Tag: market

Xiaomi becomes the third largest smartphone manufacturer

After a decade in operation, Xiaomi (who are behind those “Mi” phones you’ve probably seen) is now number three globally. The latest Canalys reportshows that the company has shipped a massive 47.1 million devices globally, hitting a 45% growth in the previous quarter. Here in Europe, Xiaomi has …

Huawei becomes the top handset maker

Despite US blockades and the lack of Google Play, Huawei is seeing fantastic sales in China. This has helped to push the company into the number one spot as the top handset maker in the world. Now beating Samsung, and despite blocks on Google apps and 5G network …

Welcome to a new retail world

The entire retail landscape has, without doubt, been irrevocably changed. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced even the most IT illiterate into using their phone more than ever. During the height of the lockdown, I was definitely a regular customer at Screwfix. If you need anything for yoru DIY, …

Worst ever quarter for smartphone market

Rather unsurprisingly, people are buying less smartphones right now. We’re not exactly “mobile” and so we’re not buying as many mobile phones, despite the fact that they’re still widely available to buy online. IDC and Strategy Analytics are now showing that the smartphone sector has suffered its largest …

Coronavirus – Online supermarket Ocado closes

If you’re looking to shop online right now, you can either put on some padding and go to the insane scrums at the local supermarket or try and get an online delivery slot. The latter is becoming an incredibly rare thing, and until the delivery capabilities are boosted, …

Trying to save for my next smartphone

Just recently we had the madness that was Black Friday. In truth, it’s no longer just one day. Instead we’re seeing offers last for a bit longer, and even the “Cyber Week” has grown to last until mid-December now. This year there were some great deals on smartphones …

The death of Windows Phone. Market share sinks further.

Say what you like about my Windows Phone tirade, it’s all sadly true. Call it what you want – Windows 10 mobile, Windows Phone, I’m angry at how easily Microsoft let their lead slip. I’m annoyed at how slowly they realised. I’m frustrated at how they treated the …

New Google Play version slips onto video

It was called Android Market at one point, then it all changed and became Google Play. Now a new version is about to hit your Android-powered phone and the boys at Droid Life have sneaked a look at the all-new version… The fourth iteration seems to be cleaner …

Are Android users growing up?

It has taken a few years but Android seems to finally have matured as a platform. There is a consistent design language, more and more apps are adhering to Google’s design guidelines and the OS is smooth and slick to use. What however of the apps that are …

More hacked apps appear on Google Play

We’ve seen too many headlines mentioning cracked, hacked or infected apps appearing in Google Play. Sadly we’re adding this one to the list as Google appear to be reacting too slowly to the continuing problem. In this case we’ve had an email from the guys at Root Uninstaller. …

Google Play now lets you redeem gift cards

On Friday Dan told you about Google gift cards and how they’re headed to the UK. Yesterday I did a check and, sure enough, there’s the chance to Redeem gift cards in the menu of Google Play. There’s one problem though. You simply can’t buy Google gift cards …

HTC drop out of the US tablet market

The tablet market is a bit cut-throat. Most of the world buys an iPad without a thought of a spec comparison (yes I know it’s not that simple). Meanwhile companies such as Amazon sell hardware at cost to recoup revenue through content, and now Google and Asus are …

Nokia – Iceberg, right ahead.

This morning, like you, I read about the Nokia cuts. Nokia appear, in my opinion, to be hitting the same issue that Microsoft and Windows Mobile tackled four or five years ago. Complacency. There was far too much washing about. Nokia were the undisputed king of the mobile …

Temple Run for Android now available

What a great start to the day. The eagerly awaited iOS hit has now appeared on the Android Market. It is a running jumping puzzle solving type game and it’s free so head over to the play store and see what all those Apple users have been playing …

Is poor battery life a price worth paying for free apps?

