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Nov-06-2009getjar: The unknown app store leader(topic overview)
CONTENTS:
- LOS ANGELES (Reuters Life!) - Thinking of a tummy tuck? Need bigger breasts? There's now an App for that. (More...)
- Using your Facebook contacts, your iPhone's address book, other Chorus members (including users physically nearby), and/or your own app collection, Chorus generates recommendations of apps you might like. (More...)
- Apple is outpacing competitors in the mobile apps arms race: There are roughly 10,000 applications available for Android-powered smartphones and around 300 for the Palm Pre. (More...)
- Books are turning into Apps.'' (More...)
- Having 10 copies of the same book with mediocre formatting goes completely against the Apple way of doing things. (More...)
- The PCMag Radio team debates the new Microsoft stores, analyzes Apple TV's latest upgrade, and introduces a weird new PC and an extremely scary keyboard. (More...)
- There soon will be a legal way to get the band's music digitally, although not through iTunes or any other online store. (More...)
- '''For instance, if you like a song you are listening to on the radio (and that station supports tagging and you are in the U.S.), you will be able to push a button and see the song (and all of the information around it) in the iTunes Mobile store. (More...)
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LOS ANGELES (Reuters Life!) - Thinking of a tummy tuck? Need bigger breasts? There's now an App for that. There are now two plastic surgery applications, or apps, for Apple's iPhone that offer users information, games and the chance for people to envisage what they would look like with a new nose, face lift or many other procedures. The Shafer Plastic Surgery App was launched in October as the first such product among the more than 85,000 offerings in Apple's iPhone App Store. [1] In my article ' Apple’s Greatest Idea Yet ' I argued that the App Store is more important to Apple than the Mac, the iPod, or the iPhone. Then in another article, ' The App Store Changes Apple’s Mission ' I forecast that in the future, Apple will excel as they build innovative products to take advantage of mobile apps. Because of the closed software/hardware Apple ecosystem, this company is better positioned for growth than any company in the history of technology. 100,000 apps available through the App Store makes it difficult for competitors to outdo the iPhone. New products like Motorola's ( MOT ) Droid are supposed to surpass the user experience of existing products but they are unable to do so because they lack the seamless ecosystem.[2]
'''The App Store, now with over 100,000 applications available, is clearly a major differentiator for millions of iPhone and iPod touch customers around the world,''' said Philip Schiller, Apple'''s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, in a statement.[3] "The App Store, now with over 100,000 applications available, is clearly a major differentiator for millions of iPhone and iPod touch customers around the world," Apple exec Philip Schiller said modestly of the number.[4]
In a statement, Apple SVP of marketing Phil Schiller tossed a not-so-subtle jab at Cupertino's Palm Pr'' and Android competitors, calling the App Store "a major differentiator for millions of iPhone and iPod touch customers around the world."[5]
With the iPhone and iPod touch Superguide, everything suddenly derailed. The person on our staff who was in charge of submitting this app to Apple got a message from a new app reviewer (or, as I'''ve started calling them, app rejector ) with an entirely new list of demands. Our rejector started by demanding that we change the name of our book about the iPhone from '''iPhone Superguide''' to '''Superguide for iPhone,''' because apps are not allowed to use Apple trademarks as part of their brand name. I Am Not A Lawyer, but let me try to explain this. Since Apple controls the entire App Store process, from display to sale, the company'''s lawyers obviously feel that Apple must aggressively protect its rights.[6] Apple boasts that the App Store remains the world's most popular applications shop, delivering games, business, news, sports, health, travel and reference programs to iPhone or iPod Touch users in 77 countries.[7] Every week, sister iPhone site FingerGaming rounds up the top-grossing iPhone and iPod Touch applications, as current that day in the iTunes App Store, and this chart is now available on Gamasutra. This week's U.S. iPhone revenue charts see EA's mobile version of Rock Band leading over Command & Conquer: Red Alert and a recently released port of id Software's classic FPS Doom. This relatively recently-added chart allows end users to see who is making the most money on the App Store that day. It differs significantly from the Top 10 Games chart, which is ranked by sales, and therefore is dominated by lower-priced titles that sell more copies.[8]
Yeah, 16 months later, the apps are improving a lot, especially the games. This is a big focus for Apple, turning the iPhone and iPod Touch into successful gaming platforms that can take down the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable. There's still a fair amount of crappy software in the App Store but there's plenty of legit apps that should keep the iPhone in a great position for this holiday season.[9] John Carmack, technical director, id Software has been the mastermind behind the Doom series and is also working on Doom's port for the iPhone platform. This game is available in the Apple App Store for $6.99 (Rs. 336 approx.) and can be downloaded from this iTunes link. Unfortunately, this game is not available yet in the Indian App Store and also in Germany due to censorship issues.[10]
Hitting six digits is an impressive milestone for Apple, especially when pitted against Google's Android platform, which is serving about 11,000 apps. As the App Store continues to expand, an inevitable question arises: How many apps do you really need? My colleague Philip Elmer-DeWitt raised this point recently in a piece in which he argued 11,000 apps may very well be sufficient to serve Android users. The key, then, for Apple and its rivals ''' Motorola, Verizon, Palm and Microsoft ''' should be to focus on marketing high quality, killer apps that will lure consumers toward their respective handsets and app stores. We're certain Apple's "There's an App for That" campaign is generating a lot more interest in the iPhone than press releases boasting the number of apps available for download.[11] The Apple App Store, launched just last year, has seen phenomenal growth in the period to become the largest online app store. Competing mobile OS platforms like RIM, Android and Nokia (with its Ovi Store) too have come with their own versions of app stores - but none of them really match up to the Apple App Store both, in terms of the number of downloads and availability of apps.[12] Often all it takes is plugging specs into online templates. As it gets easier for non-techies to make them, the already swiftly expanding market for these downloadable apps is likely to grow at a faster pace. That means even fuller shelves at online shops such as the Apple App Store, Google's ( GOOG ) Android Market, Research In Motion's ( RIMM ) BlackBerry App World, and Microsoft's ( MSFT ) Windows Marketplace for Mobile. The number of apps downloaded through these kinds of stores may surge to 18.7 billion in 2014, from about 491 million at the end of 2008, according to consultant Ovum. That may result in sales of $5.7 billion in 2014, up from $367 million last year, Ovum says. Small businesses view DIY apps as a low-cost way to market their wares.[13]
Of the more than 2 billion applications downloaded since the App Store opened in mid-2008, only about 30 percent fall into the premium category, translating to total developer revenues of $900 million according to iPhone analytics firm Pinch Media. Although Pinch findings indicate that premium App Store downloads average $12,100 in revenue ($8,500 net to the developer after Apple takes its cut), the firm is quick to point out that the arithmetic can be misleading because the most popular applications generate a very disproportionate percentage of sales: A small segment of developers earn substantially more than $8,500 per app, but most make far less. It took the App Store fewer than 18 months to reach 100,000 applications, but the next 100,000 could take far longer if developers determine that the economics of creating iPhone apps no longer make sense.[14] When Timothy Cook, Apple'''s chief operating officer, remarked that people are just "trying to catch up with the first iPhone that was announced two years ago, and we have long since moved beyond that," during the company's most recent earnings release, he may have had a point. The company announced it hit a milestone that is helping the company edge out the competition in the smartphone industry, soaring past 100,000 applications available for download in its mobile storefront, the App Store.[3] Not too shabby, Apple, considering your App Store launched in 2008 with only 500 applications available. It seems like every month or so, Apple's celebrating another milestone for the iPhone's App Store. The folks in Cupertino say those 100,000-plus apps cover categories from games to productivity tools to the inexplicable.[15]
Less than 16 months after it opened for business, the App Store now offers more than 100,000 applications for the iPhone and iPod touch, according to an Apple ( AAPL ) press release issued early Wednesday.[16] Last month one out of every five new iPhone and iPod touch applications launched in Apple's App Store were book-related.[17] The App Store officially topped the 100,000 iPhone and iPod touch application milestone this week, and for Apple, the timing couldn't have been more advantageous.[14]
Apple revealed today that developers have crammed the virtual shelves of their App Store with more than 100,000 programmes for iPhones and iPod Touch devices.[18] Apple announced this week that developers have created more than 100,000 apps for its App Store for iPhone and iPod touch customers in 77 countries.[19]
Apple's app store has hit a major milestone with more than 100,000 programs available now for the iPhone and iPod touch.[20] Apple announced yesterday that there are now over 100,000 apps released for the iPhone and iPod Touch on the app store. This is an amazing feat considering apps are not even two years old yet.[21]
