Congratulations are thoroughly well deserved for the Firemint team, makers of Flight Control. It’s still on my iPhone and now and again, I see if I can beat my score. I think the most I’ve ever managed was 243 but I know that many people have got scores well in advance of it.

The game is one of those apps that ’sells’ the iPhone. The amount of times I’ve brought it out to show an interested normob! They usually end up transfixed for a good five minutes or so before deciding they want an iPhone or an iPod Touch.

Here’s what the Firemint team had to say:

Less than a year ago, on 5 March 2009, we launched Flight Control on the App Store. Three months later, we had sold 1 million copies. Today we’re proud to announce that after 324 days, on 23 January 2010, Flight Control sold the 2 millionth download – that’s over 6,000 sales per day on average! We had particularly big days on 28 and 29 March 2009 when Flight Control suddenly exploded up the charts, with over 30,000 copies sold each day. Even 9 months after release, Christmas Day 2009 was also a great day with over 20,000 copies sold – many probably going to happy new owners of an iPhone or iPod touch!

Here in the UK we’ve bought almost 20% of the 2 million copies, with the United States accounting for a whopping 46% of sales — here’s a breakdown:

What do the sales per week look like for an iTunes App Store best seller? Here we go:

Fascinating!

There’s a little more information from Firemint on their related post here: http://firemint.com/?p=707

If you find yourself driving around Nigeria, you’ll probably want some pretty good mobile navigation software. If you’re sporting an iPhone 3G or 3GS, then Navmii could be for you.

It’s made by Telecgsm and Geolife specifically for the Nigerian marketplace. It’s pretty good looking and it’s got all the features you’ve come to expect from mobile navigation software. And if you only have an iPod Touch, you can get hold of a PosiMotion GPS device from the Navmii chaps that’ll ensure you can still use the service.

Navmii doesn’t need a cellular or data signal — all the map data is stored in the app. That’s very useful indeed when you’re miles from a GSM cell.

The Nigerian Navmii version costs a pretty serious $89.99 on the iTunes App Store. But if you’d like navigation on your iPhone for Nigeria… I think it’s probably a price worth paying. There’s also a UK/Ireland version too priced at £19.99.

Everything you need is at www.navmii.com.

(Of course if you’re a Nokia customer, as per their recent announcement, you’ll get all this for free for Nigeria plus a ton of other countries. Just see Ovi Maps 3.0.)

I’ve been testing out Pageonce for a little while now. The app has been flying off the virtual iTunes and Android shelves and I can see why.

The makers of the service refer to it as ‘a personal productivity assistant’ and allows you to ‘manage all your online accounts through one application’.

Perhaps the most valuable element of the service is its ability to monitor your bank, credit and other investment accounts with one-tap, from the palm of your hand. To setup a bank account, for instance, you simply log on to the site, type in your username and password and boom — be next time you fire up the app, you’ll see your balance and the latest transactions. In terms of security, you needn’t worry about your handset falling into the wrong hands. First, because the app itself has a PIN-entry function (so should your phone, too) and secondly, because you only ever get read access to the account. (Pageonce hold the details in 256-bit encrypted format)

Here’s an example of what you can see at a tap:

Almost every American bank is catered for — and they’ve got a growing number of UK/European banks joining the list. I first created my account online at pageonce.com and then dug out the various different account details I needed. For example, I added in my British Airways Executive Club number, my Starwood Preferred Guest details, my Hilton Honors number and a whole host of other accounts.

The ability to see your credit card balance right-away… that is just simply fantastic. It’s a killer-app all in itself, especially when most banks haven’t even begun to get their mobile application strategy correct, let alone deployed.

The next feature I’m really, really liking is the travel section. I flipped over there on the browser and filled in my Virgin America, Starwood Hotels, Expedia and British Airways details. I waited a few moments whilst the Pageonce queried the details and lo and behold, there was all my information. Genius.

I’ve been using their app on my Motorola Droid/Milestone Android handset — but I’ve also installed it on my iPhone. Here’s where Pageonce is simply critical for me: Airports.

