Augmented reality: A battle between Apple and Google

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — Alphabet Inc’s Google on Wednesday unveiled tools to make augmented reality apps for mobile devices using the Android operating system, setting up its latest showdown with Apple Inc’s iPhone over next-generation smartphone features.

Phone-based augmented reality (AR), in which digital objects are superimposed onto the real world on screen, got a huge boost from the popularity of the Pokémon Go game. The game, launched in the United States in July last year, sent players into city streets, offices, parks and restaurants to search for colorful animated characters.

Analysts expected the game to make $3 billion for Apple over two years as gamers buy “PokéCoins” from its app store.

Google’s take on the technology will first be available on the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Google’s own Pixel phone. The company said in a blog post that it hoped to make the system, called ARCore, available to at least 100 million users, but did not set a date for a broad release.

Apple in June announced a similar system called ARKit that it plans to release this fall on “hundreds of millions” of devices.

Google and Apple will jockey for the attention of customers and software developers who will build the games, walking guides and other applications that would make AR a compelling feature.

Many tech industry leaders envision a future in which eyeglasses, car windshields and other surfaces can overlay digital information on the real world. Google and Microsoft Corp have already experimented with AR glasses.

“AR is big and profound,” Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook told investors earlier in August. “And this is one of those huge things that we’ll look back at and marvel on the start of it.”

Apple and Google have had to make compromises to bring the technology to market.

In Apple’s case, the Cupertino, California-based company decided to make its AR system work with devices capable of running iOS 11, its next-generation operating system due out this fall.

This means it will work on phones going back to the iPhone 6s, which have a single camera at the back and standard motion sensors, rather than a dual camera system found on newer models such as the iPhone 7 Plus or special depth-sensing chips in competing phones. That limits the range of images that can be displayed.

Google initially aimed to solve this problem with an AR system called Tango that uses a special depth-sensor, but only two phone makers so far support it. With ARCore, Google changed course to work on phones without depth sensors.

But the fragmentation of the Android ecosystem presents challenges. To spread its AR system beyond the Galaxy S8 and Pixel phone, Google will have to figure out how account for the wide variety of Android phone cameras or require phone makers to use specific parts.

Apple, however, is able to make its system work well because it knows exactly which hardware and software are on the iPhone and calibrates them tightly.

Michael Valdsgaard, a developer with the furniture chain IKEA, called the system “rock solid,” noting that it could estimate the size of virtual furniture placed in a room with 98 percent accuracy, despite lacking special sensors.

“This is a classic example of where Apple’s ownership of the whole widget including both hardware and software is a huge advantage over device vendors dependent on Android and the broader value chain of component vendors,” said Jan Dawson, founder and chief analyst of Jackdaw Research.

source: interaksyon.com

New York Times launches daily podcast show

NEW YORK — Best known for its print coverage, The New York Times is this week broadening into the realm of daily audio news by launching a brand new podcast.

“The Daily,” a 15-20 minute audio offering, will launch Wednesday and be available to listeners through the newspaper’s website and mobile apps.

The show will cover a range of topics from hard news to other topics “highlighting culturally relevant news of the day,” the newspaper said.

Host will be Michael Barbaro, who covered the 2016 US election and who will also share context, analysis and thoughts with Times readers by text message.

The move sees the newspaper try to hold its own in a competitive news market where demand for coverage spiked during and since last year’s election that ended in a shock victory for President Donald Trump.

Last week The Washington Post launched the podcast “Can He Do That?” to assess the Trump’s presidency, currently top in the US podcast charts. The Wall Street Journal also offers readers a variety of podcasts.

“Our readers have always turned to us first thing in the morning to help them understand the world,” said Dean Baquet, executive editor of the Times.

“Now, with our new audio report, we’re able to explain the news in a whole new way,” he added.

Last year the Times launched four new podcasts — “The Run-Up,” a politics show also hosted by Barbaro, “Modern Love,” “Still Processing” and “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know.”

source: interaksyon.com

Microsoft to buy German start-up behind Wunderlist app — report

FRANKFURT, Germany — Microsoft has agreed to acquire 6Wunderkinder GmbH, a Berlin-based startup behind the Wunderlist to-do list app, for between $100-200 million, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

Quoting a person familiar with the deal, the daily said the purchase was part of Microsoft’s drive to enhance its line of mobile apps.