"With a global reach of over 50 million iPhone and iPod touch users, the App Store has allowed us to develop high quality EA games that have been a huge success with customers."[7] The research, entitled the Pulse Report, also found that "addict" iPhone app users utilise their apps more than three times a day and in excess of 100 times a month. This is ten times more than the average app user, who use their apps approximately eight times a month. Flurry compiled its research using a sample size of over 2,500 applications, 40 million consumers and looked at usage patterns across four platforms: Apple (iPhone and iPod Touch), Blackberry, JavaME and Google Android.[22] My tweet was picked up and posted to Daring Fireball and Engadget. Some people who know me later said they also wrote to contacts within Apple, asking what the heck was going on. Two hours after I posted my tweet, out of the blue I got a phone call and an e-mail from someone at Apple, apparently in the app-submission group. (I'''d never heard his name before.) What he told me was that he had heard about my situation and that it had all been a mistake on Apple'''s part. This gentleman said that it was Apple'''s policy to approve apps that were based on existing published works, and that since that was the case with us, they would be happy to approve our app with the original title, '''iPhone and iPod touch Superguide.''' Then I asked him about the icon'''and he also referred to Apple'''s no-trademarks policy for icons. This time, though, he was responsive when I mentioned my example of David Pogue'''s book.[6] Overall, there have been more than 2 billion downloads of programs for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Apple has said they have sold more than 50 million of the devices. The smart phone race isn't just about apps, but it's clear that Apple has a huge advantage in this arena.[23] "With books shipping in droves, we are seeing the supply-side explode," Flurry said in a research blog posted Sunday. Flurry says its findings indicate that the iPhone and iPod Touch are in a position to start grabbing market share from the Kindle, which according to Forrester Research accounts for 70% of e-book readers sold. Such a market-grabbing trend wouldn't be new for the Apple devices. Last month, Nintendo cited iPhone competition against its DS portable game player as one of the reasons profits fell by more than half last quarter, compared to the same period a year ago. Despite the smaller screens on the Apple devices, 3.5 inches diagonally versus six inches for the Kindle, they appear to be good enough for reading for many people. This is bad news for Amazon and other reader makers, including Sony and Barnes & Noble, given how many more people own iPhones and iPod Touches than e-book readers. Forrester predicts that a total of 3 million readers will be sold this year, and sales next year could exceed 6 million units. That's far less than the tens of millions of iPhones and iPod Touches that have been sold by Apple.[24] Whatever contributes to reading is all good in my book. I do wonder, though, how much of a dent this will make in Amazon's Kindle sales, since the Kindle app is already a free download on the iPhone and iPod touch.[17]
The Domino'''s Pizza App is available for free from the App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore/.[25] IPhone and iPod Touch owners have downloaded more than 2 billion applications since the App Store opened in July 2008. The chief executive of Infosys, a leading Indian outsourcing firm, says that technology is making his employees more efficient -- which ends up costing some of them their jobs.[3]
While games is still the leading App Store content category, representing about 16 percent of all iPhone applications according to iPhone metrics resource 148Apps.biz, books now represent one of every five new App Store entries. In-application analytics provider Flurry reports that while games led all iPhone app development categories between August 2008 and August 2009, books usurped the top position in September of this year, adding that in August, 1 percent of the entire U.S. population was reading a book on the iPhone--Flurry adds that games slipped to about 13 percent of new iPhone applications released last month, down from 17 percent in July 2009.[14] In September, iPhone books (some running on Kindle for iPhone ) overtook games for the first time, while one in every five new apps in the App Store in October were books.[26]
A little over one year ago, Apple opened up the iPhone to third party developers with the introduction of the App Store and in that short span of time, they've surpassed 2 billion downloads (that doesn't even include updates) and earlier this week, 100,000 apps.[27] More than two billion programs have been downloaded from the App Store since it was launched by California-based Apple in July of last year. Rival smartphone makers have rolled out their own versions of online stores where third-party developers can give away or sell programs tailored to the software used in various Internet-linked mobile devices.[7] The also-ran status of Apple's competitors hasn't stopped the proliferation of competing mobile-app marketplaces. In a move to unify competition to Apple's App Store juggernaut, Ericsson exec Jan Uddenfeldt suggested at the OpenMobileSummit in San Francisco Wednesday morning that the wireless industry should create what he calls "horizontal" mobile app stores that would offer apps for multiple operating systems and devices. If Uddenfeldt succeeds in willing a unified app store into being, we hope his creation is easier to use than Apple's App Store. Despite a recent attempt by Cupertino to make its Store more user-friendly, digging through its 100,000-plus offerings to find the shiny needles buried in the composting haystack remains a daunting task.[5] Which isn't to say that booksellers Amazon and Barnes & Noble are not benefiting from the popularity of the Apple devices. Both companies offer book-buying applications on the App Store.[24] With so many publishers porting content to the App Store, Flurry forecasts that Apple is now positioned to claim ebook market share from Amazon's Kindle ereader device, especially given the pending release of a larger tablet form factor that will run on the iPhone operating system.[14]
I'm really impressed. This means the iPhone only has about 4,900,000 applications to go to catch up with Windows Mobile. At least the Apple App Store's "applications" are consistent in quality with most WinMo apps.[28] Gizmodo'''s John Herrman has a long, smart post up about the economics of the iPhone App Store, the seemingly endless price pressure that makes most apps really cheap, and what it all means for iPhone developers and iPhone owners. (The section on GPS navigation apps is especially interesting'''one of the reasons that many of them don'''t read street names out loud is because it'''s tough to charge enough to implement that feature.) We'''re still early enough in the history of iPhone apps (and apps for other mobile platforms, all of which will be heavily influenced by iPhone developments) that it'''s impossible to know for sure how this will all play out. The happiest outcome, of course, is if iPhone owners buy apps in such massive quantities that developers can build outstanding applications and make tons of money on apps that don'''t cost much.[29]
I stopped counting or caring about the number of apps after 10,000. It really doesn't matter anymore how many hundreds of thousands of apps the app store has. It has grown itself into uselessness (is that a word). This was Apple's end game with the iPhone as hardware was never going to be the true strength of the phone.[11] Talk about an unstoppable force. Apple's App Store essentially revolutionized the smartphone world, and every phone since has attempted to either match its great functionality or undercut it in price. Regardless of whether you like the phone or not, you can't say the iPhone hasn't turned the mobile world on its head.[30] You cant compare it like that. I have an iPhone 3G and love it but I hate how people and Apple brag about the app store having 100,000+ apps because its horribly misleading.[16]
There are, however, interesting counter points as well. While most Apple fans would say that the App Store has been one of the major points for buying the iPhone, critics point towards the fact that most of these 100,000 plus applications are me too versions of an app. Basically, what we have here is various applications for the same purpose.[12] The gateway to hell is here! The original Doom Classic game hits the Apple App Store for iPhone platform.[10] Unlike most iphone apps, most for flash will be useful. Maybe if Apple takes more time with their due diligence process rather than pushing 1 million apps of varying quality (some are complete junk), we might end up with apps that actually work on my iPhone. The issue with the App store is their refund policy.[11]
Tom Johnson is no engineer. That didn't stop him from creating software that helps him market his wedding-video business. Johnson crafted an application, downloadable to the Apple ( AAPL ) iPhone, that plays a sample video, connects users to a blog, and lets would-be clients call his company, Alliance Video Products, by pushing a single button. Best of all for a non-engineer like Johnson, he did it in a single day, without writing a single line of code. To create the app, Johnson relied on a company called Swebapps.com, one of a new crop of services that help clients order up their own smartphone apps--often in less time and for less money than it would take to develop an app from scratch.[13] The e-book currently sells for $13, however the iPhone app costs just $5, the application was submitted to Apple a while back, however there were a few issues getting the app approved. The application is great as it allows people to unlock the full potential of their iPhone/iPod Touch whilst on the move, lets face it half the time you want to learn how to do something its when you usually have any reference material nearby.[31] The most expensive application is the $900 iRa Pro in the American Apple Store, which gives viewing and control of IP based video surveillance equipment. Most apps are either free or cost just a few pounds and it seems iPhone fans just can't get enough of them.[18]
