Mobile Insights is a daily newsletter from BI Intelligence delivered first thing every morning exclusively to BI Intelligence subscribers. Sign up for a free trial of BI Intelligence today.

---

The Era Of Paid-Up-Front Apps Is Over (Marco Arment)
Marco Arment, creator of the popular Instapaper app, comments on the current state of the iOS app economy ahead of the launch of his newest app, Overcast. He claims that the iOS App Store has reached a tipping point where paid apps no longer can succeed because of a growing market for sleek, free alternatives. He feels the next era of app revenue will be spearheaded by smart in-app purchase sales tactics. Read >

Despite Recent Consumer App Purchasing Habits, Developers Are Double-Charging For iOS 7 App Updates (Cult Of Mac)
Going somewhat against the sentiment in the above piece from Marco Arment, Cult Of Mac finds that several developers of paid-up-front apps are looking to cash in on charging consumers a second time for a iOS 7 update to their app. Most are releasing separate, standalone updated versions of the app, hoping consumers would be willing to re-download at the same price. Existing users will have to pay the same amount as users who downloaded the app for the first time, which is essentially an “upgrade tax.” It is yet to be seen how these apps have performed in the short time since the launch of iOS 7. Read >

Apple Poaches Nike FuelBand Designer (9 To 5 Mac)
Ben Shaffer was the lead designer at Nike and the lead director behind Nike’s immensely popular FuelBand wearable computing device. He will now be heading to Apple, where it is likely the company will begin working on the early stages of some wearable computing device. Read > 

Console Gaming Is Still Very Much Alive — Grand Theft Auto V Is The Fastest-Selling Entertainment Product Ever (Statista)
Statista found that the newest title in the Grand Theft Auto console gaming series generated $ 1 billion in revenue in just three days. That is faster than not just all video games, but faster than any other entertainment product including major motion picture productions. Read >

Will CyanogenMod — A Forked Android Smartphone OS — Unify Or Fragment Android? (ZDNet)
CyanogenMod is an up-and-coming Android firmware that does a run around carrier and OEM Android version restrictions. It will allow users to access many popular Google services including Google Play, Maps, and Google Now. There is a divide on forked firmware’s effect on the Android ecosystem. Some feel it will better unify the platform while others think it will only exacerbate Android’s long fragmentation struggle. Read >

China’s Burgeoning Mobile Market Begets Higher Mobile Security Threats (NQ Mobile)
NQ Mobile released a statement on three new malware threats to mobile devices in China. These three strains penetrate mobile devices through SMS services. So far, these threats have only been found in about 20,000 devices. However, it shows the need to protect Chinese mobile users outside of standard app store security protocol. Read > 

Join the conversation about this story »