With the passing of Steve Jobs last month, we were assailed with the technology pundits using words like visionary, genius, the Einstein of our times. Many took to lamenting that the future of technology will be severely hampered as the next great ‘inventor’ of his stature has yet to arise and lay claim to the title.
While tipping our hat to his contributions, particularly with respect to strides with user interfaces, we wanted to share a site that will help you explore optimizing the devices that utilize the power of various operating systems including Android, Blackberry, Java, Symbian and Mobile Web. GetJar is the world’s largest free app store, offering cross platform applications via a virtual storefront.
The statistics for GetJar are staggering; with over 2 Billion downloads to date, they have a bench of close to 400,000 registered developers creating close to 350,000 games or applications available to 2,600 supported devices.
Launched in 2004 as a site for mobile developers interested in sharing and receiving feedback on their mobile applications, GetJar subsequently became an independent distribution platform for the applications regardless of the manufacturer of the device or the carrier. The beauty of GetJar is that it autodetects the device and presents only compatible applications. Because of the openness of the technology, GetJar offers broad scalability versus the proprietary nature of the iPhone (sorry, Steve).
User interest and downloads continue to be highest among games, social & messaging, entertainment, and productivity applications. Here is a sampling of some of the apps:
Radardroid Pro: Speed Camera background alert service for your favorite Navigation app
Tune In Radio Pro: Radio live, local and beyond. Enjoy the largest selection of radio in the world
TXT Msg Away: Away message for your phone; automatic text message reply system
Solo: For the air guitar aficionados, go Solo with Android’s most popular virtual guitar
All Sport GPS Pro: Track your workouts with this app
Dex Mobile: Find the cheapest gas
And for those of you who like to while away some time playing games, GetJar gives you access to Nano Panda, Jelly Wars, Guns n Glory and Paper Glider to mention just a few.
The market analysis data for mobile applications indicates that 58 percent of users’ access their device’s apps more than once a day and a third spend at least an hour daily with their applications. The cost of an app is the most decisive factor in the user’s download decision. The volume of free applications and the ease of search topped the checklist of the factors that assess in selecting an app store like GetJar.
Interestingly enough, only 25 percent of respondents said they found the application by browsing through an app store, so GetJar has a potential visibility challenge. Approximately half of applications are discovered on line and 17 percent are found through word of mouth or social media. Perhaps GetJar, with their broad scalability and huge catalogue can turn those statistics upside down as the industry moves to inevitable consolidation.
