“The market is gaining momentum as more and more smartphone users have direct and easy access to app stores,” explains Ralf-Gordon Jahns, Research Director at research2guidance. “In addition, the app stores which were founded in 2009 have finally managed to increase application numbers and are growing their app business.”

Key market data 2009 (full year) 1st half year 2010

• App market revenue $1.7 bn US $2.2 bn US
• App download number 3.1 bn 3.9 bn

“Apple‘s competitors like Nokia and BlackBerry started to leverage their global reach and increased the traffic on their app stores” says Egle Mikalajunaite Research Analyst at research2guidance. “We see this trend continuing in the next several months and years. The next wave of new app stores will be niche stores specializing on e.g. business or mobile health apps”.

Average application prices steeped to $3.60 US per paid application in the first half of 2010.

“Although there are still significant differences with regard to prices between stores, the overall decline of app prices has reclined”, according to Ralf-Gordon Jahns. “App publishers should be aware of the price differences between stores and mobile platforms. These price differences are a sign of a lack of market transparency. They represent a good business opportunity, but not for too long”.

Additional information is available on the current research2guidance report, “Global Smartphone Application Report 2010.” More information is also available on the research2guidance website at http://www.research2guidance.com/shop/.

About research2guidance:

research2guidance is a Berlin-based research organization that specializes in the mobile industry. The company’s services include comprehensive market studies, as well as fully grounded research and specialized consultancy.

This is how computers should be in the future

This demo, from Pattie Maes‘ lab at MIT (and spearheaded by her student Pranav Mistry), was the buzz of TED2009. Sixth Sense is a wearable device with a projection screen that paves the way for profound, data-rich interaction with our environment. Imagine Minority Report and then some.

The SixthSense prototype is comprised of a pocket projector, a mirror and a camera. The hardware components are coupled in a pendant like mobile wearable device. Both the projector and the camera are connected to the mobile computing device in the user’s pocket. The projector projects visual information enabling surfaces, walls and physical objects around us to be used as interfaces; while the camera recognizes and tracks user’s hand gestures and physical objects by the camera and tracks the locations of the colored markers (visual tracking fiducials) at the tip of the user’s fingers using simple computer-vision techniques. The movements and arrangements of these fiducials are interpreted into gestures that act as interaction instructions for the projected application interfaces. The maximum number of tracked fingers is only constrained by the number of unique fiducials, thus SixthSense also supports multi-touch and multi-user interaction.

http://www.ted.com/talks/tan_le_a_headset_that_reads_your_brainwaves.html

A Sikorsky Aircraft test pilot broke the speed record for a rotorcraft Monday by flying the company’s X2 prototype helicopter at 225 knots, the company said Monday.

In an hourlong early morning flight, Sikorsky chief test pilot Kevin Bredenbeck briefly reached 225 knots, or 258 mph, at a Sikorsky facility in West Palm Beach, Fla., the company said.

Sikorsky qualified the record as “unofficial” because no representative of the National Aeronautic Association was on hand to make an independent verification. The NAA is the official keeper of aviation records.

The previous record for a helicopter was 216 knots, or 249 mph, set by a version of the Westland Lynx in the mid-1980s, according to Sikorsky and Art Greenfield, NAA’s record keeper.

That record — an official one certified by the NAA’s counterpart in Great Britain — was set on Aug. 11, 1986.

The X2 is a 5,000-pound prototype aircraft with one pilot, one engine, two counter-rotating main rotors and a “pusher” propeller at the rear. It has no tail rotor.

“The X2 Technology demonstrator’s latest flight is continuing to push the speed envelope, successfully flying approximately 50 knots per hour faster than a traditional helicopter,” Jim Kagdis, Sikorsky’s program manager for advanced programs, said in a statement. “Vibration levels and aircraft performance have continued to meet or exceed our expectations, so we are pleased to report that all systems are ‘go’ in our mission to achieve a 250-knot cruise speed later this year.”

Sikorsky has been aiming toward a speed of 250 knots (about 287 mph) and could make that attempt as soon as its next test flight, according to company spokeswoman Marianne Heffernan. She did not give a specific date for that flight.

Bredenbeck, the X2 test pilot, had reached 180 knots in May. In his flight Monday, which took off at 6:30 a.m., he flew at 225 knots for about a minute, Heffernan said.

Sikorsky, a division of United Technologies Corp., does not yet produce any helicopters based on its X2 technology and has not sold any yet. Company officials say a military use is most likely at first.

Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst with Teal Group in Virginia, said it could take a while for the military to ask for an ultrafast helicopter based on X2 technology, noting that “it takes a very long time for the military to adopt new rotorcraft technologies.”

“Nevertheless,” he said, “you’re advertising a capability that has relevance for one or more missions. And that’s worthwhile.”

The bureau wrote a letter in July to the Wikimedia Foundation, the parent organization of Wikipedia, demanding that it take down an image of the F.B.I. seal accompanying an article on the bureau, and threatened litigation: “Failure to comply may result in further legal action. We appreciate your timely attention to this matter.”

The problem, those at Wikipedia say, is that the law cited in the F.B.I.’s letter is largely about keeping people from flashing fake badges or profiting from the use of the seal, and not about posting images on noncommercial Web sites. Many sites, including the online version of the Encyclopedia Britannica, display the seal.

Other organizations might simply back down. But Wikipedia sent back a politely feisty response, stating that the bureau’s lawyers had misquoted the law. “While we appreciate your desire to revise the statute to reflect your expansive vision of it, the fact is that we must work with the actual language of the statute, not the aspirational version” that the F.B.I. had provided.

Michael Godwin, the general counsel of the Wikimedia Foundation, wrote, “we are prepared to argue our view in court.” He signed off, “with all appropriate respect.”

An F.B.I. spokesman, William Carter, said that such letters go out “from time to time” from the office of general counsel.

“You can’t use the F.B.I. seal, by law, unless you have the permission of the F.B.I. director,” he said.

Cindy Cohn, the legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, called the dust-up both “silly” and “troubling”; Wikipedia has a First Amendment right to display the seal, she said.

“Really,” she added, “I have to believe the F.B.I. has better things to do than this.”

A version of this article appeared in print on August 3, 2010, on page A10 of the New York edition.

The renewables industry has broadly welcomed the Renewable Energy Strategy and the government’s latest low carbon white paper, both of which were launched yesterday (June 15).

The Renewable Energy Strategy (RES), which has been in the offing for over a year, details how the government will meet its commitment to produce 15% of its energy from renewable sources by 2011.

Meanwhile the government’s white paper, the Low Carbon Transition Plan, lays out how the UK will move to a low-carbon future, and includes a target for the UK to source 40% of its electricity from low carbon sources by 2020. More…