In March, Microsoft acquired the Californian start-up LiveLoop and its app which allows multiple users to collaborate on PowerPoint presentations simultaneously.

6Wunderkinder was not immediately available to comment on Tuesday.

Created in 2010, Wunderlist allows users to create lists to manage tasks on many devices, mobile as well as desktop.

source: interaksyon.com

New Facebook feature will recognize, share users’ music, TV shows

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook Inc will add technology to its mobile apps that recognizes the music, movies or television shows its users are enjoying, in the company’s latest move to give prominence to media and entertainment on its social network.

The new feature, which must be activated by the user and is off by default, would create a status update on Facebook that identifies the song a user is listening to and provide a 30-second preview of it that’s available to the user’s friends.

Facebook, which announced the move in a post on its official blog on Wednesday, is working with streaming music services Spotify, Rdio and Deezer to offer the music previews.

If a television show is detected, Facebook would highlight the specific season and episode that the user is watching and share it in their news feed.

The new tool comes as Facebook is increasingly competing with Twitter Inc to become the main online venue where consumers discuss television shows, sports and other entertainment in real time.

The new feature activates the microphone on a smartphone and detects the music, movie or television show playing in the background, similar to the way the popular Shazam appworks.

Once users activate the feature, the technology attempts to recognize the music or video playing in the background any time a Facebook user composes a status update.

Facebook said only songs or videos would be identified and the feature, which recognizes “millions” of songs, wouldn’t store sounds in the background.

The new feature will be available on the Android and iOS versions of its app in the U.S. in the coming weeks, the company said.

source: interaksyon.com

Facebook is top smartphone app in Philippines, Nielsen says

MANILA – Facebook is the most engaging smartphone application or "app" in the Philippines, according to Nielsen, affirming the social network's popularity among Filipinos online as well as the revenue potential for the country's telecom companies.

Citing the results of the Nielsen Informate Mobile Insights, the multinational consumer research company said Facebook was tops in three of the four Southeast Asian countries included in the study. Apart from the Philippines, the study also covered Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

Indonesia and Malaysia were the two other markets that ranked Facebook as the most engaging smartphone app, while Thailand considered the social network app only second next to Line, a Japanese messaging app.

Apart from Facebook, other smartphone apps among the top 10 in the four markets were Google Play Store, YouTube and Line.

Among the four countries, the Philippines was the only place where Skype and Vibr – both Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) apps – figured among the top 10 apps. Microblogging app Twitter was among the top 10 apps in only one of the four countries – Indonesia


The ranking combined app penetration with average time spent per month. The study used a smartphone metering technology across Android, Blackberry and Symbian operating systems, but Nielsen didn't indicate the size of its sample, only to say it maintains opt-in panels in the markets covered.

On average, people from the four Southeast Asian countries spent 45 minutes a day using smartphone apps. Filipinos spent slightly less than that at 41 minutes, while Malaysians led the pack with 66 minutes a day.

“The importance and influence of apps within today’s highly-competitive mobile market has soared in recent years,” said Sagar Phadke, Nielsen director for Telecom and Technology Practice in Southeast Asia, North Asia and Pacific.

“Smartphone users in Asia are highly engaged in apps usage, and the app user base in Asia is growing rapidly, presenting huge opportunities for brand marketers to leverage apps to build lasting connections with consumers,” Phadke said.

Last year, mobile browsing revenues grew by double-digits, making it one of the drivers of an otherwise mature Philippine telecom market – a feat both Smart and Globe attributed to the increasing penetration of smartphones and aggressive rollout of promotional mobile data plans.

Smart parent firm PLDT closed the first six months of this year with a two percent in revenues to P81.1 billion from P79.7 billion last year. Globe ended the same period with a nine percent increase in revenues to P44.5 billion from P40.8 billion a year ago.

source: interaksyon.com

Over a hundred billion apps will be downloaded from app stores in 2013 — Gartner

MANILA, Philippines — The mobile ‘app’ ecosystem will see strong growth in 2013 as research firm Gartner predicts that more than 100 billion apps will be downloaded from various app stores this year, up 60 percent from last year’s figures.

Majority of these apps will be free, the Gartner report said, but paid downloads will also see a surge this year as 9 billion paid apps will be installed on modern smartphones by the end of 2013.