I am accustomed now to checking in at the airport with just my passport and my phone. Normally what I end up doing is doing a Google Search for my British Airways check-in reference. I usually end up doing this whilst I’m standing in front of the electronic ticket machine. Sometimes I’m organised and I check the reference in the taxi on the way to the airport. Sometimes I even put the reference in a calendar entry around about the time I’m due to check-in.

Never do I print out the details. Printing stuff out is for neanderthals. If you’re over 55, it’s perfectly fine to print out your check-in details. For anyone else working in the mobile industry? No. It’s simply not acceptable to faff about with bits of paper, especially when the key 6-digit reference you need is on page 1 of 10.

So I manage.

But with Pageonce, I’m thoroughly enjoying the fact that the data is available to me immediately. It’s not just my BA flight details. I’ve got my Virgin America details right there too. And my W Hotel details, Sheraton details and Air New Zealand flight back to London. Everything is there in the ‘travel’ tab arranged in chronological order. I love it. Of course, it doesn’t just show the flight data, it also shows my current mileage balance, my membership number, a weather forecast for the origin and destination and even a flight map!

What’s really cool is that when I’ve booked another hotel room with an account that’s registered on Pageonce, I also get a little prompt a little while later thus:

This is because Pageonce continually scans your accounts to find anything new. I booked the Sheraton at Palo Alto using my Starwood Preferred Guest account. Then I got that little notification.

I’ve been getting them all week from Pageonce as I’ve been organising my flights and hotels for America and Barcelona. It’s fantastic. The moment I see the email, I nod silently to myself and archive the note, safe in the knowledge that the critical information I need — check-in details, flight terminal numbers, all of that is stored in a single location on Pageonce, ready for when I need it.

It’s not just banking and travel though — you can add utility accounts (Fancy checking your unused Verizon minute balance? No problem!), shopping accounts (I’ve added eBay, Netflix and Amazon) along with an array of social options (OpenTable, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn and so on).

I’m pretty impressed with the functionality. It’s one of those services that really has made a discernable difference to my quality of life. Check-it out at www.pageonce.com.

The app is a few dollars on the app stores of Windows Mobile, BlackBerry (App World link), iPhone (iTunes link) and Android.

It’s always interesting to see how mainstream media gets on with it’s mobile applications strategy. Kudos to The Guardian who’ve attracted 70,000 downloads in under a month. And that’s at £2.39 at time. Therefore the app has grossed £167,300 of which The Guardian gets approximately £117,000. Assume those stats stay the same across the year and the iPhone app will generate £1.4m in download sales.

Here’s a few words from Emily Bell, Director of Digital Content, Guardian News & Media:

“We are thrilled with our download figures for the first month of the app. The feedback we have received from users has been excellent, yet also extremely informative in terms of features and functionality that can be improved in the future. Over the Christmas break the app became available in many areas of mainland Europe, as well as in Canada and Australia for the first time, so we hope our global audiences will enjoy using the app as well.”

I actually think they should consider moving to a per-month charging basis. I really do get a heck of a lot of value from The Guardian iPhone app. It is, without doubt, one of the best newspaper apps I’ve ever used. I particularly like the way I can ‘programme’ the app’s frontpage with the news that I want to get to first. It’s great when you’re in the pub or on the train and want to have a browse around what’s been going on.

Good work everyone at The Guardian!

You can download the app here: http://www.itunes.com/apps/theguardian

If you got the Mobile Industry Review newsletter last week, you’ll have been the first to read this Q&A interview with the founders of hot new mobile location & recommendation service, UrbanKite.

(If you’re not on the list, sign-up here for this week’s distribution on Friday.)

I’m pretty impressed with the UrbanKite concept. Have a read and see what you think:

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1. Who are you and what’s your background?
UrbanKite has four co-founders.
Neil Pepper, for last seven years I have been Mobile Client Architect for a well known photo upload service, architected and ran the team responsible for the Symbian, Windows Mobile and iPhone clients.
Frank Sykes, lead the first online job matching system 12 years ago and ever since has been applying technology in inventive and approachable ways, working with large organisations such as PwC and smaller Entertainment companies.
The 2 remaining founders wish to remain anonymous for now, but work for 2 competing leading search companies.

