apps – Page 2 – Retail News CRM

Criminals spread malware by getting Android users to install fake versions of popular apps
Cybersecurity firm Bitdefender points out that one of the things that separate the Google Play Store from the App Store is also a problem for Android users. While both Apple and Google collect as much as a 30% cut of in-app revenue that is run through their respective in-app payment platforms, iOS users are forced to make their in-app purchases through Apple since Apple prevents developers from offering an alternative payment platform.

Epic offered its customers an alternative payment platform, violating Apple’s rules. This is why Epic’s big hit game Fortnite was kicked out of the App Store.

Unlike App Store customers, Android users are technically not forced to make in-app purchases through Google. That’s because the Play Store is not a walled garden like the App Store is and Google allows Android users to sideload apps from a third-party app store. However, by tricking Android users to use such third-party app stores, criminals are persuading Android users to install apps that most likely haven’t been properly vetted leading to the spread of malware.

Bitdefender cites two new banker trojan malware programs called TeaBot and Flubot that help trick Android users into installing what they think are legitimate apps from popular and well-known brands but turn out to be malware-infested. Bitdefender recently found five new malicious Android apps that contain the TeaBot trojan and imitate legitimate Android apps that are popular with at least one app having been installed over 50 million times.

The cybersecurity firm discovered that the infected TeaBot apps use fake Ad Blocker apps to distribute malware. The fake apps ask permission to display over other apps, show notifications, and install apps outside of the Play Store. Once these apps are installed, their icons are hidden.

Make no mistake about it, TeaBot has the potential to do some serious damage including “overlay attacks via Android Accessibility Services, intercept messages, perform various keylogging activities, steal Google Authentication codes, and even take full remote control of Android devices.”

While TeaBot is dropped by an app pretending to be an ad blocker, Flubot is spread through SMS spam and according to Bitdefender, “It steals banking, contact, SMS and other types of private data from infected devices while sporting an arsenal of other commands available, including the ability to send an SMS with content provided by the CnC.”

Flubot imitates shipping apps like DHL Express Mobile with over 1 million installs from the Google Play Store, Fedex with over 5 million Android installations, and Correos with over 500,000 downloads.

There is actually a way to protect yourself from having this malware infect your phone. Bitdefender suggests that you never, ever sideload apps on your device, In other words, stick to the App Store and the Google Play Store when installing apps for your iOS and Android devices respectively. Also, you should never tap on links in messages, and “always be mindful of your Android apps’ permissions.”

The fake apps containing the TeaBot payload are designed to look like the real thing although some of them have small changes in their label name and icon. For example, the real version of streaming television app Pluto TV has a label that reads “Pluto TV-it’s free TV.” The fake and infected version of the app has no space between Pluto and TV and reads “PlutoTV.”

Nearly 93% of the fake apps trying to distribute TeaBot come from an app called MediaPlayer that tries to imitate one of the most popular titles in the Google Play Store, VLC. The latter is a “free and open source cross-platform multimedia player” with over 100 million installations. Note the big difference in the icon between the clean and infected versions of the app.

79.5% of Teabot malware has been discovered in Spain with 11.18% disseminated in Italy and 4.6% distributed in the Netherlands.
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June 4, 2021
App Store billings and sales hit a whopping $643 billion last year

Based on an independent study of the App Store, the iOS app storefront generated $643 billion in sales and billings last year (which includes Apple’s cut of in-app purchases and ad sales), up 24% from the $519 billion that the App Store brought in during 2019. The study, titled “A Global Perspective on the Apple App Store Ecosystem,” reveals that not only did iOS app developers expand their business in 2020, they also expanded their customer base.

It also turns out that since 2015, the number of small developers on the App Store has grown by 40%. The definition of a small developer is one with fewer than 1 million downloads and less than $1 million in earnings and 90% of App Store developers fit this definition. And of those small developers, 25% of them have managed to increase their earnings by 25% a year over the last five years.

The report also shows that close to 80% of small developers have apps in App Stores across different countries. On average, App Store developers get paid from customers located in more than 40 countries. Overall, the App Store is available in more than 175 countries and regions, supports more than 40 different languages, 45 different currencies, and over 200 different payment methods.

