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This is a hand-curated newsletter with the best articles this week on the mobile app ecosystem and creating and monetizing mobile apps. Please share this newsletter and spread the word!

#app

1. App Of The Week: For a change, we thought it would be a good idea to create a compilation of all the previous App Of The Week apps, in case you missed any. Enjoy!

#design

2. Do not make your app icon white. As Jared Sinclair shows, your white app icon disappears into the crowd.

3. Not hiding the password on login forms on the mobile is the best user experience. It is still cumbersome to enter passwords on the mobile, and this article explains why. Also, Amazon’s app has switched over to showing the password by default. Mobile Design Details: Hide/Show Passwords

Evolution of the Amazon app’s login screen:



#growth #monetization

4. Dynamic Pricing for In-App Purchase in apps is essential and not difficult to do. Here’s an excellent primer from our very own blog on Dynamic Pricing and how to capture the low hanging fruit. Simple Dynamic Pricing for Mobile Games and Apps

#ecosystem

5. The Android equivalent of HealthKit – Google Fit SDK – is available for developer preview. It creates a uniform API for app and device manufacturers to store and access a user’s activity data from fitness sensors and apps. Google Fit Preview SDK now available

6. Flappy Bird (re-)releases on the Amazon App Store, with an exclusive deal with Amazon. The lengths app stores are going to court app developers indicate that apps play a huge role in smartphone / device sales. Flappy Bird is back, and now you can play with friends (if you have an Amazon Fire TV)

#data

7. Women make 31% more In-App Purchases and spend 35% more time than men on mobile games. Here is the full report from Flurry, that breaks this down by game category too. Mobile Gaming: Females Beat Males on Money, Time and Loyalty

8. AOSP (the open-source Android version without the Google tie-in) has been growing at a rate of 20% quarter-over-quarter. Largely fueled by the Chinese and Indian markets. It goes to show that Apple is not the only competitor Google needs to contend with. 2Q 2014 Smartphone Results: Forked Android AOSP Grows 20% Quarter-on-quarter, Driven by Chinese Domination

9. Consumers are shifting from small smartphone screens and tablets to Phablets and this is good for developers. Apple’s rumored 4.7″ and 5.5″ iPhones are probably an indication of this. Average Revenue per Device is much higher for tablets than phones, and if the phablet can capture the ubiquity of the phone and the monetization of the tablet, it will benefit app developers. The rise of the phablet



That is it for this week! See you next week!

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