• Read more about It's Time to Get Excited About iOS 12

The highly anticipated announcement of iOS 12 came at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June. A free beta is available for those interested in a sneak peak of the platform's functionality, with the final iOS 12 software expected in the fall.

There are a number of new features being tested for the new platform, but we're most excited about these:

1. Broad Platform Updates for Increase Speed

Responding to user feedback about the slowness of older iPhones and iPads, the new iOS platform promises significant speed increases for older devices.

2. Group Facetime

This feature allows you to call up to 32 participants and transfer directly from a group chat to a group facetime.

3. Camera and Photo Upgrades

In addition to improving portrait mode and allowing third-party apps to edit photos, the Photos app is expanding its search tool to compete with Google Photos.

4. Siri Updates

The improved virtual assistant has a number of new features, including the ability to translate into over 40 languages.  Those of us who are absent-minded will especially appreciate the new password-hunting ability, allowing you to search any saved passwords. (Note: We highly recommend locking your phone if you intend to use this feature.)

5. ARKit 2 Creates Potential for Multiplayer Experiences

Solidifying Apple as a leader in the AR space, iOS 12's ARKit 2 will allow multiple users to see and interact with the same AR scene using different devices.

 

• Read more about iOS 11 Launched, What This Means For Your App

Earlier this month, Apple held its September event and announced some exciting things involving releases of their new software and hardware! We knew the iOS 11 update was going to launch September 19th but what has the software update meant for apps in the App Store? According to Tech Insider, more than 180,000 iPhone apps are not compatible with the iOS 11 update and it is possible that Apple will stop supporting up to 200,000 apps.  If your company has an app that is currently in the App Store - contact us for a free analysis to ensure that your mobile app is compatible with the new updates. Regardless if your users or target audience has an older version of the iPhone and downloaded the iOS 11 update or if they purchase the new iPhone X or iPhone 8 there’s a good chance that your mobile app will still need to be updated in order to comply with App Store regulations. We talked about the preparations you should take for the release of iOS 11, but now that it has launched, what’s the real impact?

64 Bit Processors

Apple did give fair warning, they made it clear that they will no longer be supporting 32-bit apps within the App Store long before the iOS 11 release. Eliminating apps that are 32-bit seems to have been the most significant change because they will be eliminated from the App Store all together. In 2013, Apple started using the 64 bit processor and encouraged developers to run apps on this faster technology but it was by no means required in order for an app to exist in the App Store. The 64-bit is safer even though it seems more complicated. When searching in the new app store, you will not find 32-bit apps. This means that all apps running on 32-bits have to be updated.

App Optimization

App Names   The name of your app is critical because this is how users will find you - app names have a 30 character limit versus 50. However, Apple did add a short subtitle field that appears directly below the app name - this is a 30 character limit but will allow you to highlight features of your app.   App Description Up until now, Apple allowed developers to change an app’s description at any time. In the new App Store, you can only change the description when you’re submitting a new version of your app. It’s vital that your app description conveys the message accurately and concisely to persuade users to download the app. It is unclear as to when you can update your app description once your app has been submitted to the app store. A new addition to this is a new promotional text field, it appears at the top of the app description and is limited to 170 characters. The promotional text should highlight the latest news about your app, which you can update without having to submit an entirely new version of your app. App Reviews In iOS 11, Apple will disallow custom review prompts in all apps and instead provide its own API that you can add to your app. This will allow the user to submit their review within the app but the developers are only allowed to prompt a user for a review three times per year.  Aside from custom review prompts, users can open their settings and opt out of receiving these rating prompts for all apps they have installed. It could be time for you to consider another option in order to tell who really likes your app.

App Design

Apps will no longer scale as perfectly as they used to - especially when an app is viewed on the iPhone 8 or X. Design tweaks may be needed to ensure your app has the best look and feel for users on this new platform, some of the biggest changes are the following:

What do these releases mean for companies that have an app in the App Store? For starters, make sure that your app is meeting App Store requirements. If you have an app in the App Store and you are not sure if it meets Apple’s new standards, you should have your app evaluated to make sure it is compliant with the new App Store enhancements. 

• Read more about In-App VS. Apple Pay

Let’s first start with the question, what IS In-App and Apple Pay purchases?

In-App purchases are extra content and subscriptions that you can buy in the apps on your iOS device or computer. However, not all apps offer in-app purchases. For example with some apps you can buy additional content such as a key that unlocks more features on a free app or a sword that gives you more power in a game.

