBerry Next Week? (Update: Confirmed) Posted: 20 Oct 2011 07:00 AM PDT  Here’s a noodle-scratcher to start your day off: Stuff Middle East is reporting that RIM and Porsche Design are teaming up for an event next Thursday that promises to show off an “exclusive collaboration” between the two companies. Could the rumored Porsche Design BlackBerry finally see the light of day? For those who didn’t catch it the first time round, photos of a funky-looking BlackBerry allegedly called the “Knight 9980″ first surfaced back in September courtesy of a Chinese forum called MaxPDA. It didn’t look like any other BlackBerry we’ve seen before: the Knight has a more angular chassis than your typical BlackBerry and (disconcertingly) what looks to be a much flatter keyboard. The reason for the radical change in design was because the Porsche Design team was supposedly in charge. They may seem like a strange choice, but Porsche Design has transcended the automotive trappings of its parent company to design everything from feature phones to hard drives to bobsleds, so a special edition smartphone doesn’t come entirely out of the blue. Personally, I think this is one to file under “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Unveiling a niche, fashion-forward device seems like a very strange step for a company that has just recently recovered from a multi-continent outage and is working to regain the trust of their customers. If people don’t feel like they can rely on their BlackBerrys, then what would drive someone to buy another one, let alone one that seems to put form ahead of function? Sure, fans of limited-edition gadgetry will probably snap them up anyway, but something about this situation just feels odd. I’ve reached out to RIM for some clarity on the situation, but haven’t received a response at time of writing. Stay tuned for updates. UPDATE: A RIM representative has confirmed that the invite-only event will be taking place in Dubai next Thursday.
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| AT&T Surpasses 1 Million iPhone 4S Activations Posted: 20 Oct 2011 06:48 AM PDT  It would seem that the iPhone 4S is one helluva record breaker. Apple recorded over 1 million pre-orders in the first 24 hours the phone was available, and a record 4 million devices sold in the first weekend. That’s double the amount of any other iPhone’s first weekend sales. But the iPhone 4S isn’t just breaking records at Apple. AT&T has just announced that its iPhone 4S activations have topped 1 million. To date, AT&T has never seen so many activations during an iPhone launch, which says quite a bit since big blue is the only carrier to have had the iPhone since its initial entry onto the market. Verizon is set to release its activation stats tomorrow, at which point we’ll be able to get a little more context for these numbers. In the meantime, it’s worth noting that AT&T has also been growing its Android presence, with Android sales doubling year-over-year. Started by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, Apple has expanded from computers to consumer electronics over the last 30 years, officially changing their name from Apple Computer, Inc. to Apple, Inc. in January 2007. Among the key offerings from Apple’s product line are: Pro line laptops (MacBook Pro) and desktops (Mac Pro), consumer line laptops (MacBook) and desktops (iMac), servers (Xserve), Apple TV, the Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server operating systems, the iPod (offered with...
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| Sony Ericsson Plans To Release Android 4.0 To The Xperia Line In 2012 Posted: 20 Oct 2011 06:37 AM PDT  Sony Ericsson has joined HTC in offering up a general plan for pushing the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich updates to existing handsets. In a message on its Dutch Facebook page, the company has said it will roll out Ice Cream Sandwich to all 2011 Xperia handsets. Phones that should receive the update include the Xperia Play, Xperia neo and neo V, Mini Pro, Xperia Ray, and the Xperia arc. Much like HTC, Sony Ericsson has given no firm timeline, but did say that the roll out will begin once all 2011 Xperia phones get the update for 2.3.4 Gingerbread. Here’s the official statement given to Engadget: Sony Ericsson is currently rolling out the upgrade to Gingerbread 2.3.4 across its entire 2011 Xperia smartphone portfolio. This software upgrade will be available through a phased roll out in select markets. Beyond Gingerbread 2.3.4, we plan to upgrade our 2011 Xperia smartphone portfolio to the next Android platform made available to us. According to Dutch blog AllAboutPhones, Sony Ericsson will release Ice Cream Sandwich update in 2012. This jives well with earlier statements made by Google executives, who mentioned that most Gingerbread phones should “theoretically” get Android 4.0 in 2012. Company: Sony Ericsson Website: sonyericsson.com Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications is a global provider of mobile multimedia devices, including feature-rich phones, accessories and PC cards. The products combine powerful technology with innovative applications for mobile imaging, music, communications and entertainment. The net result is that Sony Ericsson is an enticing brand that creates compelling business opportunities for mobile operators and desirable, fun products for end users. Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications was established in 2001 by telecommunications leader Ericsson and consumer electronics powerhouse Sony Corporation. The company...
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| BlueStacks Raises $6.4 Million To Give You One-Click Access To Android Apps On Windows Devices Posted: 20 Oct 2011 05:30 AM PDT  BlueStacks, the startup that has developed software to let Android users run their apps on all Windows PC, tablets, and laptops, is announcing this morning that it has closed a $6.4 million series B round of financing. The round was led by AMD, Citrix Systems, and included participation from existing investors like Andreessen Horowitz, Ignition Ventures, Radar Partners, Redpoint Ventures, and more. BlueStacks raised a $7.6 million series A back in May. The company plans to use its new funding to accelerate development of its app player (currently in alpha) and “Cloud Connect Service”, which together consists of free, downloadable software that essentially give users one-click access to Android apps on any Windows PC, tablet, or laptop — as well as the ability to view these apps in full-screen mode. The recently released public alpha of BlueStacks’ “App Player for Windows”, which we covered last week, has already been downloaded in more than 100 countries, and the beta release of the app player is scheduled for this winter, in addition to a “Pro” version of the product, which will include access to premium Android apps like Fruit Ninja and Cut The Rope. BlueStacks’ technology works seamlessly with AMD APU-powered tablets and PCs (hence the company’s investment in the startup), which means that Android apps can take advantage of the horspower and graphics capabilities of the APU on many of the x86-based systems that run on Windows and the suite of Microsoft Office apps. The startup is hoping to define the next generation of IT architecture for enterprise, and hopes to help push the industry towards being able to run mobile apps ubiquitously, enabling users to work and play from anywhere, on any device. With 250,000+ Android apps available through Cloud Connect, and 30-odd featured apps available for users to quickly grab and demo, so far, it’s already a great step forward for Windows and Android. BlueStacks, a Campbell, California-based company that is developing technology to allow users to run Android and Windows applications on x86-based devices.
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