Apple CEO Tim Cook says, “Developers on the App Store proves every day that there is no more innovative, resilient or dynamic marketplace on earth than the app economy.” Cook adds that “The apps we’ve relied on through the pandemic have been life-changing in so many ways — from groceries delivered to our homes, to teaching tools for parents and educators, to an imaginative and ever-expanding universe of games and entertainment. The result isn’t just incredible apps for users: it’s jobs, it’s an opportunity, and it’s untold innovation that will power global economies for many years to come.”

We should point out that the App Store has also generated conflict between Apple and developers because of the company’s in-app payment system under which Apple snags as much as a 30% cut of in-app transactions. And any developer that offers its own platform to compete with Apple and get around the 30% Apple Tax will find its app removed from the App Store. This is what happened with Epic Games and its popular Fortnite title.

Last month Epic and Apple wrapped up a two-week trial and we expect the judge to announce her decision sometime during the third quarter. Apple and the App Store have been called anticompetitive since Apple doesn’t allow iOS and iPadOS users to install apps from any other app storefront outside of the App Store. This is one area where there is a big difference between iOS and Android since Android users are allowed to sideload apps from third-party app stores.

Apple’s in-payment platform did get a thumbs up from the CEO of Snapchat parent Snap, Evan Spiegel. The executive said that Snap is “happy” to pay Apple’s 30% cut noting that Snapchat would not be around if it weren’t for Apple and the App Store. This is the minority view, but another developer has praised Apple’s app ecosystem.

Wakeout! is an app that offers 1,500 exercises to keep users active and its founder, Andres Canella, called Apple’s in-app payment system “essential” for a small business. He states that “It’s enabled us to expand globally without having to worry about calculating things like local taxes or currency conversion. And using it is so transparent for our customers — we’re able to reach everywhere, China, France, you name it. We get all the benefits of selling globally without ever having to think about it, which is priceless.”

Still, for every Snapchat and Wakeout! there is a Fortnite, a Netflix, or a Spotify that publicly attacks the App Store and Apple calling the setup a monopoly and anticompetitive.

June 3, 2021

Fraudulent digital apps stalk, rob Vietnamese netizens

Investment platforms offering quick, handsome profits are mushrooming in Vietnam as fraudsters look to take advantage of gullible social media users.

Over 700 reports have recently been filed with HCMC police by thousands who have been tricked by smartphone app Coolcat. The extent of fraud is estimated at VND200 billion ($8.7 million), the police said.

This is just one of many apps that have made their appearance in Vietnam recently, aiming to trick investors with promises of quick and easy profits.

Over 160 investors this month claimed to have been tricked by Bounty, a website that rewards users with money if they interact with online vendors on social media, such as liking a post on Facebook or subscribing to a YouTube channel. There are 10 levels of users, and users up their levels by putting in more money, which will allow them to complete tasks with higher profits.

Ngoc, an investor, was able to gain VND1.4 million ($61) in just a few days, so she decided to invest a total of VND194 million in the platform and invited others to join.

But on April 24, Bounty investors started to leave the groups and stopped posting on social media; and three days later, the website interface was changed from Vietnamese to Chinese.

Another platform, Lifeshop, allows users to make money by placing fake orders on online shopping websites. By placing 12 orders a user can make VND25,000, but he or she can make more by spending money to advance to higher levels.

Similarly, an app called Lucky Money offers commissions of 1-5 percent for each task a user completes, without providing any information about the company behind it.

Hatching eggs apparently can make money too, with the app TamaGo promising 5 percent interest in just eight hours if investors put in a sum of money to “hatch” a digital egg.

Promoters of the app say it is developed in Singapore and is being welcomed in Japan and South Korea, but offer no statistics or other evidence.

“You will never lose,” they assert.

Dinh Trong Thinh, senior lecturer at the Academy of Finance in Hanoi, said that many investors are drawn to this kind of investment because they think they can withdraw early without making losses.

This business is not regulated in Vietnam and investors have to engage in them at their own risk, he said.

Early birds might make some money with these platforms, but later investors will likely lose, he added.

Ngo Tan Vu Khanh, a faculty member of University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, said that creating an app is very easy these days. Whenever a suspicious app crashes, another will replace it. Developers can even make several such apps with some adjustments of users interface to lure new investors in, he said.