Apple Pay purchases is a service that enables mobile payments and digital wallet apps that initiate secure payment transactions between contactless payment terminals and Apple iOS devices like the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch. In other words, you can make purchases at a store without your wallet, just with a simple touch of an app.

Now let’s really dig into the different items that you can purchase using either the In-App OR Apple Pay. Below are a few key differences between which items you can purchase by using either app-

In-App: sells virtual goods such as premium content for your app, and subscriptions for digital content.

Apple Pay: sells physical goods such as groceries, clothing, and appliances.

These days it’s ALL about cost so let’s cover the difference in cost of using the two products?

In-App: 70% of the purchase price of each item you sell within your app is paid to you on a monthly basis- NO credit card fees are applied

Apple Pay: FREE! (Credit card fees do apply)

Make sure to let us know which you find easier to use, In-App OR Apple Pay.

See: iPhone App Store Submission Checklist

• Read more about Apple Watch: A Look Inside

 

At the time of this writing (pre-WWDC 2015), there are a number of limitations on what Apple Watch code can do. The primary limitation is that watch apps cannot exist by themselves. It is necessary for the watch app to be a part of a corresponding phone app. Apple has said they will not accept watch apps where the phone app does not do anything itself. Also, watch-only apps (such as watch faces) are not allowed for this same reason—although it’s rumored that this may change after WWDC 2015.

Another Apple Watch limitation is that Core Graphics animations are not supported, but animated GIFs are. Complex layouts (such as overlapping elements) are not allowed. However, elements can be positioned as if they overlap—provided only one element is visible at a time. Using actions such as taps and timers, the visibility of these "overlapping" elements can be changed. This can be implemented to provide a more dynamic interface. Another major limitation (also whispered to change after WWDC 2015) is that watch apps cannot access any of the hardware on the watch including the motion sensor and heart sensor.

Most watch app processing (controller logic) is done on the phone instead of the watch, and some delays are inherent in the Bluetooth communication that transpires between the watch and the phone as the view (on the watch) talks back to the controller (on the phone). This view/controller split is not obvious in the code, but the watch/phone split is obvious in the code, as the watch cannot access anything from the phone, even though the controller logic is running on the phone side—except via a specific watch-to-phone request.

One notable feature is the watch app’s ability to explicitly call the phone app with a dictionary and obtain a dictionary response. This functionality allows the developer to then set up a number of client-server style requests, where the watch is the client, and the phone is the server. For example, the watch can request information from—or record information to—the phone. The phone (which has storage and may have Internet connectivity) can then fulfill the request and provide data in response to the watch. This can drive the phone app's UI to provide near-real-time synchronization of the watch app display, as well as the phone app display.

Custom notifications (both local notifications and push notifications) are supported on the watch. These custom notifications can have a somewhat customized layout as well as having the ability to define a set of custom actions. After performing one of these actions, the watch app is started. Apple mentions not to use notifications as a way to just launch the watch app from the phone app. Apple maintains that the notifications should provide useful information.

One developer test limitation relates to custom watch notifications (for local notifications).  Since watch notifications are only displayed if the phone is asleep, there is no direct way to test custom watch notifications.  Because of this, XCode does provide a mechanism to test push notifications in the simulator (using a JSON file), but there is no similar mechanism to test local notifications. Still, one can certainly test local notifications with the physical device.

• Read more about Capitalizing Apple Products in Ruby (and more)

I've been doing a bit more Ruby and Ruby on Rails coding lately by virtue of silently commandeering the Intridea.com codebase. shhhh, it can be our secret.

Riding the Pipeline of Assets

Last month I upgraded the site from Rails 2.3 to Rails 3.1; getting up and running on the asset pipeline was a much larger project than I imagined, and while I had plans for a supremely awesome post on all the details of the upgrade, I spent less time taking notes on all the cute little steps and more time... LOST IN TIME AND SPACE with all the.... complications. #ahem

This week I got the site running on Rails 3.2, which thankfully was pretty easy. The instructions on RubyonRails.org were succinct and helpful. I did run into a few minor hiccups but overall it was a breeze. The biggest problem I ran into was one involving Rack 1.4.1 and cookies. For a view of the crime scene, check the gist.

