Jason Dunn
08-12-2003, 01:15 PM
It's always interesting when Handango releases their quarterly yard stick - the data is always fascinating to look at!<br /><br />"HURST, Texas – August 12, 2003 – Handango, the leading provider of mobile downloads, today released the Handango Yardstick for the second quarter of 2003. The Handango Yardstick is a quarterly report on the state of the mobile software economy. This quarter, the Handango Yardstick focuses on global software sales, highlighting the sales of non-English mobile software applications and bestsellers by language. <br /><br />Overall, the report indicates continued strong demand for mobile software through the historically slow summer months. The average number of applications purchased per user fell only slightly from 2.14 in the first quarter to 2.10, while the average selling price of applications rose slightly from $16.25 in the first quarter to $16.36.<!><br /><br />The pace of new application development slowed to more established levels in the second quarter when developers released 5,410 new applications, down from an all-time high of 7,467 new applications in the first quarter of 2003. The sales distribution across categories remained virtually unchanged from the first quarter.<br /><br />The Handango Yardstick for the second quarter focuses on the growing global market for applications with the best-selling applications localized in French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish. A few applications claimed a top seller spot in several languages – such as Breakout for Java and Agenda Fusion for Pocket PC – highlighting the success of developers who have localized their products for multiple markets.<br /><br />The market for non-English applications is hottest in Japan with more than 54% of sales coming from Japanese language applications. Among European languages, German, French and Spanish claimed the top spots with 21%, 14% and 7% of unit sales respectively. Despite the heavy concentration in these markets, however, sales of mobile downloads were completed in 195 countries around the globe during the second quarter.<br /><br />“The growth of the global software market has been astounding,” said Laura Rippy, chief executive officer of Handango. “As this quarter’s report indicates, software developers who localize their applications stand to grow sales significantly.”<br /><br />The Handango Yardstick also reports the buying habits of repeat software consumers. Based on a repeat buyer survey, Handango discovered that the average software consumer who has purchased two or more times has added more than 10 third-party commercial software applications to his or her mobile device.<br /><br />Incorporating worldwide data from more than 100 mobile software portals, the Handango Yardstick reports trends across the entire mobile software economy and major mobile operating systems including Java™, Symbian OS™, Palm OS®, Windows® Mobile Pocket PC, Linux and others. Handango powers the software and digital media stores for some of the biggest brands in the mobile software market including Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Kyocera Wireless, Palm, Sony, Microsoft, Handspring, HP, Sprint, Cingular Wireless, T-Mobile USA, Orange and more than 100 others. <br /><br />The Handango Yardstick for the second quarter of 2003 is available at: <a href="http://www.handango.com/pdf/HandangoYardstick2_2003.pdf">http://www.handango.com/pdf/HandangoYardstick2_2003.pdf</a>.<br /><br /><b>About Handango</b><br />Handango is the leading provider of mobile downloads, bringing over 35,000 applications and 25,000 digital media titles to market through an extensive global distribution network that reaches millions of mobile users. Handango's application management and provisioning platform, Handango AMPP, has been chosen as the mobile software delivery platform for Nokia, Motorola, Sprint, Orange SA, Sony Ericsson, Palm, Microsoft, Sony, HP, Handspring, Sega Mobile, Sharp Electronics and more than 100 others. For more information, visit <a href="www.handango.com">www.handango.com</a>.<br /><br />NOTE: All company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners. All Rights Reserved."