The app lets users make reservations and see the menu and wine list. "They've done all the brain surgery on the back end," Simons says. "Yet what you end up with is a fairly custom application" costing, in his case, about $1,000. Since its Aug. 18 debut, Swebapps has signed up about 800 customers. About 30 of their apps have gotten approval from Apple to be sold at the App Store.[13] Many of the games that are coded in the device's native computer language are the REAL applications. They also require a lot of quality assurance testing and debugging that can be very time consuming while web page development doesn't require code compilation and is much easier and faster to create in comparison. If we begin to imply web pages as being applications, then we might as well consider the internet already hosting billions of applications! If we don't, then Apple's app store is simply rigged to mislead consumers that they truly have over 100,000 apps.[11] Today, Apple has announced that the 100,000th application was let loose. That's a huge, huge number. The Palm application store and Android Market both lag behind in a big way (we're talking tens of thousands less options), and it's clear that the momentum is all in favor of Apple. Of course, many will say that most of those apps go unused and are generally worthless. That's certainly true on some levels, but this 100,000 number is bigger than that. This proves that the best app developers will spend their time generating apps for Apple, and not for others. If a dev has an idea and has time to make an application for one single platform, which platform do you think he or she will pick? Exactly.[30] Below the fold: A bar chart comparing the App Stores 100,000 with the numbers available at the official application markets for Googles ( GOOG ) Android platform, Research in Motions ( RIMM ) BlackBerry, Nokias ( NOK ) Symbian, Palms ( PALM ) Pre and Microsofts ( MSFT ) Windows Mobile phones.[16] Just a few weeks after crossing the 2 billion applications download milestone, Apple's App Store has crossed yet another landmark figure when the number of approved applications, available for download at the store went past the 100,000 mark.[12] Two independent sites, AppShopper.com and 1 48Apps.biz, which track listings in the U.S. App Store, count 97,026 and 96,161, respectively. Apples total includes 3,000 or 4,000 apps available only in its 76 overseas stores. Another nearly 9,000 apps have been approved by Apple but for one reason or another are no longer available for download.[16]
In Apple's App Store, by contrast, only 24 per cent of the apps are free, according to Mobclix - which, incidentally, numbers App Store offerings to be a bit higher than Apple's announcement, saying that 108,700 are now available.[5] Apple recently began allowing developers to build subscriptions or other purchase options into content into applications offered free of charge at the App Store.[7] The Android App store boats of around 15,000 applications, which in itself is quite a large amount, but again, pales in comparison to what Apple has to offer.[12] Given how much the spotlight has shifted away from the iPhone to Motorola's Droid and the Android platform's viability as a threat to the iPhone's dominance, Apple's announcement underscores just how far ahead of the smartphone competition the company remains--according to Fortune's Apple 2.0 blog, Android Market offers fewer than 12,000 applications, and BlackBerry App World carries a little over 3,000.[14]
I for one are among many that purchased a $90 turn-by-turn navigation app that does not work. The GPS on my iPhone works perfectly with all other software but not with this one. Still Apple refuses to offer any help on this even after reporting that the developer has not responded to my service request. They take 30% of the take but will not offer any customer service regarding this part of the business.[11]
The Android Market's 10,000 apps, many have suggested, simply can't compete with the App Store's 100k-strong selection. Now, there's still the notion of quality: Do the Android apps hold a torch to the iPhone's when it comes to what they offer and how well they perform? That's a subjective question you'll have to answer for yourself.[32] Now consider that Android has right around 10,000 apps out and phones like the Xperia X10 coming out. I think both the iPhone app store and iPhone have become second tier products.[11] Lots of amazing stuff to come. Steve has the iPhone locked down, but I'm sure (when the time comes, be it from Android competition or U.S. gub'mint) he can flip a switch and enable multi-tasking and installation of apps without the App Store.[11] According to AppsFire, an app tracking and sharing service, of the 100,000+ applications in the iTunes App Store, by the time you get to the 1000th most popular app only 1.76% of iPhone users own the application.[33] Application on the spot number 1000 on the list of most popular programs is used by only 1.76% of users. It appears, however, disputes that it is cause for satisfaction, taking into account the 80.000 applications do not enjoy the interest of consumers. According Appsfire applications in the App Store usually successful for a short period of time, so the most important stage of the publication of a new program, it appears the need for a substantial media buzz surrounding its release.[34]
Users have also downloaded well over 2 billion apps covering everything from games to news to travel. The app store and all these programs have helped set the iPhone apart from all of its challengers.[20] First Apps: The App Store opened with 500 apps, including mobile versions of MySpace and Facebook, an eBay app for tracking auctions and an iPhone version of the popular console game Super Monkey Ball.[15] The catalogue, which sells software for iPhones, was launched in July 2008. What is in the App Store? In July, when the App Store reached its first birthday, we selected 12 useful business applications.[35] Apple has confirmed that there are now over 100,000 software applications available on it App Store software catalogue.[35] This week, Apple is flexing to impress. The iPhone-maker officially announced its tightly controlled App Store has surpassed the 100,000 mark when it comes to available applications.[32]
Apple's App Store is now serving over 100,000 downloadable iPhone apps, the Cupertino, California company announced Wednesday.[11] Most Controversial App (Existent): Baby Shaker, an app that lets you shake the iPhone to silence a crying cartoon baby, didn't last for more than a week in the App Store. It raised questions of whether Apple should play the role of tastemaker when policing the store.[15]
First App Store Controversy: I Am Rich, an app that sold for $1000, was pulled from the App Store after a few days of "should or shouldn't it be allowed" arguments in the blogosphere. It's estimated that eight people downloaded the app during its brief lifespan. First Explicit App: Hottest Girls, as the name suggests, is a photo gallery of over 2,000 nude, topless, or scantily clad attractive women, and it was the first app of its kind that Apple actually approved.[15]
We thought we were on safe ground with that one, mostly because we had looked at David Pogue'''s book about the iPhone, also available on the App Store. His book'''s app icon didn'''t include a picture of the iPhone, but did feature the word '''iPhone''' in big, bold lettering. Pogue'''s book was also called '''iPhone: The Missing Manual,''' which we pointed out to Steve, because we thought it was inconsistent with what he was telling us. Steve very politely told us that he wouldn'''t discuss already-approved apps or allow us to use them as precedents, and that for all we know, his next call would be to David Pogue to demand that he change his app'''s name, too. (I checked with Pogue. He hadn'''t heard a peep about it, and his book hadn'''t had trouble getting into the store.)[6] The $2.99 app, available now in the iPhone's App Store, lets you pause and rewind public radio streams from NPR, PRI, APM, and local public radio stations. It also has an alarm clock for waking up to public radio and TV Guide-style listings so you can see what shows are coming up.[36]
The App Store has given us a unique opportunity to create and grow a very successful business". While exact numbers are hard to come by, it's also clear that many music iPhone apps - even free ones - are downloaded far less often. Even as iLike, MobBase and others make it easier and more affordable for every artist to create an app, its becoming increasingly important that they consider how to make their app stand out, as well as, if fan demand exists before joining 100,000 others in the App Store.[19] To make it clearer, only select popular apps are still being actively used and downloaded. The rest mostly add to the sheer numbers with many of them lying unused in the deep alleys of the Store with just some occasional user coming across it. Having said all this, this doesn't take anything away from Apple who has, in little over a year, created a platform, nurtured it and has made it by far the top such product in its category.[12] The App Store has been a raging success, but developers are still frustrated. The more Apple greases the skids for developers, the happier they'''ll be and the stronger the platform will be. Perhaps Apple should loosen its rules and create a feedback mechanism that allows users to flag apps for post-release review, in case they'''re bad. Perhaps Apple should green-light '''trusted''' developers and give them unfettered access to the store, so long as they behave.[6]
There doesn'''t really seem to be a way to push a big red button and say, '''I need to talk to your manager.''' There are plenty of ways Apple could improve this process. It could train its reviewers/rejectors better, for one. It could perhaps train reviewers in specialized areas of the store, so that someone analyzing book submissions would be well-versed in the rules for book apps, rather than completely oblivious. There are lots of other suggestions that many app developers have made, including the radical suggestion of letting the free market work its magic.[6] My new contact told me he'''d call me back in a few minutes. When he did call back, he explained that Apple'''s policy toward printed material also meant that if we represented our book cover as our icon, our app would be approved. He also asked me to e-mail him as soon as we'''d resubmitted our app, and he'''d push it through onto the store. He also said something that really irked me. He suggested'''again, perfectly politely'''that if we had a problem with our app rejection, we should just reply to the rejection, because app reviewers pay attention and respond to complaints. I had to explain to him that we had entered into a back-and-forth with our reviewer. It just hadn'''t helped'''it was like talking to a brick wall. At that point, the gentleman from Apple on the other end of the phone couldn'''t do anything but apologize that the system hadn'''t worked as it should have. That'''s where we left it.[6]
The analytics firm predicts that Apple could steal market share from Amazon's Kindle, as more publishers release new book apps for the iPhone at "record rates."[26] New research suggests Apple could take market share from Amazon Kindle's eBooks, should the popularity of book apps continue at the current pace.[22]
Now it appears it is the Amazon Kindle's turn to take a beating, as book applications for iPhone exceeded the popularity of games apps in the last four months, according the Flurry report.[26] Book applications for iPhone exceeded the popularity of games apps in the last four months, according to a report by market research firm Flurry. (Meanwhile, Flurry says, games slipped to about 13 percent of new iPhone applications released last month, down from 117 percent in July 2009.)[17] Books have become the most popular category of apps downloaded on the iPhone, overtaking games, according to a new research.[22]
