Alluding to Facebook and its ilk, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said, "That's why traditional social media feels threatened." Yet while Facebook has plenty of reasons to feel threatened, Snap is looking less and less like one of them.

When it comes to their favorite local shops, people will forgive a lot: higher prices for products and services; odd hours of operation; and maybe even less cleanliness than they'd allow a chain store. Still, no mobile presence is apparently where a lot of folks draw the line, according to fresh findings from Facebook and Factworks.

After sampling 110 million installs earlier this year, AppsFlyer found that 28% of apps are booted from people's phones within 30 days of being uploaded. For extremely churn-sensitive developers, that percentage should be pretty scary. Yet, because it's representative of app use worldwide, the figure looks different depending on the region in question.

While child privacy issues remain a major obstacle -- and rightly so -- "smart" toys are poised for serious growth over the next several years. In just short five years, the market for smart toys -- and the software on which they run -- will be worth $18 billion.

How can app makers win in maturing and increasingly competitive markets like the United States? Among other aggressive measures, they need to encourage new app downloads through product innovation and investment in organic and paid installs, according to the latest report from App Annie.