Until there is a legal framework to regulate such apps, users should not invest in them as the chance of losing money is very high, he added.

May 4, 2021

New guidelines from Google aim to fix listings of Android apps in the Play Store

In a post published today on the Android Developers Blog, new guidance has been created to help developers give the Play Store the information it needs to make sure that their apps get attention from Android users. Images, video, descriptions and even the app name itself play an important role in determining whether an app stands out from among the millions of apps and games available in over 190 countries.

Google says, “Google Play is increasingly showing more of your assets front and center, surfacing graphic assets and descriptions right on Apps and Games home. To make sure that the store listing assets are giving users ensure that your store listing assets can help users anticipate your in-app or in-game experience and drive meaningful downloads, we are pre-announcing a policy change for app metadata and introducing new guidelines on Store listing preview assets.”

The changes being made to app metadata will limit the title of an app listed in the Play Store to 30 characters. Google also does not want graphic images and texts to promote an app’s ranking in the Play Store. For example, an icon that says “#1 stock market app” is a no-no. Text and graphic elements can not be used to promote a deal, and capitalized letters are out unless it is part of how a company stylizes its name.

There are also new preview asset guidelines for feature graphics, screenshots, videos, and short descriptions. Google says it wants to know whether the preview assets accurately represent the app or game and whether they deliver enough information to help users reach a decision about installing the app. The preview assets cannot use buzzwords like “free” or “best,” and must focus on “providing meaningful information” about the things that make your app or game unique.

The guidelines will be valid starting in the second half of the year. Google says that “Assets that don’t meet our guidelines may be ineligible for promotion and recommendation on major Google Play surfaces like Apps and Games home.”

April 30, 2021

Huawei AppGallery is rising fast, attracting millions of developers

Huawei’s AppGallery seems to have done quite well for itself this past year despite everything, according to recently released numbers. In a press release this week, Huawei revealed that the platform boasts 2.3 million registered developers today—nearly 80% more than last year. Globally, 530 million users are using the platform on a monthly basis, spread over 42 countries compared to 25 in 2019.

Huawei’s fast-growing mobile ecosystem has been particularly attractive to Chinese developers, who have released over 10,000 apps to the world, many of which are known titles such as Clash of Kings, Game of Thrones, and Asphalt 9.

In fact, gaming has been at the forefront of Huawei’s expansion initiatives, with the AppGallery boasting five times more games than last year. App downloads in total reached 384.4 billion in 2020, nearly doubling the previous year’s numbers.

“We continue to see strong growth across markets in Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa.” -Mr. Zhang Zhe

Having established itself solidly in the top three app marketplaces in the world, Huawei has developed its own HMS Core mobile service framework to provide basic infrastructure services such as HUAWEI ID and in-app purchases, allowing for smooth app integration across different devices. Now, Huawei has announced that it offers 120,000 apps integrated with HMS Core on the AppGallery: a 118% increase from last year. One of Huawei’s main objectives is to maximize the relevant apps it offers in every area of news, entertainment, social media, and productivity.

They have also spoken out about their 1+8+N strategy—а vision for developing a full-fledged mobile ecosystem consisting of the smartphone (1), Huawei-developed peripherals (8) and third-party IoT devices that are connected using Huawei HiLink and Huawei Share technologies. Huawei is essentially striving to be able to offer an all-in-one package to equal what Samsung and Apple can provide, and its exponential growth this past year has at least proved it can stand on its own two feet.

March 3, 2021

ApplePay will now allow users to make purchases using Bitcoin

Bitcoin is still the most famous cryptocurrency. And at Friday’s close, each Bitcoin was valued at close to $48,000, more than double the valuation of the digital currency about a year ago. Not only can you buy more with your Bitcoins, but you can also find it easier to spend thanks to the Apple Pay mobile payment service. The BitPay wallet app’s Prepaid Mastercard can be added to the Apple Wallet and Apple Pay can help Bitcoin owners spend the cryptocurrency online, through apps or in a store.

The BitPay wallet app not only works with Bitcoin, but will also work with Ether, Bitcoin Cash and as well as the dollar-pegged stable coins USD Coin, Gemini Dollar, Paxos Standard and Binance USD. The stable coins are based on a 1:1 ratio with the U.S. Dollar. For every Gemini Dollar in circulation, there is a corresponding U.S. Dollar held by the State Street Bank and Trust Company.