“Free apps currently account for about 60 percent and 80 percent of the total available apps in Apple’s App Store and Google Play, respectively,” said Brian Blau, research director at Gartner. “iOS and Android app stores combined are forecast to account for 90 percent of global downloads in 2017. These app stores are still increasingly active due to richer ecosystems and large and very active developer communities.

Both Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store celebrated 50 billion downloads from their respective mobile storefronts this year, with Apple reporting as much as 800 apps being installed on iOS devices every second.

Android currently holds a majority share of the market with three in four smartphones around the world bearing Google’s mobile operating system. Apple, on the other hand, as a 13.2-percent share of the smartphone pie.

Other app stores available today include Amazon’s app store, BlackBerry World, and the Microsoft Windows Phone Store, all of which have marginal shares in the overall app store market.

Gartner said they see no signs of app movement slowing down in the next few years, but will see a gradual tapering of growth by 2017.

“We expect average monthly downloads per iOS device to decline from 4.9 in 2013 to 3.9 in 2017, while average monthly downloads per Android device will decline from 6.2 in 2013 to 5.8 in 2017. This relates back to the overall trend of users using the same apps more often rather than downloading new ones,” the research firm explained.

Despite this, revenues from these app downloads will still see marked increase in the coming years, with in-app purchases seeing a jump from 17 percent of the total $26 billion in 2013 to as high as 48 percent after four years.

Research shows that IAP contributes to a significant amount of Apple’s App Store revenue from iPhones worldwide. Other platforms have not reached such high levels as the iPhone, but analysts expect they will also see IAP contributions increase in the future.

“We see that users are not put off by the fact that they have already paid for an app, and are willing to spend more if they are happy with the experience,” Blau added. “As a result, we believe that IAP is a promising and sustainable monetization method because it encourages performance-based purchasing; that is, users only pay when they are happy with the experience, and developers have to work hard to earn the revenue through good design and performance.”

source: interaksyon.com

Yahoo! to shut down seven products, including Blackberry app

SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo! Inc is shutting down seven products, including its mobile app for Blackberry smartphones, as new Chief Executive Marissa Mayer takes a page from Google Inc’s play book by eliminating unsuccessful products en-masse.

The product shutdowns, which Yahoo! announced on its official company blog on Friday, are part of what the company said are regular efforts to evaluate and review its product line-up.

“The most critical question we ask is whether the experience is truly a daily habit that still resonates for all of you today,” wrote Jay Rossiter, Yahoo!’s executive vice president of Platforms.

The announcement represents Yahoo!’s second group shutdown of products since Mayer, a former Google executive, became CEO of the struggling Web portal in July. So-called “spring cleaning” announcements, in which multiple products are shut down, have become a regular feature at Google in recent years.

Mayer signaled the company would prune its line-up of mobile apps at an investor conference last month, noting that Yahoo! would reduce the 60 to 75 disparate mobile apps it currently has to a more manageable 12 to 15 apps.

Yahoo! said its app for Blackberry smartphones would no longer be available for download, or supported by Yahoo!, as of April 1.

Yahoo! also said that on April 1 it will stop supporting Yahoo! Avatars – the cartoon-like digital characters that consumers create to depict them on Web services such as Yahoo instant messenger and Facebook. Consumers who want to continue using their avatar on Yahoo!’s online services must download the avatar and then re-upload the information to their personalized Yahoo! profile.

The other Yahoo! products set to be terminated include Yahoo! App Search, Yahoo! Sports IQ, Yahoo! Clues, the Yahoo! Message Boards website and the Yahoo! Updates API.

source: interaksyon.com

US toughens online privacy rules for children

WASHINGTON DC — US regulators unveiled new rules Wednesday aimed at strengthening online privacy protection for children, to reflect the growing use of mobile apps and social networks.

The Federal Trade Commission said its updated rules require online services to get consent from parents if they are aimed at children under 13 or know that they are collecting personal information from young children.

But FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz said the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act would not include stricter proposals which would have made companies liable for “plug-ins” such as the Facebook “like” button or Twitter’s “tweet” button.

“The Commission takes seriously its mandate to protect children’s online privacy in this ever-changing technological landscape,” said Leibowitz.

“I am confident that the amendments to the COPPA Rule strike the right balance between protecting innovation that will provide rich and engaging content for children, and ensuring that parents are informed and involved in their children’s online activities.”