Here'''s the problem: Our book isn'''t named '''iPhone Superguide''' because it runs as an iPhone app. It'''s named '''iPhone Superguide''' because it'''s content about the iPhone. Calling it '''Superguide for iPhone''' is not only inaccurate, but it makes it more difficult to sell future Superguide books for iPhone since they'd all be Superguides for iPhone of one sort or other. In the real world, we can publish books about the iPhone and use the iPhone'''s name because we'''re part of a free press, and Apple doesn'''t have the right to restrict our use of its product names so long as we'''re using them in an editorial context.[6] Now there will be, along with the stocks application, yet another app that I will never use yet cannot remove from my iPod.''' The 9to5Mac site said Apple has done this before: '''Apple sometimes chooses to leave hardware features dormant in their products until they feel the time is right.'''[37]
The Apple App Store is an ecosystem within an ecosystem (the larger ecosystem, of course, is the Apple product line).[16] AppsFire analyzed the 100,000-plus apps in Apple's App Store to see how many were actively installed on users' devices. Its conclusion: not very many.[32] Although the achievement of a milestone in the form of 100.000 applications in the App Store is a reason to celebrate, but not all applications in a virtual Apple store can boast of even the smallest success.[34] November 5, 2009 - Welcome to "This Week In Apps," a new weekly feature column that spotlights the latest and greatest from Apple's iTunes App Store.[27] With the news that Apple's App Store has hit the 100,000 app milestone, there's a few commenters on the Tech Chronicles who say most of the stuff is crap.[9]
Developers continue to put out thousands of apps for the App Store and the pace of development is. About 16 months after opening its App Store, Apple said today it has reached the 100,000 app milestone.[23] Apple'''s insistence on reviewing every single app submitted to the App Store has created a slew of problems. It creates delays, which frustrate developers.[6]
The e-books category has taken over the top spot from the games category in Apple's App Store.[24] Life, frankly, is too short to spend it weeding through the garbage in the App Store, only to acquire semi-useful utility apps and games that sap my time and prevent me from doing other, more enriching things, like reading a book.[11] According to 148Apps count, the U.S. App Store carries, among other offerings, more than 16,000 games, 13,000 books, 2,700 navigation programs, 1,200 medical applications and 442 weather apps.[16]
The only place to find it is in the U.S. app store. Since I used my iPod Touch almost exclusively to read books for the past year, this is pretty annoying. It turns out there is.[38] Two pages from the iPhone and iPod touch Superguide app. We'''ve never published a book specifically for the iPhone and iPod touch before, but we figured it might be useful for iPhone users to have our book with them as they'''re out and about with their handheld device. It'''s a bit of an experiment to see if people really want to consume this sort of reference material in this fashion.[6] I sat down with Apple yesterday to get a look at some of the latest and upcoming apps. This is some high quality stuff, so it's not representative of your average app but they really show how the platform is giving rise to some awesome experiences and turning the iPhone and iPod Touch into powerful machines.[9] Apple passed another impressive milestone Wednesday, announcing that 100,000 apps are now available for download for iPhone and iPod Touch owners.[15]
The iPhone and iPod Touch turned into a popular handheld gaming platform over the last year, as most of the apps released for the devices were in the games category. Even Nintendo acknowledged that iPhone games were among the reasons its DS portable gaming machine under-performed in sales.[26] Since launch, the world's 50 million plus iPhone and iPod touch users have downloaded more than two billion apps.[4] The negative commenters here obviously don't have an iPhone or iPod touch and are just blathering. There are probably 100 web sites devoted entirely to helping people find interesting apps, and many online computer magazines have a section on this.[11] Apple said the popularity of mobile applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch has only been increasing since the company began allowing third-party developers to sell programs in the online market.[3] IPhone and iPod Touch owners have downloaded more than 2 billion applications since the storefront opened in July 2008. By comparison, it took more than two years for Apple to announce the sale of its billionth song through iTunes.[3]
Remote access technology allows access and back up to your computer from anywhere with an Internet connection. With the iPhone version of the software, users create a LogMeIn account and add the computers they want to access remotely to that account. They then install LogMeIn Ignition for iPhone and iPod touch on their Apple device and log in to access their entire computer.[39]
Billionth Downloaded App: Bump lets you exchange contact information with another iPhone user by bumping hands together while holding a phone in each. Apple hit this milestone last April.[15] Submitted by ricegf on November 5, 2009 - 6:27 P.M. Apple is preparing the sauce that may well cook them by promoting individual books as "apps". They are trivial to produce for the iPhone - but also for Android, Palm, Maemo, Symbian, Blackberry, or WinCE. Not that there's anything wrong with books as apps - it's just perhaps short-sighted on Apple's part to count them.[28] How about Sun Tzu's Art of War ? Over 30 apps for one book title. This free book to cheap app model probably accounts for thousands of "apps". All of this belies the ultimate irony for Apple.'' For decades, they've been struggling with their Mac platform because most app(lication)s are written for PC first.'' Sometimes they are written for Mac, sometimes they aren't (and they are also crippled like Microsoft Office).'' This has traditionally been the major barrier to entry for prospective Mac customers who've gone to Windows.''[28] '''The iPhone SDK created the first great platform for mobile applications and our customers are loving all of the amazing apps our developers are creating.'''[11]
Publishers have been releasing e-books to the Apple store at record rates, and in October, one in five new apps released to the store were e-books, according to Flurry, a mobile application research firm.[24] @Tim: Ive noticed that the electronics at Best Buy are generally duplicative. It carries way too many brands of every kind of electronics; too many TVs, too many computers, too many cameras. It would really be better if there was just one of each thing that could be sold. Apples total includes 3,000 or 4,000 apps available only in its 76 overseas stores. Overseas stores provide access to the same 100,000 apps the U.S. store offers, I believe, but offer in addition apps that are only available in their particular country.[16] A hundred thousand -- that's a lot of apps, especially compared to other platforms' far more limited offerings. To revisit the age-old question, how much does size really matter? Does anyone actually need a selection of 100,000. of anything ? In the case of the App Store, it appears that despite the impressive nature of its big and firm number, the way we use the catalog may count far more than any measurement.[32] The 6-digit number of apps in the Apple app store is obviously over-exaggerated.[11] Less than six weeks after announcing that downloads from its iTunes App store had topped two billion, Apple on Wednesday let it be known that its online collection has now topped one hundred thousand apps.[5] according to a recent study, if you are not in the top 1000 (or 1%) apps, you aren't going to be installed on more than 1.67% of iPhones and iPods. That same study said that only 20% of all apps ever get more than a few downloads. Another recent phenomenon has been running up the App Store count.''''[28]
The real bummer, though, is the apps. The Android Market may offer 12,000 of them, but the iPhone store has 100,000 ''' and over all, they seem to be more useful and imaginative.[16] We are very focused on developing new technologies for our business and we believe our app is a fantastic edition to our online ordering,''' Meij says. '''For customers, it means the convenience of being able to order a pizza anywhere and anytime without ringing their local store. Customers have complete control of the ordering process or if they simply want to view our menu or hot offers they can do that too,''' he says.[25] Admittedly, I got hooked on World War. These apps arent games, but they are portals to a web-server. Each of their 8 games have 5 iterations, 1 free and 4 with varying levels of points you can buy. These should be in-app purchases, but Storm8 offers them as entirely new apps and Im sure Apple counts the 1 app as 5 apps.[16] Skies of Glory (mid-Dec) is a free-to-play WWII fighter game that allows you to compete with up to 7 friends over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. This will be one of a new breed of social games that will try to monetize using the App Stores In-App purchases for free apps.[9] The hook, and there are few better, is that the game is free. That's a tall order considering that it features fully 3D graphics and online multiplayer support, both rare commodities on the App Store.[40] Before you rush to the App Store and spend "the price of a grande latte," as the developers put it, consider that there are other free public radio apps available. Public Radio Player 2.0, for instance, has on-demand streaming, which is arguably the most valuable feature in any of these offerings. Public Radio App's defining feature is its DVR-like features for live streaming (though you'll still need an Internet connection to resume playback later). I haven't tried this app yet, but it seems to cater to the die-hard public radio buff, the one who'd rather listen to whatever's on than cherry-pick individual shows. For these folks, maybe an occasional pledge drive guilt trip wouldn't be remiss after all.[36]
The game is releasing on the App Store today (currently available in Europe and Canada, with the U.S. getting it later today. in theory).[40] Now, if the app store can do to book prices what it did to game prices, the consumer will get a big win.[17] Until September, more apps were released monthly to the App Store in the games category than any other since the launch of the online store in July 2008.[24]
"Now you can't do without one." Since launching its templates in July, AppBreeder.com has gained 1,300 members and is adding about 100 new users a week, more than double the number it added in August. It says members plan to submit more than 700 apps to the App Store in November.[13] Past the 2000th most popular and the number of users with the app installed is little more than a blip. That figure essentially means that of 100,000 apps on the iTunes App Store, approximately 98,000 of them are largely left unsold and unloved.[33]
The App Store remains the world's most popular applications shop accessed by users in 77 countries.[18] When in a WiFi zone, applications can be downloaded from the App Store and e-mail can be accessed.[41]