There are plans in the work to add support for the BitPay Wallet by the end of next month with other mobile payment services Google Pay and Samsung Pay. This will allow Android users to more easily spend Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies including the aforementioned names that are pegged to the U.S. Dollar.

To add your BitPaycard to Apple Wallet, you need to have the latest version of the BitPay app. The latter, which can help you securely store, spend, and manage Bitcoin, can be installed from the App Store and the Google Play Store. BitPay CEO Stephen Pair (both of him) said, “We have thousands of BitPay Wallet app customers using the BitPay Card. Adding Apple Pay and soon Google and Samsung Pay makes it easy and convenient to use the BitPay Card in more places.”

Apple should do even more when it comes to digital currencies; should Apple add a cryptocurrency exchange it could generate over $40 billion. RBC analyst Mitch Steves believes that this would allow Apple’s shares to rise 25%. RBC noted that “Square takes in $1.6 billion a quarter through bitcoin-trading revenue from its roughly 30 million active users. Apple has an install base of about 1.5 billion people, signaling that it could make up to $40 billion a year from a Wallet-based crypto exchange.” The report adds that “if Apple went down this path, the USA would likely acquire the most crypto assets from a global perspective. If the USA owns the most crypto assets (be it Bitcoin or other assets), it would not make logical sense in our view to ban it. In addition, with Apple’s secure and world-class software, the USA would be able to have confidence in user information and balances if needed in the future.”

Apple’s big move comes right after Tesla CEO Elon Musk showed interest in cryptocurrency Dogecoin. Tesla says that it soon will accept Bitcoins as payment toward the purchase of a Tesla vehicle. RBC’s Steves notes that the combination of Apple’s interest in Bitcoin and Apple’s popularity in the tech world can help the U.S. become the technological leader in cryptocurrencies for as long as the next 20 years.

Thanks to the Blockchain technology, the method used to keep track of Bitcoin transactions, using the cryptocurrency is secure. Data on transactions is kept inside blocks and when a block is full, it is chained to the previous one. If someone wants to steal Bitcoin and hacks into the Blockchain to alter the information in one the blocks, it can’t be done without all members of the Blockchain spotting the changes. There are smartphones that can store and verify cryptocurrency transactions such as the HTC Exodus 1s.

Uncertified Android phones will lose support for an important app in March

The latter is making changes to its Messages app that will prevent some devices from receiving texts. One group of Android users that won’t be able to receive new texts will be those who own one of the latest Huawei models. Starting this coming March, Android phones considered to be “uncertified” will not be allowed to install and use the Messages app; this will affect millions.<

Because of its placement on the U.S. Commerce Department's Entity List (due to its alleged ties to the Communist Chinese government), Huawei is not allowed to access its U.S. supply chain. That means that its phones cannot use Google software including the licensed version of Android. Because recent Huawei models like the P40 series and the Mate 40 series no longer feature security permissions from Google, the latter considers those Huawei models to be uncertified. Certified Android models are allowed to have Google's Android apps installed along with the Google Play Services ecosystem.

Uncertified Android handsets are hard to find. But in the case of Huawei, the manufacturer's newer models are impacted by the firm's placement on the Entity List. If you install the latest listing of Google Messages from the Play Store (which is version 7.2, by the way) on an uncertified device, a message will appear that reads, "On March 31, Messages will stop working on uncertified devices, including this one." The warning is intended to prevent Huawei owners from sideloading Google Play Services onto their device which could allow them to install Google Messages on it despite any ban. The Messages app is not preinstalled on most Android phones and must be downloaded from the Play Store.

Google might have decided to make this change because of the end-to-end encryption that has recently been added to the Messages app. Android phones without certification, including newer Huawei devices that have Play Services sideloaded, have not been able to have their security vetted. Thus, users who think that messages they are sending to friends, family members, co-workers and others using an "uncertified" device are protected by encryption, could actually be disseminating secrets that strangers are viewing.

While there has been some hope that the punishments received by Huawei might be reversed under the Biden administration, so far there has been no word from the new president about his intentions vis-a-vis Huawei.