Leibowitz told reporters that websites will still be able to direct ads to children, and that “the only limit we place is on behavioral advertising,” which is based on a person’s browsing activity.

“Until you get parental consent, you may not build massive profiles of children to deliver advertising,” the regulator said.

The rules close some loopholes on online operators who can be liable for violations of the law, which was passed by Congress in 1998.

But the regulations note that, in light of comments received on a draft, the FTC decided the rules should not encompass platforms such as Google Play or the App Store, that offer access to “someone else’s child-directed content.”

Third-party plug-ins will be responsible only where they have “actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information from users of a child-directed site.”

Leibowitz said the FTC “struggled with this” issue and sought to avoid rules which clamped down on operators to force them to create a “sanitized” Internet for older children and adults.

“We think where we ended up was both balanced and very very strong,” he said. “We did two rounds of comments because we wanted to get it right and we wanted to listen to everybody.”

The proposal drew hundreds of comments, including some who feared Facebook could be held liable if it allowed young children to hit the “like” button without getting parental consent.

Senator Jay Rockefeller, who joined the news conference unveiling the updated rules, said they were as strong as the law allowed.

“The FTC really went as far as they could,” Rockefeller said.

“There will be groups that will complain about it and so will I. But we can’t do anything about it because the FTC is governed by law.”

Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, which lobbies for greater privacy protections, called the FTC move “a major step forward” but warned that it may not be effective.

“We are concerned about possible loopholes that could undermine the intent of the rules,” he said, adding that his group would maintain “file complaints against any company that violates the new rules.”

source: interaksyon.com

Ateneo develops mobile application for flood monitoring and reporting

MANILA, Philippines - Come rainy days, reporting and monitoring flooded areas will be a mere text away with the Ateneo Java Wireless Competency Center’s (AJWCC) new mobile application aptly called “Flood Patrol.”

“Flood Patrol” lets citizens report and retrieve real-time flood information via the mobile phone. It was developed especially for PAGASA/DOST’s Project NOAH (Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards), a website that predicts the amount of rainfall in the whole Philippines.

The Android flood reporting and monitoring application gathers flood data from citizens, then uploads it on the Web in real time. Using the flood patrol, history of reported floods in real time can be viewed and filtered for a particular time or depth/height.

The application requires the user to take a picture of the flooded area for validation and at the same time allows one to view the reports on the map. The reported floods are color-coded based on the height. The map can also be zoomed into a particular area to monitor specific areas.

Dr. Reena Estuar, executive director of the AJWCC, said that since a lot of people have mobile phones now, they wanted to develop applications that can empower citizens to do something about disaster monitoring and disaster preparedness. “Reporting floods in your area helps local governments and other institutions where they need to focus on at a certain time,” Estuar said.

During the recent launch of Project NOAH, Estuar said there was a clamor from the public to have a mobile application for the project, that’s why she coordinated with Dr. Mahar Lagmay, project director of Project NOAH.

The application is now being used by Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan, a Jesuit-led organization that is committed to the service of the Filipino Church and the Filipino people.

“The history of Flood Patrol goes way back to 2008 when the school emphasized including disaster related projects in our activities. We had students doing visualization of weather data,” she said.

The AJWCC is a research center under Ateneo’s Department of Information Systems and Computer Science. It is focused on developing mobile applications for education, health and disaster.

The AJWCC was formed to facilitate research in wireless technologies and incubate mobile products for industry partners such as Globe Labs, Smart Communications, ABS-CBN Interactive, GMA New Media Inc., etc.

It has done research in the following areas: Mobile Learning, Mobile Games, and Mobile Solutions for business, disaster management and tele-medicine.

“The app is user-friendly because it does not ask you to type in so many details but asks you to confirm everything you put,” Estuar said.

“In the future, we will do an app that can do more predictions on floods which will help us in disaster prevention,” she added.



The rise of cellphones

The prevalence of cellphone use in reporting and monitoring floods has become common in the Philippines since the time of typhoon “Ondoy” because Filipinos are more attuned to the use of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

“News channels, netizens, local government units, government agencies used Facebook and mobile telcos as the source of information to reach out for help for victims of that 2009 disaster,” socialpulsmagazine.com said.

An article of Spot.ph entitled “National Heroes’ Day: Celebrating the Heroes of Habagat” said, “Filipinos at home utilized the Internet and social media to get help to where it was needed.”