Most Controversial App (Non-Existent): Google Voice takes the prize for drawing the attention of the Federal Communications Commission after being rejected -- or merely not approved yet, as Apple put it -- from the App Store.[15] Apple's made a big deal of how many apps it's shifted and how many apps are in the App Store, racking up over 100,000 approved.[33]
T-Mobile ramps up. About 16 months after opening its App Store, Apple said today it has reached the 100,000 app milestone.[23]
Like all ecosystems it is evolving at an almost exponential rate. While other nascent ecosystems are struggling to compete, the App Store is sucking most of the available oxygen away from their efforts, making it extremely tough for them to get a foothold.[16] Publishers of all kinds, from small ones like Your Mobile Apps to mega-publishers like Softbank, are porting existing IP into the App Store at record rates.[42] 'The App Store has forever changed the mobile gaming industry and continues to improve,' said Travis Boatman from videogame giant Electronic Arts.[18]
The Android Market has around 10,000 apps but obviously lacks the breadth of choice available in the iTunes App Store.[33] Domino'''s Pizza has taken ordering to the next level with the availability of its Domino's Pizza App on the App Store. Pizza lovers can now have a Domino'''s store in their pocket - so to speak - by creating an account and saving their favourite orders for next time to make the ordering process even faster. Domino'''s Chief Executive Officer Don Meij says the Australian designed and built app is an exciting step forward for the company and part of its focus on innovation and technology.[25] All right, time for a reality check: Does this finding take anything away from the App Store's success? Not in the least.[32]
Book-app maker eBookApp.com charges nothing to create apps that help authors and publishers promote books through the App Store but receives 50% of sales of books sold through the apps.[13]
I do most of my reading these days on the kindle app for iphone. Amazon may not get the hardware sales from that, but they get a lot of $9.99 book purchases.[17] Johnson paid $300 up front, plus a $30 monthly fee. Since its September debut, Alliance Video's Video Pro has generated 10 leads and two sales, making it a more effective marketing vehicle than placing an ad in a bridal magazine, Johnson says. "We deal with a lot of young brides and grooms, and they love the iPhone," he says. Some sites charge nothing up front, while others invoice as little as $99 a year or $20 a month for users to create an app. That's substantially less than the $2,000 to $10,000 professional programmers typically charge per project. Nontechnical users are guided through menus where they can input information and select logos, colors, and buttons. "It's way less expensive," says Dan Simons, a principal at Vucurevich Simons Advisory Group, which used Swebapps to create an iPhone app for a restaurant it manages.[13]
Already available as an excellent e-book in PDF format for $13, the book is now also available (appropriately enough) as an iPhone app for $5.[6] Im not so good with the words needed to articulate my position, but I understand what youre saying, and Im trying to articulate something different. Emoji Icons on the iPhone are built into the OS by default, buying one of 100 available apps for $.99 simply unlocks them. Or theres one free one that does it.[16]
I'm working on a holiday buyers guide for nav software for the iPhone, but the whole landscape will change radically if Apple approves the free Google nav app with turn by turn directions and photo realistic rendering of routes.[43] Droid-versus-iPhone deciders should also take into account the iPhone economy: that universe of docks, cases, chargers, Web sites and information that surround Apple'''s hype monster. I think its pretty arrogant for people to dismiss a random X number of apps as useless, who are you to judge? Whats next? Too many books? Too many websites? I may not want 500 weather apps but I appreciate that there are 500 weather apps and frankly, I look forward to a million apps to choose from.[16] Submitted by jbelkin on November 4, 2009 - 11:42 P.M. Are there too many books published? Too many websites? Too many sources of info for you? There should be a million apps and sure, why not 10 versions of War & Peace just like a a bookstore. and hey, it's not Apple's job to promote and sell your apps.[28] The Shafer app will soon be joined by iSurgeon, developed by Miami cosmetic surgeon Dr. Michael Salzhauer, who authored the 2008 book "My Beautiful Mommy" aimed at helping 4-7 year-old children cope with plastic surgery. "iSurgeon serves a dual purpose, providing those interested in cosmetic surgery treatments with a clear visual of what they would look like post-surgery, while also providing a fun entertaining game tool," Salzhauer said in a statement. The Shafer Plastic Surgery App costs $2.99 in its full version, while iSurgeon will be free during its first month of release later in November.[1] Does Apple count Paid apps that have a free version as 2 apps? If every paid app had a free version, that would only really be 50,000 apps. Id really like to know what their counting methods actually are.[16]
Im still doubtful about how many people have actually downloaded over 90,000 apps to prove the statement. What is really a puzzler is that they also claim that apps on every other platform are better than Apples. That the apps are far more useful even though other platforms dont use any form of vetting.[16] When you add an app via Chorus, it can notify your friends via Twitter and Facebook. Envio receives a cut of paid-app revenue through Apple's affiliate program and is considering publisher deals to help profit from the service, though it's primarily focused on building Chorus's audience for the time being, Mr. Jha said. It also plans to develop Chorus for other mobile platforms, including Android, Windows Mobile and Symbian, in the future.[44] LOL! It's easy to feel rejected with submitting apps to them! It's all I hear about with a few of my friends in Great Briton who like to write them. They tell me that if you get rejected more than a few times, then everything you submit is rejected automatically afterwords. They both are looking at the Android platform and writing apps for it now.[30]
Using your Facebook contacts, your iPhone's address book, other Chorus members (including users physically nearby), and/or your own app collection, Chorus generates recommendations of apps you might like. [27] Just because a Flurry study found that more book apps than games were developed for the iPhone over the past four months does not mean the Kindle and Nook are in trouble.[42] Flurry's chart below shows a surge in book apps for iPhone releases from July to October, with book apps overtaking game releases in September.[26]
I have 400 apps (mostly free) on my iPhone. Why so many? My 2 kids also use my iPhone so they have lots of games, many just to try for a while to see if its worth keeping longer. For me, Ive been trying out many apps to see what works for me, whether its note-taking or finance or shopping or sports or bibles or language.[16] Analytics firm, Flurry, has published a report which shows that games were the number one category of apps downloaded on the iPhone every month from August 2008 until August 2009.[22] Overall, iPhone owners worldwide have downloaded over 2 billion apps to date, according to Apple.[11] In the meantime, Apple will continue to get beat up by random, embarrassing stories of app rejections. Each one is a small story, but they have a cumulative effect. When Verizon advertises the Droid by saying '''iDon'''t allow open development,''' there'''s no doubt what the ad is referring to'''it's playing off Apple'''s reputation of arbitrarily rejecting apps from the only source where iPhone apps are sold. I keep hoping Apple will address the issue before it gets its next black eye.[6] Rumours are swirling online that Apple is about to wake up a sleeping app that will allow you to tune in FM radio from your iPhone.[37] Very soon, Jobs willing, there will be more Apps than competitors phones put together. Now seriously, what are Apps? these are programmes for a computer, in this case, Apples iPhone.[16] My assignment was to speak for 18 minutes (the standard talk length) about medical apps for the Apple iPhone.[45] With the iPhone's addition of parental controls in OS 3.0, Apple's paranoia about explicit material seemed to fade, though the app was later removed for mysterious reasons.[15]
'''The Domino'''s App for iPhone and iPod touch is here and we couldn'''t be more excited.[25] Any free applications are then available to download, and best of all, when you hook up your iPhone or iPod Touch the application just syncs.[38] MacWorld's ever popular iPhone iPod Touch Superguide has been available in PDF form for quite a while now, however they have now released an iPhone application, which lets face it has been a long time coming.[31]
I am well into my second book using the Kindle reader for iPhone (on my iPod Touch). It'''s a great utility for when you have those 20 minute slogs of time on a bus, waiting to meet someone at the coffee shop or kicking back in the living room.[17]
Just because developers are creating book applications for iPhone does not mean Apple's handset threatens Amazon's Kindle or B&N's Nook e-readers.[42] The Kindle is vastly outnumbered by Apple's touchscreen devices, despite the iPhone having a significantly smaller screen than Amazon's Kindle (6 inches). This makes the iPhone platform a larger gateway for book publishers.[26] Flurry has predicted that Apple could take market share from the Amazon Kindle's eBooks, as book publishers continue to adapt books for the AppStore at pace. This is despite the iPhone having a two inch smaller display screen than the Kindle - but if rumours of the Apple tablet are to be believed, this trend could prove to be a worrying issue for Amazon, which has just launched the Kindle in the UK last month.[22] "The sharp rise in eBook activity on the iPhone indicates that Apple is positioned take market share from the Amazon Kindle as it did from the Nintendo DS. Despite the smaller form factor of the display, we predict that the iPhone will be a significant player in the book category of the Media & Entertainment space." I have already downloaded (and paid for) several iPhone books, but they are all reference material.[42]
Apple's iPhone is quickly becoming the ebook reader of choice for many, and could steal market share from Amazon's Kindle, according to a report from market research firm Flurry.[26]
