Apple reaches 100,000 apps, 2 billion downloads
More than 100,000 apps are now available for download from Apple's App Store, making it the largest such retailer in the world.
App Store icon
(Credit: Apple)The App Store launched in July 2008 with just 500 applications. The store is now available in 77 countries, which has contributed to what Apple said Wednesday is well over 2 billion downloads.
Apps from the App Store work with both the iPhone and iPod Touch.
When introducing its new iPod Touch in September, Apple positioned the device as a superior gaming platform to Sony's PSP or Nintendo DS. Apple said its rivals charged too much for games and didn't offer enough selection. At the time, Apple had more than 21,000 game titles in the App Store, while Nintendo had 3,600 titles and Sony had 600.
The message apparently has gotten through.
"The App Store has forever changed the mobile gaming industry and continues to improve," Travis Boatman, vice president of Worldwide Studios at EA Mobile, was quoted as saying in Apple's press release Wednesday.
Not everything has been perfect with the App Store, however. Most notably, Apple's app approval process has caused frustration with developers, who are sometimes left in the dark about the reason an app is rejected.
Jim Dalrymple has followed Apple and the Mac industry for the last 15 years, first as part of MacCentral and then in various positions at Macworld. A guitar player for 20 years, Jim also writes about the professional audio market, examining the best ways to write and record songs on a Macintosh with Logic Pro and Pro Tools. Jim is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. 
MS? Linux? Anyone else? Then it is time to move those goal-posts.
Why do you think 99% of businesses run Windows (with possibly a good dose of linux in the server realm)? We have about 40k Windows desktops and 3k servers (Win and Linux). Zero macs. If they're so much more superior, why don't most businesses use them? Could it be the lack of enterprise support? The lack of business applications and network management (DSCM) utilities? The inability to be flexible with hardware? The outrageous price of said hardware? That doesn't sound superior to me.
You are right that the main reason most businesses run windows because of the price, but another MAIN reason most businesses run windows is because it became mainstream first and windows became just such a big footprind in todays society that most other business used it, so why adapt your business to another OS that not many other people were running? That would involve so much more work to adapt your software etc. Basically, windows was there first in a big way, kinda like the iPhone was there first in a big way and now it is dominant, and will likely stay dominant.
Do you realize the size of the scope of a project and learning curve it would take for a company to switch to Mac when 90% of their employees only know windows? This is the main reason companies wont switch today. That and windows related equipment is slightly cheaper. In this case your explaining, it's a matter of why fix it if it isnt TOO broken.
And the economy is in the toilet
I'm sure that gross exaggeration isn't going to substitute for logic. ;)
(esp. when one considers that any OEM machine with matching parts/specs will be comparable in price to a given Mac...)
"Why do you think 99% of businesses run Windows (with possibly a good dose of linux in the server realm)?"
I blame CxO ignorance, but what can you do now that it's done? Microsoft was there at the right time, and at that time was cheaper (way the hell cheaper) than the AIX/HPUX/Solaris solutions available. The rest is inertia combined with FUD (courtesy of the fine marketing folks in Redmond).
Let's do an analogy - a vast majority of Western consumers eat fast food too much, even when there are obviously healthier (and financially better) ways of getting fed. By your logic, this majority must make McDonald's the best and healthiest food around.
"(esp. when one considers that any OEM machine with matching parts/specs will be comparable in price to a given Mac...)"
Time to get off that horse- it's been beaten to death already and busted entirely. It's a common misconception and I'm rather surprised you are still being fooled into thinking it is true.
The components used in Macs today are equivalent of standard PC parts. Those same parts are available at a huge difference in price depending upon whose label is on the case. Want an example?
LCD screen assembly for a 15" MacBookPro runs $800 from Apple for replacement. The same screen down to the same part number from another supplier runs $120. The back of the unit I bought had Apple's part number sticker on the back. However, I ordered it for a Dell XPS system which uses the exact same Samsung LCD as the MacBookPro.
How do you justify a $680 difference in price for the exact same part? I can- Apple profits. And you know what? That's not a big deal. If Apple can get people to pay hundreds of dollars more for the same parts then that's all pure gold to them and looks good on the bottom line. It is a for-profit business so they should be able to charge whatever they can get away with. In my situation, I was smart enough to go elsewhere. I'm not a sheep.
Yes, you can buy off the shelf parts and build a machine that has higher specs at the fraction of the price of a Mac. This isn't news and has been true for years now. But do you really want to bother? The Mac solution has the ease of being all in one box, all the research done, and is a simple one step answer. But is the hardware the same price as a PC? No, it's much, much, higher.
You get what you pay for. If you want to pay more to get the same thing, then that's your option.
