HTML5 is positioned to be the #3 development platform in 2013, just behind iOS and Android.

As 2012 comes to a close, it’s exciting to look back at our accomplishments. Altogether we’ve sponsored 29 hackathons in four different countries resulting in over 500 new mobile apps! Thousands of developers joined us in creating apps for everything from texting while driving to fitness competitions and social services. It’s been an exciting year for the AT&T Developer Program and we’re looking forward to kicking off 2013 with a bang at our upcoming Developer Summit in Las Vegas.

With over 500 apps to choose from, coming up with our top 10 was not an easy task. We looked at several categories including UX, innovation, and how well it addressed the problem(s) we set out to solve at the hackathon.

The great thing about mobile devices is that, well, they are mobile.  The killer applications for smartphones are thosethat help you find a great restaurant, the best barista nearby, the next bus, the closest copy shop, or how to get to Aunt Millie’s house in an unfamiliar area.  The common key to all of these apps is location.  More and more applications work to customize to the end user by adding information pertinent to the users location.  In a study of several major mobile apps leads me to ask: Are you using location/GPS in the smartest way?

Continuing its nationwide 4G LTE rollout, AT&T launched 4G LTE in Detroit, Honolulu, Seattle, Pittsburgh and Portland yesterday (September 19^th). AT&T 4G LTE is now live in 72 markets. This means customers in LTE areas are now able to enjoy the fastest mobile Internet speeds.

I should probably be blogging about professional uses of our APIs or something serious, but instead decided to write about having fun with APIs.  We recently had a hackathon in Seattle where a couple of teams had a lot of fun. One team did a rap for their app pitch (I don’t think they’ll get a record deal, but it was highly entertaining) and another did a sketch.  More than this is what developers are doing with APIs. 

As a developer, ignoring the LTE trend in 2012 would be unwise. It is to your advantage to be familiar with LTE technology and it will be beneficial to understand its implication for app development. The white paper “Best Practices for 3G and 4G App Development” addresses best practices that can help developers leverage the benefits of LTE.

Flurry Analytics recently released some fascinating stats about the distribution of wealth for smartphone apps:

Currently...

• 32% of the combined money flowing into app stores went to developers of the top 100 ranked apps.
• Smartphone applib cations generated a total of $5.4 billion across premium, in-app purchase and advertising revenue.
• Advertising made up 18% of the revenue in 2011.

Simply share your challenges and victories on our forum and you’ll be entered to win a device! We would also like to hear from you if you have feedback and/or suggestions about how we can make the tool better.

First time hearing about the Application Resource Optimizer (ARO)? ARO is a free diagnostic tool for all members of the AT&T Developer Program (sign in or join now). It analyzes the performance of your mobile applications and can help your app run faster and smarter by providing recommendations to help optimize your mobile application's performance, speed, network impact and ultimately battery utilization.

A recent article by PC World highlights some interesting statistics that were found in a joint survey from IDC and Appcelerator that queried 2,173 developers between Jan. 25 and Jan. 27: Seventy-nine percent of mobile developers report they will integrate HTML5 in their apps this year.

As more and more developers plan to use HTML5, there is growing alarm regarding the variations in how content is rendered in different browsers. “Appcelerator keeps track of how HTML5 is implemented on browsers that visit its Web site, and comparing a large number of variables, there is a 20 percent to 30 percent difference in how different browsers consume content.” So while HTML5 may seem promising to many developers, fragmentation poses some serious challenges.

New Scientist recently reported that up to 75% of the energy used by free versions of Android apps is spent serving up ads or tracking and uploading user data. Popular apps like Angry Birds, Free Chess and NYTimes are using only 10 to 30% of the total energy consumed to power the app's core function.

Angry Birds for example was found to use only 20% of the energy it consumed to display and run the game, while 45% was spent finding and uploading the user's location with GPS then downloading location-appropriate ads over a 3G connection. Researcher Abhinav Pathak blames the energy leakage on inefficiencies in the third-party code that developers use to generate profit on free apps.

In order to track down these types of inefficiencies, AT&T provides a free diagnostic tool called the Application Resource Optimizer (ARO) that analyzes the performance of your mobile applications. It can help your app run faster and smarter by providing recommendations to help optimize your mobile application's performance, speed, network impact and ultimately battery utilization.

Interested in creating apps with AT&T’s new API platform? Back in January we hosted a webcast called A New Toolbox for Building Apps With APIs: Introducing the AT&T API Platform. This webcast featuring Dale Western, an architect on the AT&T Developer Planning and Support team, provides an overview of the API platform and a live demo.

Members of the AT&T Developer Program can access the archived webcast anytime, or download the video and slides. Not a member? Sign up today for free!

Are you a web developer that is just getting started creating mobile apps?  A few months ago, we hosted a webcast called I'm a Web Developer, and I Want to Make Apps, featuring Andrew Smith from appMobi. 

Program members can watch the webcast replay.  Not a member?  Sign up today for free!

You've developed the killer app, now we're here to help you get it noticed!

At the AT&T Developer Summit, Quyen Quach, Director of Consumer Apps and Games, and Larry Short, Lead Content Marketing Manager at AT&T Mobility gave their tips on getting your app noticed. 

Did you know that a simple background color change can reduce the power consumption of your app by 45%?

In this part, I’ll explain how you can store basic data on the phone from within your application. Start by creating a new Silverlight for Windows Phone Application project as described in Part 1.