In the recent floods caused by the northeast monsoon which wreaked havoc in the National Capital Region and the Calabarzon region, citizens used their cellphones to report and also to receive relief from local government units.

“When (the northeast monsoon) struck the country, netizens wasted no time in sharing photos and warnings of the onslaught of rains. We were also able to create a relief and donation center map, and a rescue request form for those who needed rescuing. Others flocked to Twitter for updates, sharing information on people that need help via hashtags,” the article said.



Project NOAH

Launched a month before the northeast monsoon, PAGASA-DOST’s Project NOAH was tested and proven accurate because it was able to warn residents of Marikina City of the heavy rainfall.

In an interview with Spot.ph, Lagmay said, “Despite the record danger level, Marikina was successful in evacuating people. The element of surprise was not there. Government was able to inform the people.”

Aside from the media, government agencies also use the Internet and mobile technologies to disseminate information and disaster relief.

“The awareness in social media even prompted PAGASA to release a statement that everyone must tune in to their Twitter accounts to keep updated of the latest weather (conditions). This statement was later corrected as many reacted, mainly those who don’t have social networking sites accounts. Malacañang clarified the statement with PAGASA thereafter and the latter issued a statement that Twitter is just one of the sources of information aside from other media channels like TV and radio,” socialplusmagazine.com said.

Flood Patrol can be downloaded at https://play.google.com/store/

source: philstar.com

Candy Crush Saga, Facebook Favorite, Heads to the iPhone

King.com has been producing nothing but hits on Facebook since it launched its first game on the platform in April. So much so that it’s now the #2 creator of social games on the social network, second to only Zynga.

Now it is releasing one of its most popular games to date, Candy Crush Saga, on iOS. It’s available for iPad, iPad mini, iPhone and iPod touch in November.

The Bejeweled-like game currently has an astounding 5 million daily active players on Facebook, making it the 4th most popular game and largest casual social game on the social network. The mobile version of Candy Crush Saga will offer a similar gameplay experience to the Facebook version and will keep track of player’s leaderboards, progress, and virtual goods purchased across both platforms.

“One game after another is a hit, because we take games that are hit before [Facebook],” Riccardo Zacconi, CEO and co-founder of King.com told Mashable.

The company first releases all of its games on King.com in the form of a single level timed game you play along with your friends, trying to achieve the highest score in the allotted time.

When a game is successful in that form, King them turn it into a saga franchise and releases it on Facebook, and later mobile.





Candy Crush Saga is following in the footsteps of King’s Bubble Witch Saga that the company launched on Facebook earlier this year and on mobile in August.

Zacconi says that players that started playing Bubble Witch on Facebook often play on mobile, but return to the Facebook game as well.

“This is increasing gameplay by 50% on top incrementally,” he says.

There’s no denying Bubble Witch Saga’s popularity. The game is currently the 10th most popular iPad app in the United States, and the 4th most popular iPad game in the App Store.

Gaming on Facebook as a whole is growing, and growing fast. The social network recently revealed that 251 million people played games on Facebook in September 2012, up from 226 million in September of 2011. Right now gaming on the social network is anyone’s game, and it looks like King is up to the challenge.

“We have a very simple strategy: to launch good games and the best games everywhere,” says Zacconi. “For me this is the most important launch this year.”

Candy Crush Saga will be available for iOS in November and later for Android.

source: mashable.com

Google Buys Instagram Rival Nik Software

(Reuters) - Google Inc said it bought Instagram rival Nik Software, which makes award-winning photo editing application Snapseed, for an undisclosed amount.

Google and Facebook Inc are locked in a battle for social network followers that has increasingly shifted to mobile applications, such as photo editing.

While not as famous as Instagram, available for free on Apple's mobile devices, Snapseed has won a following for its editing prowess among photographers, despite a $4.99 price tag.

Nik Software says Snapseed has more than 9 million users while Instagram says it has more than 100 million.

"We want to help our users create photos they absolutely love, and in our experience Nik does this better than anyone," Vic Gundotra, Google's senior vice president, engineering, said on a Google+ post.

Facebook this year bought Instagram, which made an app for users to add filters and effects to pictures taken on their smartphones, for a cool $1 billion.

"Google's playing chase up in social," BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis said. "It's yet another tuck in they have done, trying to boost their Google+ offering."

