| Free Apps Generate the Most Revenue, Google Play Grows Posted: 23 Dec 2013 02:13 PM PST  Distimo year-end review details the success of the freemium business model
Freemium apps—free apps with in-app purchases—make up a huge majority of the revenue generated in both the Apple App Store and on Google Play. It's a business model that's become more and more popular with video games and now applications inserting paid add-ons into games and apps that initially cost nothing to download. According to Distimo's year-end review of the mobile app market, nine out of the top 10 grossing global apps in the Apple App Store were freemium apps. Clash of Clans and Candy Crush Saga top the list as prime examples of the popularity of games that are technically free, but provide ample opportunities to spend real money. The Google Play Store's top 10 grossing apps were all freemium apps. 
It's shocking just how fast freemium apps are taking over the market. In January, 77 percent of revenue generated in the Apple App Store was from free apps with in-app purchases. By November, they accounted for 92 percent of revenue. The Google Play Store had a similar jump going from 89 percent to 98 percent by November. As for total revenue, Google's starting to catch up to Apple with a 7 percent increase in its share of the revenue since June. Apple fell from generating 70 percent of the revenue to just 63 with Google Play at 37 percent. In the homeland of Samsung, South Korea, Google generates more than 80 percent of all app revenue. The United States still generated the most mobile app revenue with Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and China following close behind. What do you think of the freemium business model? Do you mind in-app purchases? Tell us in the comments. |
| Xbox Live Documentary Goes Digging for Missing Atari E.T. Cartridges Posted: 23 Dec 2013 10:32 AM PST  The truth is out there
E.T. The Extra Terrestrial for the Atari 2600 is widely considered the worst video game of all time, and legend has it that it was so bad, millions of unsold copies ended up being buried in a small town in New Mexico. Whether or not that's true, Microsoft Studios aims to find out in the first episode of a new documentary series that will debut exclusively on Xbox in 2014, the company announced in a blog post. "The first film in the groundbreaking series investigates the events surrounding the great video game burial of 1983. The Atari Corporation, faced with overwhelmingly negative response to the video game 'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,' buried millions of unsold game cartridges in the middle of the night in the small town of Alamogordo, New Mexico," Microsoft explains. A cross-platform content development firm called Fuel Entertainment secured the rights to excavate the supposed Atari landfill and approached Xbox about it. Microsoft says Lightbox will document the dig "early next year." In addition to the excavation, the documentary will focus on the burial in the context of Atari's rise and fall. So, who thinks the documentary will unearth Atari 2600 cartridges and who thinks the crew will find just a whole lot of dirt and sand? Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Asus Enlists Statue of Liberty to Tease Dual Booting Mobile Device Posted: 23 Dec 2013 09:42 AM PST  Something "incredible" is coming from Asus
A promotional website by Asus with the tagline, "In search of incredible" teases an impending product reveal scheduled for January 6, 2014 at 12:00 PM Pacific (3:00 PM Eastern) at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. What exactly is Asus planning to unveil? Based on a few written clues and a YouTube video featuring the Statue of Liberty, we suspect it's a 2-in-1 hybrid device capable of dual-booting Windows and Android. The YouTube video is titled, "[Asus CES 2014 Teaser I] Green or Blue? One or Two?." As for the video itself, it shows the Statue of Liberty holding a tablet that repeatedly changes color from blue (Windows?) to green (Android?) and vice versa. Reading deeper between the lines, after the Statue of Liberty tears apart the tablet to hold two devices, both continue to change colors, perhaps hinting of dual-boot functionality in both tablet and laptop mode. Here's a look at the video: Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| F-Secure Internet Security is $80/7 Years (Limited Time), Exclusive BOGO Deal for Maximum PC Readers Posted: 23 Dec 2013 08:10 AM PST  Score two licenses for the price of one!
Security vendor F-Secure is ringing in the holiday season with a limited time Internet Security PC Lifetime Edition offer. Up through January 31, 2014, you can snag an F-Secure Internet Security PC Lifetime Edition license for $80, which remains valid for the life of your PC or 7 years, whichever comes first. Even better, F-Secure has an exclusive offer for Maximum PC readers -- two licenses for the price of one! That amounts to $80 to cover two PCs for up to 7 years. It's been a few years since we formally reviewed F-Secure (2011), but when we did, we gave it an 8/10 verdict for its fast scanning, minimal interface, and stellar protection against zero-day viruses. The latest release offers protection against viruses, spyware, and other types of malware, along with real-time, cloud-based protection against online threats. It also has a "Safe Profile" feature for Facebook in which F-Secure scans your profile and lists recommended changes. If you're interested in the BOGO offer, just follow this link. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| AMD to Grab Nearly a Third of the Professional Graphics Card Market in 2014 Posted: 23 Dec 2013 08:06 AM PST  Apple deserves a 'Thank You' card
AMD has proven itself to be quite the resilient company over the years. No matter how bad the financial situation looks at times, the Sunnyvale chip designer always manages to find a way to stay afloat, and it's not always through desktop and/or laptop processors. AMD's graphics division has been a saving grace of sorts, and by landing a lucrative contract to supply Apple's new Mac Pro systems with FirePro parts, it could end up with a significant share of the professional graphics market. According to Digitimes and its sources within the upstream supply chain, AMD could carve out a 30 percent share of the market in 2014 thanks in large part to the Mac Pro deal. Each Mac Pro comes standard with two FirePro cards, and since these are high-end parts, the markup is pretty high, too. It seems AMD is increasingly interested in graphics these days. In addition to scoring the Mac Pro deal, AMD's GPUs power all three current generation consoles (Nintendo Wii U, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One). And on the PC side, AMD's aggressively priced R7 and R9 Series are proving popular, both among gamers and virtual coin miners (Litecoin, mostly). Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Newegg Daily Deals: Western Digital Black 4TB Hard Drive, Intel Core i5 4670K Haswell, and More! Posted: 23 Dec 2013 06:51 AM PST |
| Top 13 News Stories of 2013 Posted: 23 Dec 2013 06:25 AM PST 
Revisiting the top tech headlines of the past year Another year is in the books and you know what? The PC isn't dead! Not that we ever thought our beloved platform was ever in jeopardy, though you wouldn't know it if you listened to analysts and market research firms predicting all kinds of gloom and doom for the desktop. We're happy to say the sky didn't fall, and as we look ahead to 2014, we're more excited than ever about all the advances in technology -- 3D printing, wearable computing, and advances in storage are just some of the things gaining momentum as we head into the new year. Before we look too far down the road, however, we wanted to take a moment and reflect on some of the biggest news stories of 2013. We've put together a list of the most popular happenings of the past year based on a variety of factors including traffic, reader engagement, and of course editorial discretion. Some are included here because of their lasting impact on the industry, and others because they piqued the interest of you, our readers, and sparked lively debates. Ready to get nostalgic with us? Then off we go as we relive the top 13 news stories of 2013! |