The mobile era is all about convenience and Apple delivers. What size market are we looking at for the iPhone? Since we're talking about simplicity I'll make this easy, there are 6.795 billion people in the world and more than 50% own a cell phone. The global cellphone market sold 291 million phones in the Q309 with Nokia selling 37%, Samsung selling 20.7% and Apple volumes rising to its highest ever of 2.5%. iSupply estimates that the smart phone market is now on its way to invading the old school cellphone market share. They estimate that the smart phone market will increase from 184.2 million units in 2009 to 235.6 million units in 2010 (28% growth) to 334.1 million units in 2011 (42% growth).[2] Apple sold 78% more iPhones in FY09 over FY08. iPhone units are tracking a similar path as the early years of the iPod. Could the iPhone one day grow to 70% of the smart phone market? If they did then we would need to raise our price target to $5000 instead of $500. The point is, there is much upside to the current 2.5% global market share and this will be a primary stock driver for the next two years. You might want to be in on this one.[2] If Android doesn't deliver something spectacular in the next two years, then iPhone will be heading towards ridiculous market shares, just as the iPod did. That's not even accounting for the iSlate/MacTouch. All the predictions of an Apple tipping point in the market are coming true.[2]
At Ciao you can read consumer reviews on a large number of Apple products like iPods, iPhones, Apple laptops and Apple computers.[39] Apple would have to sell about 20 million iPhones just to hold the stock over $200. I positively enjoy my Apple products and I think their quality is way above average, but investors just don't care about those sort of things, apparently.[2] Maybe Apple isn't making enough profits the way Amazon is. Apple is really starting to pile on overhead with those retail stores and maybe that's what is making investors angry. $500 is a pipe dream.[2]
Apple is outpacing competitors in the mobile apps arms race: There are roughly 10,000 applications available for Android-powered smartphones and around 300 for the Palm Pre. [3] With a great selection of mobile software comes the burden of finding the golden needles in the app haystack. Some say its Apple's job to help us discover apps, and to an extent, Apple has responded through the implementation of features like the Top Grossing section, and more recently, Genius app recommendations. Others say its the responsibility of sites like ours to "separate the wheat from the chaff."[27] I'''d like to see Apple try more of them, rather than just hiring more reviewers until every human remaining on Earth is either an app reviewer or an app developer.[6]
As of 9/28 when Apple announced 2 billion downloads, the rate was about 6.6 million apps downloaded per day.[16] The Apple news release also claimed over 2-billion apps total downloaded at a rate of 10,000 per day.[16]
"In October, one out of every five new apps launching in the iPhone has been a book.[42] Now you can even follow your favorite team like the world champion New York Yankees and watch sports live on your iPhone with sports apps.[21] Just got my iPhone a couple of months ago and I've been experimenting with a lot of new apps too.[17] In the last few months the ebook revolution has heated up to the point that I have trouble keeping up with all the new developments. This iPhone app is the latest and I think it's great.[17]
Envio Chorus recommends other iPhone apps based on the ones you and your friends already own. Envio Networks on Tuesday is launching Chorus, a free app that shows users the ones their friends are trying out and suggests ones that might interest them.[44] The future will prove to be bright for the iPhone as newer and better apps will be made that will make the iPhone triumphant in the smart phone wars. If you enjoyed this article feel free to subscribe to this column at the top of the page.[21] With 100,000 apps on the iPhone, it is proven to be the best smart phone on the market because it can do just about anything you want it to do. It has more features than Derek Flint's lighter in Our Man Flint.[21] Does the finding take a bit of steam out of the company's size-centric marketing push ? You'd better believe it. Bear in mind the timing of all of this: On Friday, Verizon's Motorola Droid hits stores nationwide. The phone is already being hyped as one of the first serious iPhone contenders -- but, despite its standout features, the size of the Droid-connected Android Market has been widely cited as a key limiting feature.[32] The iPhone company recently announced two billion applications have now been downloaded since the store was launched in July 2008.[18]
Then there is the claim that a large quantity of apps actually never get to see the front page of the App Store, which in turn leads to some apps being rarely used or downloaded.[12] Then there's the simple fact that a goodly number of App Store apps could most generously be described as crap.[5] In order to protect our current users, we have no choice but to temporarily pull the app from the App Store.[43] Developers continue to put out thousands of apps for the App Store and the pace of development is growing.[23] What we suddenly discovered was, according to our rejector, the real-world rules didn'''t apply in the App Store.[6] You get some of the great Stanza features, including the ability to set typefaces and font sizes, and even quickly toggle between day mode (black on white) and night mode (white on black). Now, as some of you may have read elsewhere, getting this app up on the App Store was not as easy as you might think it would be.[6] Id say the app store could have 30,000 apps and have a lot less fat. Pretty soon, this App counter is going to represent how bloated the store has become with duplicates and not how diverse the programs are.[16] Note, in some cases a lot more apps have been written for the platform than are available on its online store.[16] Sounds easy, right? Only one problem: there are about 7,000 medical apps. After a lot of time reading "best medical apps" stories online, asking Twitter users for their suggestions and reading online reviews, I finally boiled the list down to about 50 promising apps. I tried them out and further winnowed the list to a bunch that I ultimately demo'ed in my talk.[45] According to AppsFire's analysis, by the time you hit the 1000th app (as far as popularity), you're looking at only 1.76 percent of users with the program installed.[32]
To use Chorus, you register and add some friends, which you can do by inviting phone contacts, Facebook friends or even contacts in your immediate vicinity, who must also be Chorus users. You can then see apps they've added in an "activity feed," which looks and behaves similarly to Facebook's news feed. You can search for apps to see who's installed them, or browse your friends to look at the ones they're using.[44] The app is shipping in the new Android 2.0 phones, starting with the Verizon Droid, which is scheduled for release tomorrow.[43]
Although the number of Android apps pales in comparison to Apple's 100,000-plus, it far outpaces the app count for the Palm Pr'', which a Palm spokesperson tells The Reg now stands at 320.[5] All the rest are just trimming. Microsoft used to slam Apple because the latter had so few available apps compared to Windows. I don't care about the number of apps available to me; I care about what they do for me and how they help me get things better, regardless of the OS. This is a childish comparison, and many of the published arguments are equally childish.[11]
Right that's it! I'm going to have to get Magus of Stonewylde onto an app. But not the next two books in the Stonewylde series - people would have to buy paper versions of them once they're hooked via the app. I could make it available for free to tempt them. That is such a cunning plan! My daughter's boyfriend is an appy person who writes software so I shall speak to him I think.[22]
The U.S. and Canada version has been pulled from the app store.[43] Chorus's social aspect comes in handy amid the App Store's overwhelming selection, Mr. Jha said. "The best sources for finding out about cool things to get are your friends," he said.[44] While so many apps are unsuccessful, it doesn't mean the App Store itself is not a roaring success.[33] Granted, most of that "turning" has stemmed from one thing: the App Store.[30] Drilling down to a specific app shows your friends' ratings and lets you go to the App Store to try it yourself.[44] All titles in the App Store's "Games" category are considered in chart rankings.[8]
Even with a high percentage of crapware, there's a great number of really impressive apps that have either recently been released or are about to hit the store.[9] I really wish I had bought an iPhone instead now. Maybe Blackberry do alot more apps in Europe but here in Canada, its dismal.[18] Your catchy headline lacks substance much like saying there are 1,000,000 different styles of winter coats for men and women. Its colorful pie chart would show various colors of coats? Yes, there are zillion iPhone apps and mistakenly thought your article provided some meat to the bone.[16] Sure, the iPhone's Camera app is nice for some basic adjustments to length but it can't compete with the likes of iMovie. The same could be said of ReelDirector but its a magnitude better than the Camera app, letting you string different clips together with an assortment of 27 transitions and add credits of varying styles, all with drag-and-drop simplicity.[27]
The sobering statistics come courtesy of AppsFire, an app tracking and sharing service that caters to iPhone customers.[32] The innovative app allows customers to place a pick up or delivery order, pay by cash or credit and even track an order to see when it is ready. '''We know our customers lead busy lives, that'''s why we want to stay at the forefront of new innovation and continue to give them the freedom to place a Domino'''s order when and how it suits them,''' Meij says. '''With more than a million pizza combinations in your pocket, plus premium pastas, decadent desserts and yummy extras it'''s easy to place an order on the go,''' he says.[25] Technology enables handhelds computers be virutally similar to desktops or laptops with the only difference being the size of the monitor. This issue will too, be resolved and then, 100,000 of Apples blessed Apps will have to be compared to well, millions of programmes for the dreaded Microsoft or Linux PCs.[16] Apple doesn't care if there are 2 dozen apps that do the same thing as long as that "thing" does not compete with an Apple application.[28] The app reviewer we spoke with suggested that there was a formatting bug in the e-book reader itself. We consulted with Lexcycle on this one, and resubmitted, confident that we had addressed the issue. At this point in the process, things had gone about as smoothly with Apple as they had with our previous app, App Gems. That app was rejected a single time for an understandable (albeit somewhat frustrating) reason.[6] My personal belief at this point is that the 100K App milestone is the point when Apple should switch tactics and focus on something more meaningful than mere quantity, as subsequent numbers become less and less impactful, and we get it, Theres an App for That.[16]
