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But with this week’s release of iOS 15.1, SharePlay - and a number of mobile app updates ready to support it - have finally arrived. This Week in Apps offers a way to keep up with this fast-moving industry in one place with the latest from the world of apps, including news, updates, startup fundings, mergers and acquisitions, and suggestions about new apps and games to try, too.ĭo you want This Week in Apps in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here: /newsletters Apple SharePlay ArrivesĪpple’s new FaceTime feature SharePlay wasn’t immediately available with the iOS 15 launch, as it needed a bit more polish. In 2020, investors poured $73 billion in capital into mobile companies - a figure that’s up 27% year-over-year. In 2019, mobile-first companies had a combined $544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher than those without a mobile focus. Currently, the average American watches 3.7 hours of live TV per day, but now spends four hours per day on their mobile devices.Īpps aren’t just a way to pass idle hours - they’re also a big business. And in the U.S., app usage surged ahead of the time spent watching live TV.
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Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes using apps on Android devices alone. The app industry continues to grow, with a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020. Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.
