Mobile News - Week of February 8, 2021

Telegram was the most downloaded non-gaming app worldwide for January 2021 with more than 63 million installs, 3.8 times its downloads in January 2020. The countries with the largest number of Telegram installs were India at 24%, followed by Indonesia at 10%.

TikTok was the second most installed non-gaming app worldwide last month with close to 62 million installs. The countries with the largest number of TikTok installs were from Douyin in China at 17%, followed by the United States at 10%.

Signal, Facebook, and WhatsApp rounded out the top five most installed non-gaming apps worldwide for the month.

Revenue from the top 100 earning non-game subscription apps represented about 11.7% of the $111 billion that consumers spent on in-app purchases last year, the same share as in 2019. In Q4 2020, 86 of the top 100 earning non-game apps worldwide offered subscriptions, down slightly from 89 in Q4 2019.

The growth of subscription app revenue in the United States trailed the global trend but was still up from the previous year. U.S. consumers spent nearly $5.9 billion in the top 100 non-game mobile apps offering subscriptions during 2020, up 26 percent year-over-year from $4.6 billion in 2019. 

Apple is working with Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC to develop new display technology that could eventually go into its upcoming augmented and virtual reality devices, Nikkei Asia reported.

The move is another sign of how Apple expects AR/VR to be the next big tech platform.

The newspaper said Apple is working with TSMC on micro-OLED and micro-LED display technology that is thinner than traditional displays. TSMC currently makes Apple’s custom iPhone and M1 chips.

The advanced display development is happening at a science park in Taiwan that is within walking distance of a TSMC facility, it said. Apple on Monday posted a job for the location seeking applicants with expertise in OLED manufacturing equipment, the newspaper added.

For decades, it was nearly impossible to type in Urdu.

By the time Mudassir Azeemi wrote to Apple CEO Tim Cook in 2014, he’d tried everything he could think of to make it easier to type in his native language, Urdu.

In 2010, the now 42-year-old Pakistani-American developed a keyboard app you could use on iOS devices; within two years, it had been downloaded over 165,000 times. But even with an Urdu-language keyboard, the characters appeared on the screen in an entirely different font.

The Snapdragon X65 5G Modem-RF System can download data at up to 10Gbps, and it will power high-end devices starting later this year. Those include premium smartphones, PCs, mobile hotspots, robots, fixed wireless access, and private 5G networks set up by companies. 

Who needs that? People getting fixed wireless home internet access and companies building high-tech factories, among other users, Qualcomm execs say.

Audio drop-in startup Clubhouse was rapidly gaining steam in China, attracting a bevy of users early on to conversations on a wide range of topics. The app seemed likely to meet the fate of other U.S.-based apps and services, however — namely, a ban — and as of Monday, that indeed was what Clubhouse faces, as confirmed by TechCrunch. Users in China can no longer access the Clubhouse app, though the app’s website remains unblocked. The app is unlikely to return, given how much its model would have to change to comply with Chinese internet regulation.

Twitter and Clubhouse are locked in a battle to dominate a new form of audio social networking that feels equal parts podcast, industry convention, and conference call.

It’s routine for social media firms to copy popular features on rivals, the most famous examples involving Instagram copying elements of Snap and efforts by both YouTube and Instagram to copy ByteDance’s TikTok. Where Twitter + Facebook’s Clubhouse clone will lead is anyone’s guess.

For the uninitiated, the format has people gather in virtual “rooms” where a convening moderator sets a topic and invites people to speak. No new form of social media has been as promising since Snapchat debuted Stories in 2013. And like Stories, there’s a case to be made that the primary beneficiary will not be the originator.

Clubhouse, which pioneered this format, has built something special, no doubt. The discussions in its rooms feel timely, entertaining, and sometimes a bit edgy. Being in a room with celebrities and industry icons, even if you’re not a speaker, creates a feeling of shared presence that’s flat out electric. So it’s no wonder that Clubhouse invites are going for $125 on eBay.

The Biden administration Thursday asked a federal appeals court to place a hold on proceedings surrounding the Trump administration’s attempted ban of the Chinese social media app WeChat, a day after it asked a different court for a similar delay involving a TikTok case.

In both cases, the administration said it needed time to review the Trump administration’s proposed bans, which are now the subject of appeals hearings.