January 25, 2021

Google Play Store now tells you which apps are trending higher or lower

It’s human nature to want to know which apps are trending up and which are trending down. And now this information is available on the Google Play Store via a new icon that shows whether an app is trending up or down. The icon shows an arrow moving up or moving down in the top app lists. An arrow pointing up tells you that a particular app is trending higher while an arrow pointing down tells you the opposite.

Unfortunately, the icons don’t tell us how many slots an app has moved up or has moved down. Nor do we get to know how much time has elapsed while the app in question started trending in one direction or the other.

To check out which apps are trending up or trending down, open the Google Play Store app. On the top row of tabs, tap on Top charts. From there you can navigate to different charts showing the top apps in certain categories. Looking at the Top free chart you can see that the top three apps are Signal Private Messenger, Telegram, and Zoom Cloud Meetings. MeWe is number four and underneath the number four on the chart, you can see an arrow pointing downward. That means that the app is trending lower.

TikTok is number five and is trending higher. At number six is DuckDuck Go Privacy Browser with an arrow pointing down indicating that the app is trending lower. Trending higher is Disney+ (#7), Google Pay (#8), discovery+ (#9) and Cash App (#10). This list goes all the way to number 597.

Most likely your decision whether or not to install an app is not going to come down to how it is trending. Still, those of you who are into such things can now easily get this information from the Google Play Store.

January 19, 2021

Entertainment firms bank on smartphone apps

Entertainment companies in Vietnam are investing in digital transformation with a focus on the smartphone experience as they seek to reach more young users.

Television content producer MCV Group recently signed a deal with a digital consulting firm to develop an entertainment and dating app called NetLove.

It will have a live-streaming feature, which operating director Pham Tu Liem said is key since many users want to interact with celebrities.

Since the company is already the producer of several popular dating shows on television, it will also include in its new app a dating feature to help connect people online.

“In the digital era, access to and consumption of entertainment content like reality shows or concerts is no longer bound inside a bulky TV,” Liem said, adding that people now want all their favorite shows on their smartphones.

Other entertainment companies are also keen on digital transformation.

Galaxy Studio, which runs a nationwide cinema chain, recently opted for an omnichannel collections solution from a bank to provide various types of payment services to customers but all united in one single cash flow to the company.

This means customers can pay for movie tickets from bank accounts or e-wallets but Galaxy will only need to partner with the one bank that provides the omnichannel service.

“E-payment is growing and is replacing cash,” Dinh Thi Thanh Huong, CEO of Galaxy Studio, said. “Young people are leading the trend and we need to take advantage of that.”

There is potential for online entertainment services if companies continue to invest in digital transformation.

A study by Germany-based data portal Statista found that the online dating market is expected to be worth $18 million this year and grow at an average rate of 16.9 percent annually in the next four years.

There are now 3.3 million online dating users in Vietnam, and the figure could reach 4.4 million by 2024.

A survey found that the most popular apps in the first four months of this year were gaming and karaoke ones.

Trinh Ho, founder of advertising firm Fresh Media, expected the online dating market to see strong growth based on the trends she has witnessed in the U.S. and China.

It would attract investors with deep pockets, she said.

November 24, 2020

Google tests cool new feature for the Play Store

In its never-ending battle to improve the Google Play Store, Google is testing a method to allow users to make comparisons between two or more apps. This comes after Hamburgers were removed from the Play Store menu earlier this month. No, Google wasn’t competing with Mickey D’s. The Hamburger menu was an icon consisting of three straight horizontal lines that looked like a Hamburger from the side (top bun, meat, and bottom bun) and when tapped, a menu list appeared.

The Compare apps section appears near the bottom of a Play Store listing and at the moment it seems to be limited to a few side-by-side comparisons of media players under the heading of Compare apps. The apps are compared based on things like offline playback, visual quality, ease of use, controls, and whether or not a particular app will cast content. A major assumption is that Google is gathering the information it uses for comparisons directly from feedback from users who are prone to leave reviews.

Remember that this is just a test right now and it has appeared in the Play Store when some users are running version 22.4.28 of the app. Being able to compare key elements of two or more similar apps listed in the Google Play Store is sure to improve the experience of using Google’s Android app storefront.

