News Byte

Facebook Snaps Up Team Behind Mobile Startup Spaceport

Facebook announced a small “acqhire” on Tuesday afternoon, bringing aboard the team members behind Spaceport.io, a startup focused on giving developers tools to bring Web-based applications to mobile devices. “Ben Savage and the Spaceport team are a talented group of mobile engineers. We look forward to building products that people love together,” Facebook said in a statement. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Facebook will not acquire the Spaceport technology — just the team.

When Mayer Called Yahoo’s Mobile Revenue “Nascent,” She Wasn’t Kidding (And Here’s the Actual Number She Left Out)

The Silicon Valley Internet giant makes a paltry $125 million in annual mobile revenue. Can the new CEO turn that around?
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eBay Reorganizes Its Mobile Group and Releases New Apps

It’s clear the online shopping giant is preparing for 2013 to be another banner year for mobile.
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News Byte

Google and Apple Dominated App Installs on Android and iOS Last Year

Nope, it wasn’t Instagram or Electronic Arts. While most publishers complain about how hard it is for customers to discover their apps, here are two companies you won’t hear a peep from: Apple and Google. In 2012, the top app publishers by download were Apple on iOS and Google on Android, according to a year-end report published by Distimo, an analytics provider from the Netherlands. Apple, which has a half-dozen apps, earned an average of $7.43 per paid download, the report found, whereas Google made zero from its catalog of 60. In the case of Google, downloads included apps that were preinstalled on the handset.

eBay to Stop Advertising Inside Mobile Apps: “It’s Not Worth It.”

“We aren’t happy with the user experience and we don’t need the money,” said Devin Wenig, eBay’s president of global marketplaces.
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The Latest Long Apple Line: Developers Waiting for App Approval

As volume spikes for the holidays and submissions surge to take advantage of new product releases, iOS app approval wait times grow.
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Microsoft Woos Windows 8, Windows Phone Developers at Build 2012

MIcrosoft gives third-party developers the hard sell on why they should be developing applications for the Windows 8 platform.
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It’s an iStorm: Scott Forstall Out at Apple, Along With Retail Head, as Other Top Execs Get Promotions

Apparently, there are storms in the West, too.
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Google Play Finally Supporting Verizon Wireless Carrier Billing

Google Play now has 675,000 apps and games, which is great, as long as consumers have a way to purchase them.
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Amazon Introduces Whispercast to Manage Large Fleets of Kindles

For the hundreds of schools that use Kindles in the classroom, managing the e-readers just got a whole lot easier.
Worldleader provides Amazon Kindles to kids in classrooms in Africa