Over the past five years, the Web and a host of other factors have tempered that trend, but it still exists -especially in the corporate world.'' Now,'' Apple is king of the apps in the smartphone realm and spouts their total at every opportunity.''[28] The 10000 downloads a day quote was not by Apple but by Smule for one specific high-ranked app.[16] Apples app count figures are truly misleading. More than 50% of these so called apps arent really apps; theyre nothing more than easy-to-build web pages built using HTML/Javascript/CSS! The real apps contain native programing code that are required to be compiled.[16] How could there really be 99,000 useless apps for the iPhone/Touch? I guess the Windows PC platform must have a similar percentage of useless apps, too, even though Windows fans were always bragging about there being more useful applications for Windows PCs than Macs. Its a strange situation of having too many developers and applications. Its considered a negative thing.[16] NeuroMobile is also one of the few apps that I use every day. If most of the apps are free and many are only used a few times, the developers are not making money and cant possibly continue to support them.[16] In total, Ive downloaded Storm8s World War about 15 times to get free points, based on 15 different iterations of the same app. Thats just one vendor.[16]
If that wasnt bad enough, Storm8 offers free points on a weekly basis that you have to download the app to unlock.[16]
A Realtor can offer different house and condo listings to people in different towns. A grocery can send mobile coupons to iPhone users when they're inside a store.[13] Even the Palm Pre, which is considered a major competitor to the iPhone, does not have a store that offers as much as Apple's.[12]
Not things that I would spend a long time reading in a single sitting. That is a very different market and use model than what the Nook, Kindle, and (perhaps) the widely rumored Apple tablet address. Because of its small screen, I cannot imagine reading hundreds of pages on an iPhone, something the Nook and Kindle make quite pleasant.[42] My favorite piece of anecdotal data was the Google report from February that said Apple's iPhone produced 50 times more search requests than any other mobile handset. Google initially thought they had made a mistake in tabulating their data so they made their engineers check the logs again and found that yes, iPhone use was surging.[2]
The market is awash in smartphones and while none to date has caught the fancy of the public enough to de-throne the consumer driven iPhone (although that new Mototola might do it). The other problem for Apple is the company is letting their MAC lines get old. They are pushing their toys and letting the staple of their line go stale.[2] I'''m happy to announce that we'''ve released a new version of our iPhone & iPod touch Superguide, which compiles all our best information about the iPhone and iPod touch in one handy guide.[6] The popular productivity application give users a chance to access home or office computers via iPhone and iPod touch.[39] There are over 57 million iPhone and iPod Touch users worldwide.[26]
Back in June, id Software had released the Doom Resurrection game designed from advanced graphics engine for iPhone and iPod Touch.[10] Only 5 of the aforementioned 20.000 applications has had a very big success, finding himself on more than half of iPhones / iPod touch.[34] A free NASA application for Apple smartphone and iPod Touch has been created.[41]
Maybe another 10 misfits are in my iTunes reservoir. My iPod Touch shipped with 13 and those are still there, being moderately useful. There are just 4 games among them and maybe a half-dozen "novelties". The rest are music-related and it's a very good platform for that. I've read 6 novels from it and it's good for that too, even with the small page size. I'd buy first-run novels if they weren't $40.[11] The 9to5Mac website reports today that it has a tip that the iPhone radio.app is being developed in-house for the iPhone and iPod touch.[37]
Although the touch is sold primarily as a music device, it is a worthy substitute/companion to the iPhone. The latest version of the touch, now in its third generation, can store up to 90,000 photos, 14,000 songs and 80 hours of video.[41] You can read at home on the Kindle itself, but when you find yourself in a long queue at the store, you can keep reading on your iPhone. This idea of the "book" existing independent of the device is a rather forward thinking one.[38] All my purchased books were there, at exactly the place I had left off on the Kindle itself. While this is a rather big deal for any foreign Kindle and iPhone owners, this experiment shows that U.S. travelers will have access to Whispersync via their cellphones whilst abroad. None of my newspapers showed up, and neither did any books or documents I had loaded on there myself, so this is limited to the books bought from the Kindle store. Hey, it's free.[38]
I have purchased 89 books to date for the iphone Kindle! My only disappointment is the the application doesn't duplicate the ability to send a WORD document for transfer to the Kindle format (cost $.10 on the full Kindle). Otherwise I'm thrilled with it.[17] While Amazon might be mindful to keep an eye on the iphone, I find that the Kindle for iphone application is an excellent book application.[17] If you live in the United States. Along with the crippled, half-baked international launch of the Kindle, Amazon has still not made the "Kindle for iPhone" application available for its overseas customers.[38]
According to the folks at Flurry, the iPhone is quickly gaining ground as the e-book reader of choice for many and could steal market share from Amazon's Kindle. Amazon has yet to release sales figures for its Kindle, but it's been estimated that about 3 million of the e-readers will be sold in the U.S. in 2009.[17]
Books are turning into Apps.'' This isn't like the Kindle App which can read many books in the one reader app or purchase books in-app.'' [28] Companies like Scrollmotion have engines that turn a lot of recent book releases into seperate, individual apps with little effort. It isn't just first run books, however.'' Companies are taking books in the open domain and building apps around them.''[28] I have the max but I want a million apps to choose from - that's like asking how many books should be published or how many websites should there be.[11]
In the last four months, book apps have exceeded the popularity of games apps - with one out of every five new apps launching in October having been a book.[22] Combined with on-demand streaming of more than 300 programs, radio bookmarks that can be picked up on your computer, and claims of a new streaming engine to avoid interruptions, and Public Radio App seems like a powerful program for NPR buffs.[36] Chorus uses an algorithm based on the apps you already use, plus your friends' ratings, to help recommend new apps.[44] I use G-map West, but now I have a trip to VT, so it looks like I'm buying the East app as well.[43]
I would think that as "apps" for mobile phones become more ubiquitous, the number of apps will become irrelevant. How many apps are for the PC? How many apps are available "on the Internet"? After awhile it just seems silly, and IMHO having them all concentrated in one place is going to become a burden.[11] Aside from the large number of copy-cat apps, bogus fart apps, and 16,000 game titles, another 20k - 40k are basically nothing more than simple web pages built using HTML/Javascript/CSS.[11] The two Apps will join thousands of others, including a Virgin Atlantic airline app for people afraid of flying, a zombie pizza game and a Barista app for making exotic coffees at home.[1] Yet, 65 percent of the 2 billion apps downloaded are games, according to Tal Kerret, co-founder of casual game solution provider Oberon Media.[11]
Putting that aside, there are many apps that almost do the same thing but differ in user interface and a little bit (or lot) of functionality. That to me is how you get useful differentiation in software.[16] MEDL Mobile's AppIncubator.com solicits ideas and then does the legwork designing and coding apps in exchange for a portion of the sales generated by the software.[13] Some apps don???t get approved at all, which can create a chilling effect with developers who make a living writing software.[6] Rival smartphone makers have rolled out their own versions of online stores where third-party developers can give away or sell programs tailored to the software used in various Internet-linked mobiles.[18] What'''s holding up the release, the site said, is that Apple '''is trying to integrate the Mobile iTunes Store purchases into the functionality of the program.'''[37] One thing I've noticed at the Apple Stores in the mall. You have these energetic 20-40 years olds working there that love the products. I believe some of these workers in say their 40's have other jobs, but I know for a fact some of these 20 somethings are working at Apple until they find their "real jobs".[2] My point is, you have a great staff there, that truly love the products. You certainly couldn't find the micrsoft people as happy and energetic about their products. I know analysts really only care about numbers, but little things like this matter to me as an investor. I'm not long Apple currently, but I've traded their shares.[2]
How many tetris versions do I need? I dont own a DRIOD phone, but you iPhone users are about be envious of muti tasking, open source (for tech savy people like me) And turn by turn GPS. OH and let now forget Uncle Stevee dosnet get to decide what I WANT on MY PHONE.[11] Despite competition from Android, the iPhone will continue to grow share rapidly, and the iTablet could be a huge winner too. (I hope the company offers a foldable version, so I can pocket it.)[2] Whatever your level, and whatever your background, Apress offers a complete package of books to get you up and developing for iPhone and Mac OS X. Use the exclusive MacWorld coupon code, MACWORLDOC, at Apress.com to receive 50% off your cart.[39]
Prior to purchasing my iphone, almost all of my book buying for the last 15 years has been from used book stores.[17] At the very least, there is the issue that books are easy to port to the iPhone when compared to the difficulty of developing games. It is no surprise that there would be more books developed, provided developers can make money doing so.[42] Over wireless connection, up to four players can battle in the Deathmatch mode or fight together against the monsters from hell. The game also allows users to use their own music files from iPod or iPhone.[10] I'''d imagine that Apple executives are also not thrilled about the idea of someone making a fortune on a game called '''iPhone My Car''' or something similar.[6] If you submitted '''iPhone My Car,''' Apple would reject it and suggest you call it something else, like '''My Car for iPhone''' or '''Style my Car.'''[6]