October 30, 2020

The past year has seen massive changes in the way that fashion retail stores operate and how customers approach retail shopping. The usual routine of visiting shops and trying on clothes is losing popularity and is slowly being replaced by a digital alternative.

When Apple said, “There’s an app for that” nearly a decade ago, even they couldn’t have predicted just how influential mobile apps would become in our day to day lives.

Mobile app development has exploded in the last ten years, meaning that your average smartphone user now has access to a massive range of apps from a multitude of sports and health trackers, to a games library that features everything from tiny indie games to rapidfire games of KO Poker, to the seemingly impossible Human to Cat Translator.

With global e-commerce on the rise, one area of app development which is seeing significant growth is fashion apps that let customer digitally try on clothes before buying them, amongst other features.

Fashion, as a whole, is increasingly turning to digital opportunities to offset a drop in retail sales. Dominican fashion designer Oscar de la Renta recently announced a partnership with Amazon to design for its Luxury Stores experience. Armani, on the other hand, have opened a traveling pop-up store on China’s Hainan Island that allows customers a “sensorial and playful immersion” and the opportunity to make their own film clips.

What Are Fashion Apps?

Broadly, fashion apps can be split into three categories of experience; discovery apps, personal shopping apps, and multiple-merchant apps.

Discovery Apps

Discovery apps allow customers to emulate the experiences of browsing through multiple stores looking for inspiration. These apps often don’t include a sales function; instead, they are a form of interactive advertising and social media.

Some discovery apps also allow the user to virtually try on clothes, using their phone camera and technology similar to Snapchat’s filters to make it look like they are wearing a particular outfit.

Examples of discovery apps include ShopStyle, which works a little like a Pinterest board for fashion, and The Hunt, which allows users to hunt out second-hand fashion clothing items.

Personal Shopping Apps

Personal shopping apps do pretty much what they say on the tin, giving the user the same personalized shopping experience that they might enjoy in high-end retail stores but from the comfort of their own home.

An excellent example of this kind of app is Lookiero. Lookiero allows a user to upload a picture and some personal specifications. They will then be sent five clothing items, chosen specifically for them, which they can try on at home and return if they don’t like.

Multiple-Merchant Apps

Multiple-merchant, or universal shopping cart apps, mean users don’t have to hop between multiple shopping apps or websites in order to get their fashion fix. They can use the app to browse the inventory of merchants and then purchase and checkout from a single cart.

The largest and most well known of these apps is Lyst, which gives its users access to thousands of different stores in one place.

What Do Fashion Apps Offer?

Obviously, different fashion apps offer different experiences, ranging from enjoying the services of a personal shopper to spending the day going from shop to shop looking for some inspiration.

Some apps may be as simple as creating a wish-list of fashion products from multiple vendors. In contrast, others offer more complex services, such as digital try-ons, either by using cameras or sending products to your home, and multi-vendor shopping.

However, taken as a collective, fashion apps replace an in-person experience that people are moving away from by offering new and exciting digital services that customers can access and use from their own homes.

By adapting to changing circumstances in the global retail environment, fashion apps allow both retailers and customers to stay connected and, to an extent, replace some of the experience of in-person shopping.

Apple defends its 30% cut of in-app purchases

This coming Monday the CEOs of Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, and Facebook will testify before the U.S. House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee. Each of the four firms is being investigated for alleged anti-competitive behavior. Alphabet is Google’s parent company and Google is being accused of putting its products ahead of the competition when it comes to search results. It also is accused of forcing phone manufacturers to use Google Search and Chrome as the default search engine and browser on phones using the licensed version of Android. Amazon’s large share of the e-commerce market is under scrutiny and Facebook has a large share of the social networking scene.

And that leaves Apple. The company is being investigated for taking a 30% cut of in-app payments and subscriptions made through the App Store (although the cut on subscriptions drops to 15% after the first year). Because Apple doesn’t allow iOS users to sideload apps from third-party app stores, it forces users to pay Apple’s prices for apps. The so-called 30% Apple Tax has led companies like Spotify and Netflix to stop accepting new subscribers from the App Store. And to make matters worse, Spotify competes directly with Apple’s own Apple Music app.

