Mobile Applications can be addicting, so says the numbers. But the numbers don’t mean any single application or type of applications, they mean all applications. The numbers came from Flurry, a mobile analytics company. I understand the addiction. It’s a lot of fun downloading and trying out various applications, especially when many of them are free. Flurry has tracked 40 million mobile users and about half a million of these users have used applications 100 times in a month each–that’s 3 times every day. These are app addicts! The trend is accelerating, which means the industry probably has to thank the iPhone and Steve Jobs for the rising popularity of mobile applications.

[via gigaom]

How about you guys? What do you think of this iPhone amnesty program? If the official carrier in your country offers up a similar iPhone amnesty program, will you sign up for it?

[china business times via unwiredview]

[nokia press release via unwiredview]

And to think we were all pretty stoked about the Apple iPhone finally coming to the biggest and most reliable wireless company in the U.S. Now here comes Verizon with an anti-iPhone ad (”everything iDon’t Droid Does”) that may just mean good-bye to a Verizon iPhone in 2010. It’s not just business when you’re taking a swipe against an Apple product. With the ad, Verizon also launched a possible product tagline or even a fullblown brand name: DroidDoes [site], which means of course that Verizon will put a lot of support behind the Google Android in future phone models.

So will Verizon go head to head with the Apple iPhone. Will iPhone continue its exclusivity with AT&T? Is Verizon insane making war with Steve Jobs?

[via blogs.nyt]

Don’t be surprised if one day you’ll no longer see Lite or Free versions of certain apps listed in the App Store. This is because Apple has finally lifted the restriction on free iPhone apps and in-app purchases. It used to be that paid apps where the only ones that were allowed to provide in-app purchases, but with this latest development, developers need not send a Full and Lite version of an app for listing at the App Store as they can already consolidate this as just one, a free iPhone app, with the option to purchase the full app later on. This will probably mean very little to majority of you iPhone owners out there, but let this just be a heads up that changes might be in the offing in the App Store as a result of this policy change.

[daring fireball via engadget]

If you’ve already jailbroken either your new iPhone or iPod Touch, they recommend to just restore to a custom IPSW file instead of using DFU mode. Likewise, those enjoying internet tethering on a carrier that doesn’t support it are advised to stick with firmware 3.0 since upgrading will void this feature. As for those of you who ran blackra1n and have encountered problems with winterboard, diskaid, ifunbox, and mobilesubstrate, installing a custom IPSW file created by PwnageTool should fix these issues.

As usual, this PwnageTool is only available for the Mac OS X. Windows users will just have to content themselves with blackra1n or you can ask their Mac using jailbreaking buddies for a custom IPSW file which you can use to restore their iPhone/iPod Touch to. And no, we highly doubt this will work on the new iPhone 3G S bootrom.

[via iphone dev team]

Documents have been unearthed confirming that the new RTM for Microsoft’s next Windows Mobile platform is scheduled sometime around April of next year. Considering that once manufacturers received this OS they’ll still have to test it out on their hardware and tweak it even further, it’ll take several more months before they can release a WM 7-enabled device to the public. Thus, it’s now looking more unlikely that we’ll see one debut earlier than the 2H of 2010. This is definitely devastating news for those hoping to bag a Windows Mobile 7 device early next year.

On a somewhat good note, it was discovered that a Microsoft Office Mobile 7 suite is in the pipeline as well. There’s still a lot we don’t know about Office Mobile 7 aside from that it will work nicely with WM 7, but rest assured, we’ll be reporting more about this once additional info is made available.

[mskitchen, ppcgeeks via cellphones etc]

A public beta version of Adobe Flash Professional CS5 is scheduled to be released later this year, and once this happens, we’re expecting a flurry of new iPhone Apps submissions to flood the App Store gates.

[adobe blog via engadget]

“In the top six iPhone markets that are still exclusive, we believe that Apple’s market share could rise to 10%, on average, in a multiple carrier distribution model from 4% today. These six markets represented almost 70% percent of iPhone shipments in C2Q09.”

Having a bigger market share, however, doesn’t mean bigger profits for the iPhone. Apple enjoys a unique deal with AT&T, which includes a share in revenues from customers. Still, Hubert predicts an upsurge in revenues to match sales.

[source]

The Apple App Store has reached a new milestone again as it surpasses the 2 billion mark in downloads. Actually, it was well on its way to achieving this amazing feat since it already had 1.5 million downloads to its name when it turned 1 back in July. Back then, there were a total of 65,000 apps available. Now, there are 85,000 iPhone apps ready for download. That’s a remarkable 20,000 mark up in a span of just a little under two months and a half. This just goes to show popular the iPhone and the App Store is for developers to distribute their apps. As far as close rival Palm is concerned, their App Catalog has managed to record a total of 1 million downloads after just 4 months of being open to the public. That’s impressive in its own right, but as we can see, it’s still got a long way to go to become a real threat to the Apple App Store.

[apple via bgr]