The sports and health mobile app market will reach annual revenues of over $400M by 2016 according to ABI Research, up from $120M in 2010-- and will become an increasingly important part of the healthcare market. 

Thanks to smartphones connecting easily to wearable devices via Bluetooth, offerings will not only cover sports and fitness, but also home monitoring systems for aging customers, personal emergency response services and remote healthcare monitoring apps. 

Devices aiming for athletic use will remain king though-- athletic equipment vendors (such as Nike) are already either launching or supporting handset apps using proprieatary or Bluetooth-based systems. 

Meanwhile the likes of Garmin and Polar deliver either handset applications or high-end specialist systems, and start-ups and new entrants offer apps, online communities and wearable devices. 

ABI concludes app revenues will lag behind download growth-- with app downloads growing "at nearly twice the rate of revenues between 2010 and 2016, with more than a billion downloads annually by 2016.”

Go Smartphone Health Applications Will Exceed $400M Annually by 2012 (ABI Research)

Android devices and the Blackberry Playbook just lost a customer-attracting feature-- Adobe admits defeat and abandons development on mobile Flash. 

In the eulogy to the platform, Adobe says "...HTML5 [is] the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms," a statement Apple, Microsoft, Google and Facebook also agree with. 

When was the last time we've seen the 4 companies agree on anything?

Steve Jobs, who continually refused to have iOS Safari support Flash, would have been very happy indeed. Back in 2010, Jobs put his opinions on Flash in the form of a memo, stating the platform is “for the PC era — for PC’s and mice.”

Instead, Adobe will shift focus on AIR, the packaging tool converting Flash code to native Android, Windows Phone and iOS languages. PC Flash support will go on as "normal" (the company is working on version 12), even if Adobe also plans to lay off 750 employees (8% of its total workforce)...

Go Adobe: Flash to Focus on PC Browsing and Mobile Apps; Adobe to More Aggressively Contribute to HTML5

Android beats iOS in global Q2 2011 app downloads according to ABI research-- Android download market share totals 44% while iOS share totals 31%.

The increase in Android app downloads is most probably due to the growing Android user base-- ABI says Android smartphone shipments are up by 36% Q-o-Q in Q2 2011 (from 20% Q-o-Q growth in Q1 2011), with the Android install base now outnumbering iOS by a factor of 2.4:1 (a factor ABI predicts will grow to 3:1 by 2016).

In comparison, iPhone growth shows some slowdown, with Q2 2011 showing 9% Q-o-Q growth (from 15% in Q1)-- even if the iPhone 4S launch will probably shift such numbers around. 

However ABI says Apple app downloads per user outnumber those of Android apps by 2:1, as the superior Apple monetisation policies attract a better range of apps and customer experiences. 

Global app downloads in general are set to grow further-- the analyst forecasts WW 2011 app downloads will reach 29 billion (up from 9BN in 2010) thanks to a growing global smartphone user base set to grow by 46% Y-o-Y in 2011.

Go Android Overtakes Apple in Mobile App Downloads (ABI Research)

Motorola subsidiary 3LM resurfaces after 8 months of silence, offering enterprise-class mobile device management and security solutions for use with Android devices. 

One might recall Motorola bought 3LM back in February 2011, when it used to be a startup working on handset-agnostic enterprise solutions. 

The company offers 3 solutions-- enhanced Android device security (memory and SD card encryption, complete with selective encryption, application white/blacklisting, remote data wiping and strong password enforcement), optimised device management (allowing the remote installation of mission-critical enterprise application, device location and breadcrumb tracking) and secure remote access.

Simply called the 3LM solution, it will be available in October 2011 following enterprise customer trials. 

Go 3LM Android Solution