Android to overtake iPhone app downloads for first time

An analyst house is predicting that 2011 will see Android overtake iOS devices in app downloads for the first time.

Ovum has estimated that downloads from Android devices will hit 8.1 billion by the end of 2011, while iOS apps will languish at 6 billion downloads.

But it's not all devastating defeat for Apple – its iOS app downloads will have grown by almost three times compared to 2010 when it shifted only 2.7 billion downloads.

But the explosion of growth is all the greater for Android, which saw only 1.4 billion downloads in 2010.

Big figs

The total app downloads is predicted to come in at 18 billion by New Years' Eve – that's a massive leap from 2010's total app downloads which came in at a relatively paltry 7.4 billion.

It's middling news for Microsoft's Windows Phone platform; Ovum predicts that the Windows Phone OS will overtake BlackBerry to take third place in both the number of app downloads and app revenues - but only by 2015.

Ovum's predictions tally with those of another analyst, Strategy Analytics, which predicts that the Android Market is set to surpass the Apple App Storeby 2012.

Via PocketGamer

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Japanese 'K' Computer Now Fastest In The World

THE "K" COMPUTER

The world's most powerful computer is now in Japan.

According to The New York Times, the computer, called "K," is three times faster than the next fastest computer, a Chinese computer, Tianhe-1A, that previously held the highest spot.
K, built by Fujitsu, can make 8.2 quadrillion calculations each second. "K" stands for "Kei," meaning 10 quadrillion, or the number of calculations per second researchers hope K will one day be able to perform per second. K's abilities are the equivalent of linking one million desktop computers.
K is made out of 672 computer racks, with 68,544 computer processing units (CPUs) but the lab plans to raise that number to 800 racks, a move that will make the machine even speedier and more powerful.
Scientists expect that the computer will be used in fields including climate research and disaster prevention, as well as medicine. The machine is scheduled for deployment in 2012.


"Bringing together hundreds of thousands of components to quickly launch such a massive-scale computing system-which would have been nearly impossible using conventional technologies-requires an incredible level of reliability," wrote Michiyoshi Mazuka, Chairman of Fujitsu Limited in a press release. "I believe that this reliability is truly the pinnacle of Japanese manufacturing."


The U.S. has five of the world's ten most powerful computers, with a computer in Oak Ridge, Tennessee coming in third on the overall list.


TRex

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