Alcatel Lucent Analytics picks bad apps

When Apps Attack | EE Times
Alcatel-Lucent released Wednesday, April 30, its Mobile Application Rankings report.
Asked about the industry’s reactions to this report, Loudiadis says, “Although we’ve shared this report only with a few network service providers so far, they’re loving it.” App developers called the report “an eye-opener,” while hardware box designers are calling it “huge,” she adds.

Key findings
The analytics identified five apps with the highest network impact. They include:

• Google Search,
• Facebook,
• WhatsApp,
• Facebook Messenger, and
• YouTube. 

Apps with high network impact

Optimizing these apps can create significant benefits, as illustrated by Facebook, which succeeded in optimizing signaling for Android devices, thus reducing the overall signaling load in some networks by 5% to 10%.

Meanwhile, apps that have an impact on the network due to their high-data-volumes are “targets for bandwidth optimization,” according to the report. This group includes most video apps, along with iTunes, Instagram, Pinterest, Apple Maps, and Pandora.

Interestingly, the report also created a “Watch List.” It includes applications that do not yet have a great impact on networks. Still, “these applications have a higher per-user delivery cost that could quickly increase their overall impact if they become more popular,” the report cautioned.

The Watch List includes:

• Tango,
• Nimbuzz,
• Palringo,
• Office 365,
• Zynga,
• Netflix,
• Pandora,
• Pinterest,
• Facebook Channel,
• Kik, and
• Skype.