A quick search on StackOverflow told me a lot of others were having this issue as well, but a simple act of clearing cookies fixed their problem. It wasn't so easy in my case. In the end I had to rollback to Rack 1.4.0, but I've got my fingers crossed for a fix in some future release.

i to the P

With Rails upgrades out of the way, I am focusing on smaller enhancements here and there as time permits. This week I added a helper file for our blog categories. These categories are generated dynamically based on the popularity/density of tags in blog posts (thanks to Michael Bleigh's Acts As Taggable On gem), but I wanted to capitalize the category names and appropriately not capitalize the "i" in words like "iPhone" and "iPad" and consequently capitalize the second letter in those specific words. It's not rocket science, but if you are upper-casing words in your app and want to create exceptions for Apple products, here's some code for you:

module TagHelper   def tag_title(tag)     name = tag.name.downcase     iProduct = %w(iphone ipad)     if iProduct.include?(name)       apple_product_titlize(name)     else       name.capitalize     end   end    def apple_product_titlize(name)     name[0] + name[1].capitalize + name[2..-1]   end end 

This method is called by a bit of Ruby in our view:

<% @categories.each do |tag| %>   <li><%= link_to "#{tag_title(tag)} (#{tag.count})", "/tag/#{tag.name}" %></li> <% end %> 

The Before & After

Updates? Yeah, we do that

So there you have it - a long overdue update on intridea.com upgrades and a snippet of code to help you manage the "i" pandemic.

Happy coding!

• Read more about Setting Up a Ruby Development Machine From Scratch With OS X Lion

Every so often I like to completely wipe out my computer and start it over from scratch. This isn't because I particularly enjoy the pain of setting up a system from scratch, but it does come with some advantages:

• You get rid of the stuff you didn't need.
• You have a chance to try things that came out since you last reinstalled.
• You have a clean install that isn't choking from years of cruft.

I took it upon myself to perform this task when I upgraded to OS X Lion and thought it would also be a great chance to write one of those "how to get a Ruby development machine going from scratch" posts since that's what I'd be doing anyway. So here's the process of how I got my machine set back up to work the way I want it to on Apple's latest.

Application Avalanche

Google Chrome has been my browser of choice for the past year or so. I never would have thought I could give up Firebug, but the speed difference was enough for me to learn to love the Web Inspector.

iTerm2 is new to my roster. I don't know too much about it other than that it can do split-pane views which is something I love in all of my apps.

XCode is a big huge download, and while I don't use the IDE I need the build tools for just about everything else in my dev toolchain.

Adium is my universal IM client of choice. It's simple, customizable, and always there when I need it. I roll with the AdiumIcon icon set, the Mnmlsm message style, and the Leopard Sidebar contact list style.

Mailplane gives me exactly what I want in an email client: the GMail web interface but in its own dedicated application. While the benefits over something like a Fluid window for GMail aren't necessarily enormous, email is core enough to my daily routine that it was worth a little cash for a little better experience.

MacVim is my editor of choice although I don't pretend to be a "real" Vim user. I switched to Vim *solely* because it allows me to edit with split pane windows, and I still treat it more like Textmate than I'd normally like to admit in public. Note: If you're planning to use ZSH you'll want to install a snapshot release of MacVim, otherwise it will occasionally hang.

Growl is an obvious must-have for any Mac user, developer or not.

Presently and HipChat are my desktop coworker communication tools and I'd be lost without them.

Alfred is another new addition to my roster, replacing the Google Quick Search Box. I haven't used it much yet, but I had heard good things so I'm going to give it a go.

VLC has a well-deserved reputation for being able to play just about everything. If I could remove Quicktime entirely and replace it with VLC, I would.

Spotify is what I've been using the last week or two. I've tried both it and Rdio and I'm honestly pretty torn as to which I like more. But let's be honest, my primary listening point for music recently has been Turntable.fm.

The Official Twitter App is the client I've used since its release. I'm not a power user (and all of the searches that I care about I handle via Twilert so it works well enough.

Cloud is an extremely useful little app to have for quickly sharing screenshots and files. I use Skitch as well when I need to be able to annotate the shots quickly.

Adobe CS5 gives me the tools that I need for putting together logos and design assets. I was going to say "and mocking up sites" but since CSS3 I don't really use Photoshop for mockups that often these days, I just go straight for the markup.

Command Line Commando

Once I had gotten the easy stuff out of the way, it was time to actually set up all of the development tools that I would need to get my machine up and running the way I needed it.