The App Store is part of Apple’s fast-growing Services unit. After the number of iPhones it shipped peaked in fiscal 2015, the company decided that it would be a shrewd move to concentrate on a large number of active iPhone users worldwide. Apple could continue to generate profits from these consumers even without selling them a new iPhone by having them sign up for a service with a recurring subscription plan. Apple set a goal to hit $50 billion in Services revenue by fiscal 2020 from the $25 billion it took in during fiscal 2016. So far, halfway through fiscal 2020, Apple is on track to take in $52 billion in services revenue for the year. This unit includes Apple Music, Apple Pay, Apple News+, Apple Arcade, iCloud, iTunes, Apple Care+, the App Store, and more. Speaking of the App Store, it brings in twice the revenue of the Android app storefront, the Google Play Store.

It is estimated that the App Store brings in $15 billion in revenue for Apple annually which is approximate twice the haul brought in by the Google Play Store despite the much larger share of the smartphone market that is owned by Android. The latter has approximately 85% of the connected handset market, but still, it trails badly when it comes to collecting revenue from its app storefront.

The Wall Street Journal published Apple’s defense and the tech giant says that it does not run a monopoly. Instead, it says that the revenue it takes in from the App Store comes from a small percentage of the two million apps that are available from the store. One argument that Apple often cites on its behalf is that the 30% it charges is still cheaper than what software developers were paying to distribute their products to stores prior to the 2008 launch of the App Store.

Apple decided to run a comparison study that sought to compare the App Store with other “digital marketplaces” including ones run by Amazon, Microsoft, Uber, and Walmart. Economists at Analysis Group, commissioned by Apple, came to the conclusion that the 30% cut charged by Apple is in line with the cut taken by Google and other peers. It is below 37% and 31% cuts taken by ticket sellers StubHub and Ticketmaster, respectively.

European competition attorney Damien Geradin, who co-authored a study on this topic a couple of months ago, said that the App Store fee structure is “uneven.” He notes that while apps like Tinder pay 30% of their App Store sales to Apple, Uber and Airbnb don’t pay anything. “Problems are much deeper than the 30%,” he said.

July 24, 2020

Scary Android malware targets hundreds of popular apps

Another day, another major Android threat discovered by security researchers as it lurks in the shadows in anticipation of its time in the mischievous limelight. In a way, this BlackRock malware detected and rigorously documented by the folks over at ThreatFabric can be considered even scarier and more dangerous than the Joker virus that made headlines recently or other similar security vulnerabilities found to stem from largely shady apps in the past.

That’s because BlackRock was exposed as targeting a long list of reputable and crazy popular Android apps, including everything from PayPal to Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Uber, Netflix, eBay, Amazon, Telegram, WhatsApp, Twitter, Snapchat, Skype, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, TikTok, Tumblr, Pinterest, Tinder, Grindr, and even Google’s own Play Store. In total, we’re talking no less than 337 potential victims.

For many people, that might be pretty much everything they use on their mobile devices on a regular basis, so obviously, the solution to this problem is not to delete all these apps and seek less popular alternatives. Instead, you should merely be careful about what you install and especially where you install your apps and updates from.

As you can imagine, the aforementioned apps, social networking, communication, and dating services are not dangerous by themselves, rather being targeted precisely due to their worldwide success and mass appeal by a banking Trojan that hasn’t managed to slip through Google’s Play Store filters yet.

In other words, you have nothing to worry about, at least as far as this particular virus is concerned, if you download everything from an official source. The danger surfaces when you’re prompted to install “Google updates” from third-party sources, which is a massive red flag.

Unfortunately, it’s not entirely clear what you can do to clean your phone of the BlackRock malware if you fall prey to such a vicious and insidious attack that will quickly spread across your system without leaving a trace. That’s because the Trojan will prevent most antivirus programs from starting in addition to phishing everything from your financial information to social media usernames and passwords.

Naturally, the main goal is to steal credit card details, but various app credentials will also do for the bad actors behind BlackRock, and you can expect your text messages to be hijacked as well.

While far from new or innovative at its core, this chilling banking Trojan does a few things differently from its forerunners, dubbed LokiBot, MysteryBot, Parasite, and Xerxes. Instead of adding new features and increasing its complexity, which is usually the case in this dark and malevolent world, BlackRock is actually keeping things simpler than ever, with a focus on the most “useful” functions in terms of stealing personal information.