2. What is UrbanKite?
UrbanKite is a free LBS currently for iPhone and Android devices that allow people to quickly find places around them based on tips of local experts. They can then add their own tips for those places and others, becoming experts of their local area. UrbanKite has been developed with other social networks in mind, allowing users to post tips to their Twitter account or Facebook so their network can pick up on their tips. Not only is this suited for mobile but all the tips and user profiles are available on UrbanKite website making it easy for none mobile users to look up businesses friends have recommended.
UrbanKite also makes great use of built in features of the iPhone and Android devices to help the users find the places including annotated maps, routing and soon augmented reality

3. Do we really need another reviews system?
UrbanKite does not aim to be another reviews system but rather a way to quickly share and get tips about physical places. Of course it can be about restaurants and bars, which is one area where timely local knowledge can make the difference between a good night and a disaster with your date, but it can also be about anything else (for instance while waiting for your plane at Gatwick you can leave a tip in 30 seconds from your mobile to let other travelers know that the train shuttle between South and North terminal is out of commission and that they need to budget additional time to take the replacement bus…). The fact that we leverage Facebook and Twitter means also that we make it easy for you to share these tips beyond the realm of UrbanKite with your entire network.

4. Where did you get the UrbanKite name from?
The idea of the name UrbanKite is that each user is a specialist of an area so they can “fly their Kite to make others know about businesses they like!”. But to create UrbanKite’s name we took best bits from other apps that best describe what it does … see if you can figure out which ones.

5. Tell us why we should all rush out and start using UrbanKite?
UrbanKite can be useful to you now wherever you are as soon as you install it. No need for a big community to be useful. At the minimum it will tell you all the various businesses / places of interest around you. Once people in the neighborhood you happen to be in start using it, you can see which of these businesses / places have their favour (think Digg for physical places) as well as easy access to the conversations / tips about these places. What’s the killer dish on the menu at this restaurant? When is the happening night at this club? Which hairdresser to avoid at this salon? etc…

Of course we make it super easy for you to share your tips / comments as well: No sign up process. No forcing user to enter credentials or create an account. No waiting until the app is launched in your area (we leverage the extensive Google local API which gives us unprecedented coverage virtually anywhere in the world). And if you want to start writing tips yourself you can leverage your existing Twitter or Facebook credentials to do so and share them with your existing network. We then automatically add a link to this business in your tweet / newsfeed item so non UrbanKite users know instantly what you are talking about.

6. I notice you’ve adopted both iPhone and Android platforms. What’s stopping you from developing a Nokia or Blackberry application? The simple answer is nothing, we chose iPhone and Android platforms initially because they have easiest route to market through their stores, have a limited number of handsets to test on, have a rapid development process and a proven track record of rich touchscreen LBS service apps. When UrbanKite has proved itself successful on these devices we will port to other platforms that have devices with build in GPS.

7. What was the best thing about developing on iPhone & Android?
Cheap in terms of time to develop feature rich applications and cost to create and distribute. Also with a small subset of devices on each platform, testing was kept to a minimum, with other platforms a wide range of screen size/orientation/ability/power etc make testing a huge issue.

8. What was the worst thing about developing on iPhone & Android?

For me when developing the iPhone version using Xcode on the Mac, coming from a PC background using Windows Xcode has a lot to live up to, although the slick integration of the IDE, emulator and on device debugging does make up for poor editing and window management on a mac.

9. When did you go live with the app and what kind of feedback have you received? What’s got more traction for you? Android or iPhone?
Android version launched in late summer and iPhone launched beginning of October. Initial response has been brilliant, similar downloads on each at the moment as Android had a head start but iPhone will be taking over shortly as we are currently being featured in UK iTunes “New and Noteworthy” section. As you can see from a search on Twitter http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23ukite tips are starting to come in thick and fast.