First up is installing Homebrew. Homebrew is without a doubt the simplest and most "it just works" package manager that I've used for OS X. Installing it is as easy as:

     /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/gist/323731)"

Once Homebrew is installed, we can go on a mad tear of package installation. Here are some of the tools that I set up right away:

     brew install wget git redis node imagemagick     brew install postgresql     brew install mongodb

Another new entry for this round, I thought I'd take my coworkers advice and switch to ZSH with Oh My ZSH. Installed like so:

     wget --no-check-certificate https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/raw/master/tools/install.sh -O - | sh

Next up we'll install RVM so that we can manage multiple Rubies with ease. I'll also be installing the Rubies that I use on a regular basis and setting the default Ruby to be 1.9.2 since that's what I'm using 90% of the time.

     bash < <(curl -s https://raw.github.com/wayneeseguin/rvm/master/binscripts/rvm-installer )     rvm install 1.9.2     rvm install jruby     rvm use 1.9.2 --default

After that I needed to follow the instructions printed out by RVM to make sure it was working in my shell. Magnificent! Now we're almost all done with our basic development stack. We need something to run our web apps, and Pow is definitely my favorite nowadays. We'll also install the powder gem to make it super simple to manage our Pow links.

     curl get.pow.cx | sh     gem install powder

Now I've got my development tools up and running, but I still need a little bit more out of my editor. Like I said, I'm a training wheels Vim user, so I like to install Yehuda/Carl's janus to get a good set of Vim plugins that make Rails development super easy in MacVim.

     curl https://raw.github.com/carlhuda/janus/master/bootstrap.sh -o - | sh

We're getting quite close now. The only thing to do before enjoying my new setup is to make it so that I can clone my repositories off of the various services I use. So I followed the GitHub, Unfuddle, and Heroku setup instructions and I was up and running.

Summary

So that's pretty much it! Everything went pretty much as expected once I actually got a fresh-drive install of Lion working. The biggest pain was waiting for multi-gigabyte downloads like XCode, but leaving them overnight worked well enough to solve that. So for those who are curious, Ruby development is alive and working on Mac OS X Lion. Is there anything in my setup that you'd do differently? Let me know in the comments!

• Read more about Designing for High Resolution Displays: Thinking Beyond 72 DPI

It’s been nearly a year since the release of the iPhone 4, and much to the dismay of the tech community, it’s still the only product in the Apple lineup with a high pixel density ‘Retina’ display. While the much-hyped feature drew universal praise when the device was unveiled, some were wondering the following:

• Would consumers see this as a compelling feature?
• Would competitors follow suit, establishing critical mass for high PPI displays?
• Would Apple eventually launch a Retina display for iPad or Macbook Air? Or would another manufacturer release an ultra-high resolution tablet or laptop?

In a little over 10 months time, high PPI displays are currently everywhere in mobile. Walk into any carrier retail store, and chances are that the featured smartphones already feature high-resolution displays. Those that don’t have them likely will within an iteration or two.

Retina display for Mac will be here sooner rather than later. Apple’s yet-to-be-launched OS X Lion includes built-in support for the Retina display, along with ultra high-res desktop wallpapers and icons. It’s a decent bet that we’ll eventually see some variation of the Retina display across the entire product line. And of course, as happened in mobile, the rest of the industry will follow Apple’s lead, effectively eliminating the concept of a default dpi standard.

How can designers and developers prep for this change?

Embrace resolution-independent design practices for the web, not just mobile. Up until this point, designers and developers who haven’t worked in mobile have been able to avoid the extra hassle of prepping content for high PPI displays. But with the classic notion of the ‘pixel’ fading away, it’s a good time to reiterate the importance of resolution-independent design practices across the board. Specifically:

• Minimal use of bitmaps (reserved for photography, video, and illustrations)
• CSS3 for buttons, gradients, shadows, and lines
• HTML5 canvas and SVG libraries for complex and interactive graphics
• @font-face for custom type
• Vector graphics for interface elements

Start to use Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) on the web. With Internet Explorer 9 finally getting onboard with the basic SVG feature set, it’s time to adopt vector graphics on the web (for real this time). Unless you are designing for a specific audience using certain browsers (in which case you may need fallbacks), now is a great time to consider using SVG for:

• Icons
• Background images
• Custom type treatments
• Logos and mastheads

Get comfortable with Adobe Illustrator. This advice was doled out around the web when the Retina display was first introduced, and one year later it rings more true than ever. Photoshop is still the industry standard for producing web graphics, but as the web steers towards resolution independence, so should the toolkit.

