New-to-the-market devices quickly become popular for downloading content

Handango, a provider of smartphone content, today released the 2007 First Quarter edition of the Handango Yardstick, a quarterly report on the state of the mobile content industry.

This most recent version of the Yardstick indicated that three smartphones launched within the past year were among the top ten devices adding software based on revenue. The Motorola Q topped the list, overtaking the Palm Treo 650 which had been in the top spot for more than a year, with the BlackBerry Pearl following close behind. The Palm Treo 680, also a newly-released device, ranked at number ten. In addition to new devices, several upgraded models overtook their counterparts this quarter in regards to software downloaded. The Cingular 8525 outranked the Cingular 8125, and the BlackBerry 8703e surpassed the 8700c. In contrast, smartphones that have consistently remained among the top five devices adding software over the past year include the Palm Treo 650, Palm TX and Dell Axim X51v.

Also reported in the Handango Yardstick were top search phrases. While terms such as "free", "games" and "ringtones" remained the most popular, "Google" came in at its highest ranking ever at number five due to the rise in popularity of the Google Maps for mobile application. However, "sudoku" and "maps" did not make the top ten search word list this quarter after appearing there in the 2006 Year End Yardstick.

Handango reported that 165 new content providers joined its network and a total of 2,397 new applications were added to its library between January and March 2007. In particular, Spb Software House had a successful quarter as two of its newly launched programs - Spb Mobile Shell and Spb Brain Evolution - appeared as best sellers for Windows Mobile Pocket PC, placing second and ninth respectively. Content titles that have retained popularity since Q1 2006 are PocketMirror for Palm OS, Microsoft Voice Command for Pocket PC, SBSH Façade for Windows Mobile Smartphone, Ringphonic for BlackBerry and ProfiMail for Symbian. Travel, PIM and weather-related applications remained strong sellers also.

Following are the ten best-selling content titles by operating system, as reported by the 2007 First Quarter Yardstick:

BlackBerry
1. VoiceControl
2. Ringphonic Lite
3. Ringtone Megaplex
4. Ringphonic
5. IM+
6. eSpell
7. WorldMate Professional Edition
8. The Weather Channel
9. RepliGo Professional
10. Aces Texas Hold'em-No Limit

Palm OS®
1. PocketMirror Standard
2. Diet & Exercise Assistant
3. Ringo Pro
4. Agendus Professional Edition
5. Diet & Exercise Assistant Desktop
6. SplashID
7. Traffic for Treo
8. WorldMate Professional Edition
9. PocketMirror Professional
10. KeySuite

Symbian OS®
1. ProfiMail
2. SmartMovie
3. IM+
4. Handy Weather S60
5. Advanced Call Manager S60
6. Ultimate Voice Recorder
7. LCG Jukebox
8. SBSH Papyrus
9. WorldMate S60
10. Handy Safe S60

Windows Mobile Pocket PC
1. MobiTV
2. Spb Mobile Shell
3. Spb Pocket Plus
4. Microsoft Voice Command
5. Pocket Informant
6. Spb Diary
7. Spb Time
8. Spb Backup
9. Spb Brain Evolution
10. eWallet Professional Edition

Windows Mobile Smartphone
1. MobiTV
2. HandiTV
3. SBSH Facade
4. IM+
5. PocketStreamer DELUXE
6. Agenda One
7. SmartphoneNotes
8. Documents To Go
9. Photo Contacts PRO
10. Microsoft Voice Command

In addition to the above stats, the 2007 First Quarter edition of the Yardstick reported software sales by category, average selling price of smartphone content and much more. A full version of the Handango Yardstick for Q1 2007 is available at http://www.handango.com/marketing/Yardstick/Q12007Yardstick.pdf.

About the Handango Yardstick

The Handango Yardstick incorporates worldwide data collected from all Handango-powered Web and on-device storefronts and reports trends across major mobile operating systems including Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Smartphone, Symbian, Palm OS and BlackBerry. Handango publishes the Yardstick quarterly in the Press Room on its corporate site at http://corp.handango.com.

Source: Handango