Recently we published an article about how most of the power usage of free Android apps actually goes towards displaying the ads. Angry Birds, for example, apparently uses “70% of it’s power draw to upload information and download ads”. Presumably it’s an even higher percentage for other less …

Android App Review: WeatherFlow

Well we all know there is no shortage of Weather apps available for Android in the market….sorry, “Play store”. WeatherFlow however is different to some you may be used to.  Its a bit more simplistic and does exactly what it says on the tin….shows you the weather bases …

Coolsmartphone Recommended Android app – Tablified Market

You probably know the score. You decide you want an Android tablet. You get it home, after the initial setup you hit the market. Then you stop dead. How on earth are you meant to tell which apps are tablet optimised? Tabletified Market is how. Once installed you …

Android Market Rebranded Google Play

Google have decided to rebrand the Android Market under the new name Google Play with different apps for different services. The change is happening right now and you’ll soon see your Android Market changing into this…. Bye bye Android Market, hello “Play Shop”. An interesting move by the …

Google are changing the way you download huge apps

The Android Market can be a little annoying at times. Especially with the 15 minute refund window. Let me set the scene and you will no doubt have been there and have been equally annoyed. You want to play a game on your phone, you don’t want adverts, …

XDA Premium HD app released on the Android Market

Love them or hate them, XDA Developers are a massive part of the Android community. Their forums cover hundreds of different devices and you can normally find no end of useful information, ROMs, tweaks and apps for your handset. The forums are sometimes difficult to browse on a …

How some Android applications saved the day….

Today, I did a very stupid thing. A very stupid thing indeed. I left the house without my phone (a Samsung Galaxy S2). I contemplated going home to get it, but decided that maybe I could live one day without it. I began going over in my head, …

GetJar free app store

GetJar is the worlds largest free app store with over 2 billion downloads to date. The company distributes more than 350,000 mobile applications for Android and 395,000 developers have registered with GetJar to distribute their apps. GetJar is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices in Seattle, the UK and Lithuania. …

Trojan Android.Counterclank Found in Android Market

A recent study by Symantec has found Trojans attached to various apps in the Android Market. The Trojans found are Android.Counterclank and Android.Tonclank, which worryingly is a bot-like threat that can receive commands to carry out certain actions, as well as steal information from the device. It sounds like the Trojan …

Android Market hits 400K applications

The Android Market has hit a new milestone of achieving 400,000 active applications, reports Distimo. It is still playing catchup to the Apple App Store but it is certainly gaining pace and I imagine will continue to do so – there’s only so many apps that can be …

More Android apps than iOS apps now downloaded

Downloaded an app recently? Android now accounts for some 44% of all application downloads according to stats – that’s compared to 31% for Apple. ABI Research research now shows that Android is the leader in market share. Lim Shiyang, Research Associate, states.. Android’s open source strategy is the …

Google Books now available in the UK

Checked Android Market recently ? If you’re lucky the latest update should have arrived and books can now be purchased. Here in the UK this has taken a while to arrive, but the eBooks system is easy enough to use. Just hop in the Android Market, choose your …

Seen Android Market recently ?

Checked your Market app recently ? Check for updates and you’ll probably find this glossy new version appearing on your handset. It’s far more sexier than earlier versions and features a stack of extra features. A big, friendly interface greets you when you hop into the app and …

Twitter for Android gets push notifications and multiple account support

Twitter have released a new version of their Android app on to the market. The new version brings support for push notifications and multiple accounts. Having had a quick play, the notifications do appear to be pretty instantaneous with alerts popping up virtually exactly in sync with my …

Apple fails to secure ‘App store’ branding exclusivity.

A federal judge has kicked out Apple’s attempt to get a preliminary injunction to stop Amazon using the Term ‘App store’. Apple had been trying to force Amazon ( and by default others…) to stop them using the term app store for their newly launched Android Amazon App Store. Us …

More malicious Android apps get zapped

More apps have been yanked out of the Android Market after they were found to contain malicious code. Again it seems that modified versions of existing apps found their way into the Market and again these apps have sent personal data to places you wouldn’t want it going …

How many app markets do we need?

The title says it all really. With the Amazon app market coming up soon, do we really need another app market? I know that some of these markets offer an alternative market for tablets that do not have market access, such as Archos using Appslib and there are some markets which let …