A $99 8GB iPhone 3GS to Kill the Motorola Droid? Apple and AT&T may team up to do battle against the Droid with a $99 version of the 8GB iPhone, according to reports.[15] When the latest G-Map app covering navigation in the U.S. and Canada it had text to speech, which didn't make owners of the older East and West versions too happy. Now that has been corrected, and both iterations of the U.S. $24.99 app have text to speech, iTunes integration, and the ability to resume navigation automatically after a call. Traffic will be added soon to both apps as an in-app paid update.[43]
Oh, and yes, we totally believe that'll happen in due time, particularly if the company stops rejecting so many apps on some silly grounds.[30] Whether you're married to Windows or the Mac OS, most people don't really need more than a half-dozen or so apps on a daily basis.[11] Different people want/like to do things different ways, ie, different workflow, and that is captured in different apps.[16]
With 10,000 downloads a day, worldwide customer response to our I Am T-Pain App has exceeded our wildest expectations," said Jeff Smith, CEO of Smule.[19] Apple has made believers out of millions of customers and made a lot of investors rich but Philip Elmer-DeWitt believes that an ounce of skepticism never hurts when writing about the company. He should know.[16] I don't care how good a company Apple is, investors don't really care that much for it.[2]
Having 10 copies of the same book with mediocre formatting goes completely against the Apple way of doing things. It reeks of the problems that Microsoft has faced for years--tons of cheap garbage software that break down and leave your users wondering if there isn't a better way. [28] Windows 7 Upgrade Woes Mount: Endless Reboots and Product Key Problems Microsoft message boards are active with users complaining of upgrade problems related to Windows 7. Consumers Won't Pay $120 for Windows 7 Upgrade We've gotten used to free or cheap software, so Microsoft should offer some deals for its newest OS.[15] With the price of e-book readers starting at $200, the devices are seen by Forrester as too expensive to become more than a niche product that appeals mostly to avid readers and business travelers. That could change if publishers decide to subsidize the price in return for a two-year subscription to magazines and/or newspapers, analysts say. Such an offer would be similar to how wireless carriers subsidize mobile phones in return for two-year service contracts.[24]
The only thing that can derail it is another economic drop, so watch the economic weather carefully as you position your portfolio. The leader of this leadership group is Apple. They are in the best position to take advantage of the mobile Web. Still in its infancy, Apple already dominates the 3G wireless spectrum. AT&T's brand has suffered because of the stress this one product puts on its entire system.[2]
The PCMag Radio team debates the new Microsoft stores, analyzes Apple TV's latest upgrade, and introduces a weird new PC and an extremely scary keyboard. [4] Jason, an idiot could have predicted the climb in Apple shares over the last year if one could simply read or listen to the news.[2] Apple's widely speculated upcoming tablet, yet unconfirmed, could also pose a future threat for the already crowded ebook reader market by the likes of Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Sony.[26] If I were Amazon or Barnes & Noble, I would be much more worried about the other and emerging e-reader companies that I would be about the iPhone. It looks like 2010 will be the Year of the e-Book. David Coursey tweets as @techinciter and can be contacted via his Web site.[42]
Whether you prefer the big screen (the Kindle's is about 6 inches) or the small (you know what an iPhone looks like), that's a lot of readers already opting for e-books.[17] I bought the kindle for iPhone to test it out. It works great for me and the bonus is I have a book whenever I want it.[17] Flurry estimated that in August, 1% of the entire U.S. population, or about 3 million people, was reading a book on the iPhone.[24]
The Pre, currently, has less than 500 applications for the WebOs platform! Then, there is Google's Android, which has always been considered a worthy rival to the iPhone platform.[12] Android vs. iPhone: Don't Bet Your Business on Either One Sadly the battle to win smartphone users' hearts -- and wallets -- has one clear loser: IT folks.[42] Droid vs. iPhone: Which Revolution Should You Join? Advice for the first time smartphone buyer: iPhone is the safer choice, Droid the better one for some users. Droid vs. iPhone vs. HD2: HTC Could Heat Things Up The HTC HD2 is a worthy competitor for both the Droid and the iPhone on paper.[42] One of the reasons I love the iphone is that you literally have almost everything at your fingertips all the time on a single device.[17]
A new adapter from Sirius XM turns iPhones and iPod Touches into satellite-radio receivers. LG discusses its roadmap for the introduction of OLED HDTVs.[3] Get alerts when there is a new article from the Long Island iPhone Games Examiner.[21]
Shopping is more awkward on the Droid, too, because you have to do it all on the phone; you can'''t use your computer, as you can for the iPhone.[16] Smart phones make up 15% of the overall mobile handset market; within the smart phone market Apple's share increased to 13.3% in Q209.[2] I hate to say this, but these articles are way over the top. Apple can barely hold $200 a share.[2]
Apple would try to convince people that it wsn't the quanity of applications but the quality, and that native Mac Applications were better.[28] Fortune has named Jobs the CEO of the decade. He's created such a strong, smart company that it will even make it without him when the inevitable happens. There are amazingly brilliant people at Apple these days, in all sectors of the business.[2] The Andover, Mass. -based company, which has received funding from Matrix Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners, specializes in social-networking technology and saw the Apple device as a good showcase for what it can do.[44] From time to time, we will send you e-mail announcements on new features and special offers from The Wall Street Journal Online.[44] Bits offers a steady stream of news and analysis on the technology industry throughout the day from New York Times writers and freelancers.[3]
David Pogue's technology column has appeared each Thursday in The Times since 2000. Each week, he also writes the Times e-mail column "From the Desk of David Pogue," creates a short, funny Web video for NYTimes.com, and posts entries to his Times blog. In his other life, David is an Emmy-winning correspondent for CBS News, a frequent contributor to NPR's "Morning Edition," creator of the Missing Manual series of computer books, and father of three.[45]
There soon will be a legal way to get the band's music digitally, although not through iTunes or any other online store. The Beatles' store is offering this limited edition Beatles Stereo USB. The 16 gigabyte thumb drive comes loaded with all 14 of the Beatles newly remastered albums, 13 mini-documentaries, photos and more. It goes on sale next month for $279. [20] The online ticketing company has raised $6.5 million from Sequoia Capital. Google has created a privacy dashboard for users to easily see the information it collects on them.[3]
'''For instance, if you like a song you are listening to on the radio (and that station supports tagging and you are in the U.S.), you will be able to push a button and see the song (and all of the information around it) in the iTunes Mobile store. [37] Thanks to the iTunes Store option to choose "none" as a payment method, you can sign up for a U.S. iTunes account with nothing more than an e-mail address (not the one you normally use), a real address and a cellphone number.[38]
SOURCES
1. Tummy tuck? Bigger breasts? There are Apps for that | Lifestyle | Reuters
2. How Apple's Market Share Will Propel Stock to $500, Part 2 -- Seeking Alpha
3. There Are Now 100,000 Apps for That - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com
4. Apple's App Store Passes 100,000-App Mark - Reviews by PC Magazine
5. iPhone apps top 100,000 ''' The Register
6. iPhone Superguide comes to the App Store. eventually | iPhone | Mac Word | Macworld
7. AFP: Apple's booming App Store tops 100,000 programs
8. Gamasutra - News - Top-Grossing iPhone Apps: Doom, Red Alert Challenge Rock Band
9. The Technology Chronicles : Apple's App Store momentum shows no sign of let up
10. Techtree.com India > News > Gaming > Now, Doom Official Frags on iPhone
11. Apple's App Store Hits Six Digits; How Many Apps Do You Need? | Gadget Lab | Wired.com
12. Techtree.com India > News > Software > Apple App Store has over 100,000 Apps
13. Do-It-Yourself iPhone Apps - BusinessWeek
14. After 100,000 applications, whats next for the App Store? - FierceMobileContent
15. iPhone App Store Hits 100k Apps: A Look Back - PC World
16. The iPhones first 100,000 apps - Apple 2.0 - Fortune Brainstorm Tech
17. What's hot on iPhone? Books, books, books! | csmonitor.com
18. Apple's booming App Store tops 100,000 programmes for iPhones | Mail Online
19. All About Jazz - The World's Largest Jazz Music Website
20. TechBytes: Verizon Cancellation Fee - ABC News
21. 100000 apps now for iPhone
22. Book apps overtake games on iPhone - Telegraph
23. The Technology Chronicles : Apple App Store hits 100,000 Apps
24. iPhone Threatens Amazon Kindle -- E-Book Readers -- InformationWeek
25. News - Queensland Business Review
26. iPhone as an eBook Reader Threatens Kindle, Says Report - PC World
27. IGN: This Week in Apps - November 5, 2009
28. Apples App Store hits 100,000, displays ultimate irony - Computerworld Blogs
29. The iPhone App Economy: What Price Quality? | Ethiopian News - EthioPlanet.com, Ethiopian Politics, Entertainment, Ethiopia
30. Apple's App Store Goes 100,000 Deep - HotHardware
31. iPhone SuperGuide: Now Available from the App Store : Product Reviews Net
32. Apples App Store: 100,000 Apps, But Most Are Unused - PC World
33. iTunes App Store: 98,000 apps largely unsold and unloved - mirror.co.uk
34. 80% of applications in the App Store does not succeed » IT - Chuiko | Information Technology News
35. One for business An Apple iPhone app for everyone | ComputerWeekly.com
36. iPhone Public Radio App is a DVR for NPR - PC World
37. Apple'''s iPhone may have radio hidden inside | Ethiopian News - EthioPlanet.com, Ethiopian Politics, Entertainment, Ethiopia
38. How To Get the iPhone Kindle App Outside the U.S. | Gadget Lab | Wired.com
39. LogMeIn Ignition for iPhone offers weekend sale - iPod/iPhone - Macworld UK
40. 'Eliminate,' ngmoco's Free FPS Hits App Store » MTV Multiplayer
41. Apple iPod touch
42. iPhone e-Books Don't Threaten Kindle Or Nook - Business Center - PC World
43. G-Map East and West for iPhone updated with text to speech
44. App Watch: A Matchmaker in a Sea of iPhone Apps - Digits - WSJ
45. Medical Apps for the iPhone - Pogue's Posts Blog - NYTimes.com
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