10. Why have you restricted the app to just London?
Unlike other related LBS applications UrbanKite is NOT restricted to any specific locations, users don’t have to wait until we launch in their area. Users can use UrbanKite anywhere in the world from New York City to a small village in Kent. This is because we leverage the extensive Google local API.

11. Who are you looking to do business/partner with?
At this point, we are mostly interested in talking to people who can help us distribute the application to a significant audience. There are many different actors in the eco-system that would fit this requirement, from carriers to large local players like the various local Yellow pages in each country. A partnership with providers of local event listings and local coupons could also reinforce the benefits we could offer to our users. We are also interested in partnering with specific interest sites with strong / passionate communities (for instance, think of mums sharing tips on anything baby related in their neighborhood via their iPhone/android phones while they watch their kids in the playground for instance…).

12. Are you considering in-app advertising?

We are currently working on the best way to provide our users with “useful” location based ads to fund the service. These are unlikely to be traditional ads you currently see in many free applications in the AppStores and will be voucher based. When we start signing up local businesses up we might look at offering the ability to insert paid sponsored tips for instance (clearly differentiated from regular tips of course).

13. What are you using to track app usage statistics?
http://www.AppFigures.com for tracking downloads via iTunes connect
http://www.Flurry.com for tracking usage, user distribution stats etc.

14. What’s been your experience marketing the application? Any tips?
Posting to app blogs gave us good results for Android. Because of the nature of the app people find out about UrbanKite thanks to posts they see on twitter that link to the business page, which has a growing viral effect. We are planning an event/game to bring local people together, which should fuel more local interest which will in turn fuel the viral effect.

15. How are you financed — are you looking for investment?
We have been bootstrapping for now, which has been sufficient to get the beta prototype out and to validate that we are fulfilling a need in the market and have an interesting product. If we continue to see the same traction as in the past couple of months however, we will probably look for seed funding to take the application to the next level and increase marketing / PR activities.

16. What are your top five mobile applications? Give us a line about why each one rocks your world.
- Universe iPhone – Can never remember which stars/constellations are which ? Universe can tell you, on 3GS with compass its even better
- iBomber – iPhone – Great plan view shooter using motion of iPhone, bomb the hell out of ships, gun placements and other planes.
- Echofon – iPhone – Favourite Twitter client for iPhone, keeps me up to date to Twitter
- YBrowser – S60 – Invaluable file browser for S60, if you develop for S60 you need this app.

17. Which UK mobile operator do you really rate?
Let me put it this way you could hear a small cheer over London when Orange/Vodafone announced they will be supplying the iPhone.

18. What was your first handset? What’s your current primary handset?
Neil : Nokia 6150 was my first handset, moved on the so called Matrix phone Nokia 7110. I usually carry a couple of phones around, at the moment I have a Nokia N97 and iPhone 3GS
Frank : My first phone was a 6110! Now have a iPhone 3GS

19. And the best gadget purchase you’ve made this year?
Neil : Just bought a MiniDVR 2 DogCam, for recording Snowboarding action this season
Frank : The new Nespresso machine called Citiz

20. Name three mobile-related companies or individuals that you reckon we should interview in the next edition?
* Daniel Eck – founder of Spotify, because their mobile app is poised to change the way we buy / listen to music – http://twitter.com/eldsjal
* Kei Shimada – because he has some great insights from mobile in Japan – http://twitter.com/kei_shimada
* JJ Rueb – CEO / founder of eBuddy because the mobile growth of their multi-client IM app has been nothing short of phenomenal – http://twitter.com/jjrueb

21. What else should we know?
UrbanKite is still in the early stages, we are continually improving the service, more content is going onto the website all the time and we have a new iPhone version out very soon with the Facebook Connect integration and an augmented reality mode for 3GS devices, we also have many many ideas how to take the service forward and create something really unique, some of these will be directed by feedback from our users. This is only the beginning – stay tuned!

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Neil & Frank, thank you both for taking the time. You can get hold of UrbanKite via: http://www.urbankite.com. I strongly recommend downloading the app right-away!