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Flurry sees fifty devices that look like tablets

by Dave Caolo Jan 25th 2010 at 12:30PM


Mobile analytics firm Flurry tracks usage of mobile apps and lo and behold, look at what popped up this week. There are 50 devices running iPhone OS 3.2 within the Apple Campus.

Flurry also reports that they've been tracking 200 apps across 50 devices since October of last year, and that usage has really ramped up in the last few weeks. Internal testing typically increases sharply just prior to a release. Flurry's report doesn't give a lot of concrete evidence that these devices are tablets, but they do note that "...we have a fair level of confidence that we are observing a group of pre‐release tablets in testing." If only they had shared what raised their "level of confidence."

As you can see from the chart above, the majority of these devices are running games, with the entertainment and news & books categories tied for 2nd place. Apps in the lifestyle category come in third. Flurry also reports that they've been tracking activity on these 50 devices since October of last year, and that usage has really ramped up in the last few weeks.

It's interesting for developers to note that the devices seem to be running iPhone apps. If they are tablets, that means it'll be easy to move applications over (though we don't have any information on how they will scale or the final resolution for the device).

At the end of the day, we have data collected by Flurry from apps installed on 50 or so devices placed inside Apple via geolocation that are running on iPhone OS 3.2. They could be tablets -- rumors have suggested that the tablet's release is delaying the next iPhone OS upgrade -- or they could be test unit iPhones running an unreleased version of the OS. Either way, two things are certain:
  1. There's cool stuff inside 1 Infinite Loop
  2. All of this conjecture will end on Wednesday
OK, so number 2 is a "probably."

[Via Engadget]

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Mobile analytics firm Flurry tracks usage of mobile apps and lo and behold, look at what popped up this week. There are 50 devices...
 

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Mattazuma

Wouldn't the slate be running 4.0?

I'd bet that it's a soon to be released iPhone/iTouch update. Like Wednesday afternoon:)

January 25 2010 at 7:03 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Montana Leet

Josh Monroe above said it perfectly. If the device they're tracking is running iPhone OS, clearly it isn't a tablet.

January 25 2010 at 3:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
joeker

And I really hope (iPhone) Apps will be usable on other devices soon, there's some nice Apps (not needing iPhone/Pod-specific hardware such as the motion detection) which I'd be glad to use on a MBP! Or a tablet.. ;-)

January 25 2010 at 3:21 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mike

I hope that the Apple tablet is more then just a big iPhone minus the phone....

January 25 2010 at 1:59 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
dougout

Games would surely be a big earner for apple on such a device.
But with the added advantage over gaming devices of being multi functional.
There will certainly be more to this than an upscaled version of the iPod touch or the iPhone. Exactly what is what has us all guessing

January 25 2010 at 1:47 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Josh Monroe

So, what abou iPhone OS 3.2 makes them think this is a tablet.
I would bet that this is nothing more than a new iPhone. The fact that games were used for testing makes sense since they are the most demanding on the hardware. Alot of the stuff in the entertainment category could also be considered games or stream video. The news and books categories generally display alot of text. Therefore, I would guess that this is Apple testing a new iPhone that features faster hardware and a new screen (different pixel density or different display technology) and that it is little more than that. But, then again, reporting that wouldn't bring in as many hits and therefore, not as much ad revenue.

I highly doubt that apple would test this super secret tablet using third-party apps while allowing it to report back to a server and allowing it to get location information.

January 25 2010 at 1:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Damien

Big iPod touch?

Fail

keyboardless MacBook?

That would be a win

January 25 2010 at 1:21 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Damien's comment
FightTheFuture

why would it be a win if keyboard-less laptops were a fail since 2001?

January 26 2010 at 2:52 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mike Eggleston

I would say Number 2 isn't a probably, it is more like a "for the time being". ;-)

January 25 2010 at 1:16 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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