Photoshop users: keep all of your source files in vector format for as long as you possibly can. If you must use Photoshop (full disclosure, we love it and use it daily at Intridea), it’s a good idea to create your interface elements as vector Smart Objects, or import them directly from Illustrator. This way, your elements can scale when you resize the source files without effectively losing resolution.

For time being

The current process of designing for high PPI displays is a bit of a hassle, but it’s hopefully transitional. Designing for the Retina display with targeted CSS and high-res bitmaps is already intensive. Throw in the eventual release of high PPI displays on tablets and laptops and it’ll be painstaking.

There are a number of established design practices for supporting high PPI displays. Many of the tutorial articles written soon after the iPhone 4’s launch are still relevant (here’s a great list of some key takeways).

• Read more about Mashable! for Mac Released on the Mac App Store

Mashable is one of the world's largest blogs focused exclusively on Web 2.0 and Social Media news, with more than 15 million monthly pageviews. We've worked with them to create mobile applications for the iPad and Android platforms. Today, Apple's Mac App Store launched and we're proud to have an application that we've built as one of the launch titles - Mashable! for Mac.

Mashable! for Mac gives you to the ability to read the latest news from many Mashable news categories, right on your desktop in its own dedicated application -- without opening your browser. You get a simple but intuitive interface that lets you navigate easily through the news categories and filter down to what articles you want to read. You are also able to view the comments for each article and post your own comments without leaving the article or the application.

You can also take your Mashable reading offline, since you don't need an Internet connection to read articles that you've already fetched. Mashable! for Mac is just a terrific way to read Mashable on your desktop. There will be many more great features coming in the near future.

If you wish to download the app, make sure that you're running the latest version of Mac OS X (10.6.6). Next, look for Mashable in the Mac App Store. We'd love to hear your feedback.

Intridea offers services for application development on all major platforms, which include Mac, iPad, iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, and Palm webOS. If you need help with your mobile application feel free to contact us for a quote.

• Read more about The iPad and Other Media Tablets as Productivity Tools

It's the gift-giving season and it's likely some of you are thinking of giving someone or even yourself a mobile media tablet such as Apple's iPad, Samsung's Galaxy Tab or Barnes & Noble's NookColor. You may or may not be inspired by the fact that a growing number of bankers, executives, doctors and other professionals are getting such devices issued to them at work. However, can today's media tablets help such employees be productive, or is there something missing -- such as suitable stylus for those who find finger-based input onerous?

Thumbs Down for the Finger as Input Device

To facilitate enterprise use, I strongly believe that a mobile device needs stylus support, so I suggest waiting to see what 2011 brings. Don't get me wrong. I'm very fond of both my Apple iPad and my NookColor (Android), and find touchscreens addictive. But for some mobile tasks, using a stylus is much more productive than a finger. As a long-time fan of Palm's Vx PDA and the Treo 650, I found the stylus very useful. On the other hand, I'm not so enamored of the Palm Pre Plus due to the small screen and lack of a stylus. I find the device hard to use for my fingers, unfortunately making it a non-productive device at least for me. Now imagine having to either enter a lot of data on a mobile app, or select from a large number of options. Certain professions require this. Now imagine doing it every day. For example, when a colleague asked me to create two medical diagnostics apps for the iPhone and iPad for hospitals, I thought about how onerous these would be for daily use without a stylus. Another colleague discussed a simple image manipulation app for the iPhone, but if you've ever tried cropping a photo with your finger, you know how awkward that can get. Can you imagine the awkwardness of tasks such as signing digital documents, or worse, take notes with your finger? Note-taking, in my opinion, will become a very common activity on media tablets, if stylus support is included.

What's Coming

It's a fact that 2011 will bring a whole slew of media tablets for most or all of the top mobile operating systems, and stylus support would be nice for those who feel the finger is just not an accurate data input tool for the enterprise, or even for personal creative use. Never mind the fact that a stylus can have a finite number of predefined pressure or capacitive settings as necessary, unlike a finger. A stylus also doesn't get tired like a finger, after hours of use, day in and day out. At the moment, there are a number of stylus makers out there. I've personally only researched them for the iPad. What I've found so far might suffice for simple uses, but I haven't seen a for-iPad stylus yet that seems precise (pointy) enough for notetaking or drawing/ diagramming. An informal poll of tech-savvy people I know who have iPads or Android tablets suggests that they'd all like to use the devices for notetaking, and I don't imagine that'd be much different for all the professionals being issued tablets by employers.

