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"Web analytics firm Mixpanel has just launched real-time mobile analytics for the the Android platform.\nMixpanel Android analytics lets Android developers track events, do A/B testing and segment user interactions across their apps in real time. Mixpanel's goal is to offer app developers more robust and granular data as opposed to the high-level-only statistics that many mobile analytics packages offer.Android analytics support comes two weeks after Mixpanel launched its iPhone analytics library, and the Android offering integrates with applications in much the same way. Since its launch, the iPhone analytics library has received hundreds of sign-ups and is getting generally positive reviews.\nI spoke with Mixpanel's Jeremy Richardson about how the company's approach to mobile analytics is different from its competitors' and what benefits Mixpanel can offer developers. Flurry, one of the better-known mobile analytics firms, was criticized by Steve Jobs at the D8 conference for collecting too much personally identifiable information. This led to an updated terms of service for analytics trackers. \nRichardson explained to me that Mixpanel's approach is to track user behavior, not to collect personally identifiable information. Data is aggregated by default, and device data is never published. That ensures that Mixpanel complies with the iOS rules; the same considerations are in place for Android developers.\nAn Actions-Based Approach to Analytics\nMixpanel has always taken an approach that's less about stats and more about actions and results when it comes to web and web application analytics tools. That is, instead of taking the Google Analytics approach of tracking page views, it tracks designated actions or \"events\" instead. In the web app space, this might be translated into how many users complete a survey or a level up in a game.\nThis can translate over to the mobile side too. Android developers can use the Android analytics library to add support to their projects. Then they can designate what actions or events they want to track. The Android walkthrough contains some examples of how this process works.\nThis video also gives an overview of Android analytics in action:\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSingle Dashboard Overview\nWhen it comes to viewing your stats and reports, developers do it all from Mixpanel's event dashboard. Event tracking, A/B testing, visitor retention analysis and funnel analysis are all selectable and data can be easily exported. \nHere's what we like about the mobile analytics libraries: They use the same dashboard as those for websites or web apps. This means that instead of having to go to different sites or log into different accounts as you would with some monitoring services, you can just select what app or website you want to view from the same main panel.\nIn this way, Mixpanel actually hopes it can gain some new customers for its social and web analytics offerings from its mobile users.\nPricing\nLike all of Mixpanel's offerings, Android analytics is free for up to 10,000 data points a month. After that, pricing starts at $50 a month.\nFor developers that are looking at understanding how users are using applications and what features or aspects of the apps are used more than others, we think that the system Mixpanel has in place could be invaluable. For game makers especially, having an overview of where people stop playing a game or what levels are completed most or least can really be useful when making future design or programming decisions.\nThe mobile analytics space is still relatively small, with very few companies taking an approach that is not associated with in-app advertisements. We expect to see this field blow up even more as mobile application usage continues to grow."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2010/08/05/mixpanel-android/>