What is expanded compared to previous banking malware is the target list, with an unusually high number of “trending” social and dating apps joining the typical group of financial services from institutions located in the US, as well as Australia, Canada, and various European countries.

Basically, BlackRock is casting a wider net than any of its predecessors, making sure pretty much no one that uses an Android phone nowadays is safe, no matter where you live, what device you use, how you like to connect with friends and make new ones, or what online banking channel you prefer.

Still, the simplest, safest, and most foolproof way to stay protected from this type of threat remains to never rely on a third-party app store, as well as install a reliable antivirus solution before suspecting a cyberattack, and periodically check your app permissions, as well as your credit card statements for any unauthorized or shady transactions.

July 21, 2020

Google deletes anti-China app with 5 million installs

At a time when the U.S. government is targeting smartphone and networking equipment manufacturer Huawei, investigating short-form video app Tik Tok, and trying to kick China Telecom out of the country, a new app called Remove China Apps seeks to flag apps developed in China. Found in the Google Play Store (and just removed by Google), the app became the most downloaded title on Google’s Android app storefront over the weekend. It was launched just two weeks ago.

The developers of the app said that it uses market research to determine an app’s country of origin. While the title of the app makes it sound as though it automatically deletes apps developed in China, the developer says that it “will list Applications and respective country name, choose which app you want to uninstall and which app you want to keep, and uninstall the apps one by one in a single click.” The Play Store listing says that it was “being developed for educational purposes only.”

According to Android Authority, the app had one million installs listed by the end of Sunday and that number soared to five million yesterday. The developer, OneTouch AppLabs, is located in India where anti-Chinese sentiment has been on the rise. The developer’s website states that the point of creating the app is to support Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for “Atm Nirbhar Bharat” or a self-reliant India. The developer states that the “Remove China App will help people to support ‘Atm Nirbhar Bharat’ by identifying the origin country of the applications installed in their mobile phones.” The developer also calls the app safe to install because it doesn’t ask for any permissions from your phone.

Android Authority tested Remove China Apps and found that it did pick up TikTok and Xiaomi’s Mi Remote on an Android phone but failed to flag Chinese developer Tencent Games’ PUBG Mobile. It also doesn’t work with pre-installed apps installed on Chinese smartphones.

June 4, 2020

Google releases new features for some of its Android apps

If you own an Android smartphone, you’ll be getting a handful of nifty features in the coming months. However, if you own a Pixel phone, you’ll be getting most of these new features starting this week.

Along with the new features coming to Pixel phones today, Google announced a few of its Android apps will be updated with meaningful improvements. For example, the Digital Wellbeing app is now getting a Bedtime mode, which replaces Wind Down. When it’s enabled, Bedtime mode uses DND (Do Not Disturb) to silence notifications, calls, and texts during sleep. Also, enabling Bedtime mode will make your phone fade the colors to black and white.

The new update will make it easier for users to customize how and when to turn on Bedtime mode. It’s now possible to choose to have it turn on automatically or after you plug in your phone to charge.

Google also added a new option that will allow users to pause Bedtime mode without having to adjust their schedule. If your Android smartphone has Digital Wellbeing and parental control settings, then you should be able to use Bedtime mode as well.

The Clock app will also receive a new Bedtime tab, which lets you set daily sleep and wake times to better organize your sleep schedule. You’ll receive reminders before bedtime and an option to play calming sounds from various music streaming services like Calm, Spotify, and YouTube Music.

Moreover, those with smartphones that feature Digital Wellbeing will be able to pair with Bedtime mode to further prevent interruptions while sleep. Last but not least, the Clock app is getting a so-called Sunrise Alarm to wake you up more gently.

Also, the YouTube app now offers a new option that allows users to set a bedtime reminder. You’ll be able to choose to see the reminder at bedtime or after the video completes.

Finally, the Family Link app got updated with the option to set restrictions for children, such as managing screen time activity, app downloads, in-app purchases, and bedtime for their device. The app lets you establish daily bedtime schedules and modify them as needed.

The new bedtime features will be rolled out to Pixel devices starting today.

June 3, 2020

Tag: apps

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