Apple Inc. : Facebook, Twitter left behind by new apps, say industry reps

TORONTO: Snapchat, Vine, and Candy Crush Saga earned coveted spots on smartphones in 2013, making them among the most downloaded apps of the year.

There are more than a million apps on Apple Inc'sApp Store and Google Inc's Play store, the two dominant marketplaces for apps, which see billions of downloads a year.

In 2013, the most downloaded apps were new takes on communication, gaming, and entertainment, according to mobile app experts.

"It was a really interesting year in terms of maturation, milestones and new trends," said Craig Palli, chief strategy officer at Fiksu, a mobile marketing company in Boston, US.

While old favourites such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter - available for iPhone, Android and other devices - continued to be popular, Snapchat eclipsed them in downloads in 2013, becoming the sixth most downloaded free app of the year on the App Store, according to Apple.

"Snapchat went from being a niche app to achieving much more critical mass, so much so that Facebook was reportedly willing to spend billions of dollars to acquire the company," said Palli.

With Snapchat, users can send photos and videos that disappear shortly after they are viewed.

Launched in 2011, the app's user base continued to grow rapidly in 2013, with more than 13 million people using the app in October, according to the latest available estimates from global information and measurement company Nielsen. In December alone, over 400 million pieces of content were shared through the app, says Snapchat, based in Venice, California.

Vine, a video-sharing app released earlier in 2013 by microblogging company Twitter, was the fourth most downloaded free app. For iPhone, Android and other devices, it allows users to share videos under six seconds long. Nielsen estimates that over 6 million people in the US were using the app in October.

Snapchat and Vine fall into a category that mobile analytics firm Flurry calls camera-enhanced messaging, which they say grew eightfold in 2013.

"The communications category underwent phenomenal growth this year. Messaging apps like Snapchat, Line, Kakao and WeChat are all exploding and becoming bigger than the carriers in their home countries in terms of users," said Simon Khalaf, chief executive of San Francisco-based Flurry.

Games were another popular category, with Candy Crush Saga for iPhone, Android and Kindle Fire securing its position as the top downloaded free app, and as the top revenue grossing app. It has been downloaded over 500 million times since its launch last year, according to its creator King, based in the UK. Nielsen estimates that over 20 million people in the US were playing the game in October.

In the entertainment category, Pandora continued to be the leading way to stream music and was the ninth most downloaded, and third top grossing, app in 2013. "Clearly the device has swallowed radio," said Palli. "Despite the new entrants, Pandora remains the dominant player in the space."

But the biggest trend of 2013, says Palli, is the emergence of apps as a way to control companion devices, which he believes will continue to grow this year. On Christmas Day, apps that pair with devices were among the top downloaded on the App Store.

Cape Times

source: www.4-traders.com