Facebook’s Mobile-Only Usage Booming

Facebook has 1.01 billion users. Of those billions of users, 604 million (around 60%) use the social network’s mobile app. Of those mobile Facebookers, 126 million (21%) visit Facebook elusively via mobile. That’s a pretty big percentage for a company who historically has had a hard time fine tuning its mobile offering. And the number is only increasing. According to quarterly reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (and reported on by Venture Beat), the number of mobile-only users has increased 24% since June. And that trend is expectedto continue, possibly at the expensive of the network’s traditional website.

Facebook App Testing

“While most of our mobile users also access Facebook through personal computers, we anticipate that the rate of growth in mobile usage will exceed the growth in usage through personal computers for the foreseeable future and that the usage through personal computers may be flat or continue to decline in certain markets, including key developed markets such as the United States, in part due to our focus on developing mobile products to encourage mobile usage of Facebook,” the company disclosed in the 10-Q report.

Get more information at Venture Beat >>>

3 Things You Need To Know About Apps for iPad Mini

So a miniature version of the iPad is joining the Mac family. As with each new device that hits the market, there’s going to be shake up in the mobile software testing world. From a technical development standpoint, it doesn’t look like the iPad Mini will present too many challenges (unlike the new iPad (#3) and the iPhone 5). But it might attract a different type of user, which will dictate which types of apps are most successful. James A. Martin, a blogger for CIO.com, came up with a few things everyone can expect from iPad Mini apps. Here are the three points most pertinent to the development and testing world:

Software Testing

 iPad mini apps won’t need to be updated. The iPad mini has a smaller screen than the iPad 2 or current-generation iPad, but developers won’t have to downscale their apps. That’s because the iPad mini has the same pixel resolution as the iPad 1 and 2. Even so, smaller in-app buttons might make tapping them more difficult.

• Gamers should be happy. Compared to the bigger iPads, the iPad mini is lighter and thinner and you can hold it in one hand. Translation: The mini should be a killer tablet for game apps. However, keep in mind the iPad mini uses Apple’s A5 processor, and the new fourth-generation iPad has the faster Apple A6X chip.
• Productivity won’t be a selling point. Let’s face it, the bigger iPads are only marginally viable as laptop replacements, because tablet apps simply aren’t as full-featured as their desktop software equivalents. … Throw in a smaller screen, and the iPad mini is even less attractive as a laptop alternative.

Mobile Revenue: Companies Play the Waiting Game

Mobile is big – really, really big – but don’t expect revenue numbers to back it up. Not for now anyway. Over at TechWell, Noel Wurst takes a look at why mobile revenue seems to be lagging behind and asks if mobile will ever live up to the hype. Here’s a good excerpt:

Mobile technology may very well be the future, but without a current guarantee of mobile advertising revenue, where exactly will the money come from?

Mobile Money

It shouldn’t come as much of a shock that companies like Intel, Microsoft, and AMD are hurting as PC sales plummet. Their CEO’s have seen it coming, and they’ve claimed that they’re making the business model changes necessary to right the ship during this rapid shift to a mobile technology world.

The reemergence of the success of these companies isn’t hard to imagine, not because they’re “too big to fail,” but because they don’t rely heavily on online advertising dollars. On the other hand, Google and Facebook clearly stand out as companies that must figure out how to generate advertising revenue in the mobile world.

Twitter and Facebook both are doing everything in their power to make life easier for advertisers, when what advertisers want more than anything is clicks. That is, purposeful clicks.

EBay Profits Prove the Power of Mobile

Companies that have centered their business strategy on the web are feeling the heat from the push toward mobile. This is especially true for ecommerce companies, as mobile payment and purchase apps become more prominent.

However, a lot of companies are reaping the benefits from revamping their strategy to include mobile. Take eBay for example, who just announced a 15% revenue increase this quarter. Tom Taulli of MSN cites the eBay mobile app as the source of the company’s growth:

“Ebay also has created compelling mobile apps, which saw more than 100 million downloads in the quarter, and were used by sellers to post roughly 2 million items per week.

 It’s inevitable that the smartphone will become the wallet of the future, considering it’s ideal not just for purchases but for doing research on the products you’re about to buy. And through its numerous deals with PayPal, eBay certainly is poised to be a huge beneficiary of this e-commerce trend.

EBay shares are up more than 60% this year. But despite that fantastic run, eBay still fetches a reasonable valuation. It currently trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of only 17 — not cheap but certainly still compelling in light of eBay’s full-year revenue growth rate of roughly 20%.”

If  EBay continues to grow and improve their mobile apps, the company could see some long-standing growth. Have you used the Ebay mobile app? Let us know what you think about it in the comments section.

Samsung Voted Top Android Testing Devices

What’s the best Android for app testing? While there isn’t really a good answer to that question (because you need to test across makers and models) Evans Data asked more than 350 developers anyway. Samsung took the top spot by a hefty margin, getting half of the vote – 20% higher than its closest competitor HTC.

But even with Samsung and HTC capturing so much favor, the report cautions that developers should continue to test their apps on as many devices as possible:

“Developers must test their applications to work on numerous implementations of Android that vary by manufacturer, or even within a single manufacturer’s collection of offerings. Android fragmentation is a reality that developers will have to face if they decide to work on Android.”

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New Worldwide Record for Active Mobile Devices

Are you reading this post from your mobile device? If so, you make up the one billion people worldwide using a mobile phone.

Mobile Application Testing

More than one billion smartphone devices out there right now are navigating a native app, browsing the mobile web, texting or talking. Research firm Strategy Analytic's has reported that we have hit a major mobile milestone – there are now over 1.038 billion smartphones in use worldwide. According to TechCrunch, this milestone took quite a while to reach:

“It’s taken 16 years to pass 1 billion, but the analysts believe it will only take three years for the next billion smartphone users to come on board.

When it comes to the big things in technology, billion, it seems, is the new million.

The analysts do not go into the specifics of which handset maker accounts for the bulk of these. At the moment, Samsung is the leader in terms of…
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