Snapseed won Apple Inc's "iPad App Of The Year" award in 2011 for its multitouch photo editing interface.

"We've always aspired to share our passion for photography with everyone, and with Google's support we hope to be able to help many millions more people create awesome pictures," Nik Software said on its Website.

Google's Gundotra also said that Google+ had hit over 400 million users this week and had just crossed 100 million monthly active users.

source: nytimes.com

'Angry Birds' IPO in late 2013 says Finnish app maker

STOCKHOLM - Rovio, the Finnish makers of the world's most-downloaded mobile app "Angry Birds", will seek a stock market listing by the end of 2013, chief financial officer Mikko Setala said in an interview published Thursday.

"We have prepared a stock market entry for 2013. But the shareholders have not decided when or whether it would even happen," Setala told Swedish economic newspaper Dagens Industrii.

"If we go to the stock market, it would most likely be in the second half of next year. We do not need to raise any more funds at the moment," he said.

Founded in 2003, Rovio had first mentioned its public listing plans in 2011, citing New York and Hong Kong as possible exchanges for the IPO.

Expectations for a listing grew after the company published net profits of 48 million euros on sales of 75.4 million euros for 2011, prompting financial analysts to forecast astronomical valuations for the firm.

When asked to comment on a valuation of 7 billion euros put forward by some, Setala told the newspaper that the figure was pure "speculation".

"We have not come up with any figures. It would a mistake to do so," he said.

Rovio is mainly owned by the three founders of the company -- including one of the shareholders' father who had remortgaged his house to keep the company alive. Other stakes are held by various venture capitalists such as the founder of internet telephone giant Skype, Niklas Zennstroem.

"Angry Birds" reached more than one billion downloads in May, according to Rovio.

source: interaksyon.com

Japan-Based Pinoys Offered Globe App

MANILA, Philippines — Globe Telecom, in partnership with Japan-based company IPS, Inc., recently launched Tokyo03, a mobile application for Apple iOS-based devices that offers unprecedented value to those who make frequent calls to the Philippines from Japan, as well as Philippines-based individuals who regularly call associates and loved ones in Japan, eliminating the worry of having to pay expensive inbound roaming fees or outbound IDD rates.

Currently available for the iPhone, iPad and the iPod, and soon to be available on the Android platform, Tokyo03 is an Internet phone application that assigns the user a virtual number. Virtual numbers function just like regular numbers and can be reached through cell phones or landlines. By giving users a virtual Globe number, Tokyo03 allows those in the Philippines to communicate with their contacts in Japan and be charged local rates simply by dialing a Globe number, as though he were in the same country as the person he or she is calling.

While those in Japan are charged data usage fees for making calls to the Philippines through the Tokyo03 application, those in the Philippines who call their loved ones in Japan on their virtual number only need to pay local rates.

This innovation aims to serve the Filipino telecommunications market in Japan. As the fourth-largest foreign community in that country, Filipinos represent a large proportion of outbound calls, which have long been hampered by high IDD rates. Tokyo03 enables Philippines-based subscribers to save on costs by letting them make international calls to their loved ones in Japan at highly reduced rates.

source: mb.com.ph

Amazon tests mobile in-app purchases: report

SAN FRANCISCO — Amazon is testing a service that allows tablet users to make purchases through mobile applications, trying to take on Apple and Google in the mobile business, U.S. media reported on Tuesday.

The service being tested allows both subscriptions and purchases within mobile applications, Bloomberg said in a report, citing an app developer in Amazon’s trial.

The world’s largest online retailer has declined to comment.

According to the report, Amazon plans to charge a 30 percent commission to clients for its in-app purchase service, same rate the company charges developers for app sales.

The move will put Amazon more directly at odds with Google and Apple which have been selling items from within downloadable software through their online stores App Store and Google Play.

A lot of apps are free for beginning users to download but in- app purchases are needed to get more advanced use, such as virtual goods and extra features.

Amazon’s Kindle Fire is the most popular non-iPad product in the tablet market, but Amazon only has about 1,400 apps in its store. Both Apple and Google now have more than 450,000 apps available in their stores.

According to business information service IHS, the in-app purchases will generate 5.6 billion U.S. dollars in revenue in 2015, up from 970 million dollars in 2011.

source: interaksyon.com