App developers rejoice! Over 1 billion apps were downloaded during the last week of December. A study was conducted by the analytics firm Flurry and was published in the tech section of BBC News.
It's interesting to note that the US "was responsible for nearly half of the downloads". China had 99 million downloads and was second only to the US with the UK coming in third with 81 million.
With these record high downloads came the increased popularity of the newest social app, Path. It was released back in November of 2010 but it's only now coming into it's own with a new interface and expanded networks. Gizmodo writer Mat Honan said it best:
"Imagine a social network that combines the voyeurism of Facebook with the visual intimacy of Instagram, the real-time newsreel of Twitter with the exclusiveness of a backyard barbecue."
Path is designed to be a personal "SmartJournal". On the list of goals and selling points for the product, the creators point out that the program should learn from the users actions and require less effort to use over time.
Path tries to make itself the most intimate social network out there by using encouraging users to log "moments" in time to share with "loved ones". It's apparent they're listening their users and learning from mistakes made by other social networks. I wonder how long this one will last.