Thumbs Up for the Stylus as Productivity Accessory

As a productivity techniques evangelist, I'm a long-time fan of mind maps-based diagramming -- something I just don't relish doing with my finger on media tablet. But as soon as a viable stylus is available, I may never diagram or write on paper again. What's missing, at least in the iPad arena, is a stylus sanctioned by Apple, unless I've taken a Rumpelstiltskin-like snooze and missed some important news. On the other hand, as mentioned in a recent All Things Digital article, a number of stylus makers are trying to persuade Android handset makers into supporting stylus-based touchscreen input. If Apple does not offer their own stylus solution with the next generation of iPads (rumored to be shipping in Feb 2011), or at least sanction a third-party stylus for the iPad before the end of H1 2011, Android tablets could potentially offer a huge advantage for enterprise use. As well, a stylus would open up the possibility of creative tasks on media tablets. For example, photo cropping or drawing, or the aforementioned mind mapping and diagramming. Combined with the popular Swype method of text input (over the virtual mobile keyboard), a stylus could be just the accessory to turn a media tablet from the expensive toy it's sometimes perceived as, collectively, to a high-productivity tool. Expectations of Apple's iPad outselling every other media tablet out there in 2011 may not come to pass if private and business users show that they want precision stylus support. So if you're undecided about which media tablet to purchase, you might want to skip Xmas, skip Boxing Day sales and wait until Q1 or Q2 2011, to see if any of the upcoming mobile devices have serious stylus support. On the other hand, if you just want to play popular games such as Angry Birds or Infinity Blade, there's something to be said for the addictive factor of using your fingers.

• Read more about The Apple/Google Android Mobile Horse Race

Recent reports about Apple and Google mobile market shares might seem a bit contradictory, but the gist of them is fairly simple: both companies are winning in the mobile space.

According to a recent report from Canalys, Apple has taken the U.S. smartphone share lead for Q3 2010 with just over 26% marketshare -- edging out 2nd-place RIM by only 2%. But in terms of mobile OS, Android maintained its previous U.S. lead, with close to 44% for Q3 2010. However, consumer researcher NPG Group's findings show that Google's Android mobile OS's U.S. share jumped considerably (3% to 44%) between Q3 2009 and Q3 2010, whereas Apple and RIM have fallen in that time period -- RIM considerably, by a drop of 24% in that one year period.

On the flipside, both Apple and RIM won with handsets. Apple's iPhone 4 and RIM's BlackBerry Curve 8500 took first and second spots, respectively, in Q3 2010 as top handsets. High-end Android phones such as Motorola Droid X and HTC EVO 4G, which took 4th and 5th places, respectively, are examples of handsets that have helped Android move into and maintain top mobile OS spot.

Of course, since Android has multiple active versions in the wild and is not limited to one manufacturer's handsets, it's not surprising that this mobile OS is in the lead. Also, it doesn't hurt that there are some pretty sexy high-end Android smartphones competing with Apple's iPhones. I recently purchased a Droid X for Android development and I have to say I'm liking the phone about as much as my iPhone 3GS. I also like the Android experience, though that may change once I get an iPhone 4.

Now the question is, can Android maintain its lead as top mobile OS (at least for the U.S.)? Android apps are available in multiple "marketplaces" (including Google's official one), and that number is going to grow. For example, Barnes & Noble is coming out later this month with their Nook Color, an Android-based media tablet that has maybe not the ability to compete with the Apple iPad but to do well if marketed properly. However, taking a page from Apple's strategy, B&N plans to have its own curated marketplace for Nook Color apps. Similarly, wireless carrier Verizon already has its own VCast apps market for Android.

Whether marketplace, OS version and UI fragmentation is good for Android or not remains to be seen; Google is apparently making an effort to unify the Android UI experience for consumers. The fact is that there's a lot of confidence in the OS. According to Millenial Media's State of the App Industry 2010 Report, a survey of app developers and app publishers suggests that the top mobile platforms for 2011 will be, from highest to lowest, iPhone (30%), Android (23%), iPad (21%), RIM (12%), Windows Mobile (6%), Palm (5%), and Symbian (3%) [via ReadWriteWeb and Venture Beat]. Of course, those numbers might change as Android tablets -- which will on average be lower-priced than iPads -- come to market.

Need advice on a mobile apps strategy for your business? Just want to know how you can leverage the mobile platform in general? Feel free to contact us to discuss your app idea or mobile campaign needs.