Lame, pointless, and at the end of the day no more effective at causing any mass switch in platforms. If you like Apple, then keep using it. But if you're so insecure about your choice that you have to go around trying to convince others then your integrity is questionable.
So more over there is only about 10,000-20,000 usable apps.
(8 apps to fart on you're iphone.. really... do we really need this? )
There are millions of bits of Windows software but still probably only 10,000 - 20,000 usable programs.
Choice is always good and people have different tastes but 90% of the people use 10% of the available software (and remember all stats are made up ;)
Not all great, but they don't require $.99 and take up space on my phone.
The current Apps store ogranization is horrible for sorting by anything other than broad categories. Search has to be carefully done to make sure you're only searching the Apps store and not accidentally including music titles too. They could learn a lot by looking at Amazon or - heck, even the old site TuCows or similar for organizing apps by type, capabilities, etc.
These are random celebrity/tv shows etc fan apps with links to the respective blogs/stats etc.
Do we want to count these as 1000 unique apps?
1/2 cent and below streams are hard to find but with a search engine that recognises voice that could become possible very soon......
converting capital thru direct super-imposition makes the Hughes model less attractive in the long run..
salil
Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony make it relatively difficult and/or expensive to create and submit apps, so you probably won't have quite as many dopey apps, But then, no one is really talking about their apps stores.
100K apps seems like a big number but how many of these apps are useful and perhaps more important how many are making money.
Unfortunately those 100,000 that aren't making money are not going to be happy and that marks the process negatively.
No good solution to that since I think people expected to be millionaires by releasing a flashlight app.
...and I'm sure all the local struggling bands in and around town are going to be soooooo disappointed by that logic.
For one it ties you into that hardware or you loose all your apps if you change phone.
Apple will not let you roll back your phone OS so if an update breaks your phone or some apps, especially if it's out of warranty, then you could find paid for apps not working any more and no way to get them back.
I spent quite a bit on iPhone apps in the first year, but since 3.1 have refused to buy any. Then again there are plenty of free one's I don't care if I loose.
As more and more people invest in software for their iPhone you have to say Apple has probably got them for life, just like Windows did on the desktop. Once you have a software library you are reluctant to move to another system and re-build the library.
Google, Palm and MS will have to do something amazing to compete with the iTunes/App store. So far none have come close.
But I live in hope that one of them will sort something out by the end of my contract as I'm getting sick of Apples closed platform and restrictive rules.
If you bought an iPhone with OS 3.0 working fine and all your apps running nicely great. Then you install an OS update or App update and it breaks the phone/App Apple does not let you roll back apps or OS's.
Now I'm not sure how the other phone manufacturers deal with this, as phone OS updates are quite a new thing. But one thing is for sure, if I enter into another contact with a new phone I'm not going to update the OS until the contract is up. Having learnt the hard way of having a busted phone that I was still paying for all because of an OS update.
Google looks the best bet, one OS and many phones, there is a good chance there apps will be portable, all Google needs now is a good iTunes type media/sync manager for chrome, maybe this will come with ChromeOS.
Most of Gameloft's an EA's games are the "real" deal .
The crappy games are FREE or .99 cents. So the entertainment value, exceeds the cost.
I think any gamer serious or casual, will appreciate an iPhone/iPod as supplemental.
It is only poor people who don't have one of these devices that will criticize it. But you wouldn't be poor and broke if you switched over from the more expensive platforms
The vast majority of iStore apps are deleted after 30 seconds of evaluation.
OTOH, I have paid for quite a few apps on Cydia. Generally, the quality is much higher in the Cydia store.
On the other hand, lock-in is only meaningful to those who desire to move to a different platform. People who are happy with their platform don't feel the lock-in. For example, lots of people have been locked into the Windows platform for years without even realizing it... until they consider switching. Apple has been smart in recent years to make switching to Mac easier and easier and it seems to be working.
Whether or not the other cellular platforms will be able to ease switching costs will be interesting to watch.
Is this true? Do Apple developers not get paid until they reach a $250 minimum? Is that even legal to do? If I pay a developer for their app, then I expect that developer to get the money, not Apple. And since the developer pays in the first place to even BE a developer, isn't this a sort of double dipping situation?
I haven't heard this before, but if it's true, that's a very bad thing indeed.
Everyone wins specially Apple.
Apple keeps giving BS about how locking down the apps will prevent battery drain but my iPhone's battery still lasts a day or day and a half.
When WinMo 7 comes out, I'll jump the ship
a codonologist.
Apple made it possible for competitors to come up with similar strategy and soon, they'll be have a ton of crap apps. Blaming Apple or one particular company is an ignorant remark. Do your own research.
Here's something off the subject but same concept. I received an email telling me to forward the email to ten or more peoples and received a check from Bill Gate and AOL. The author of the email is a supposed attorney who had the inside scoop that it is legit. Guess what, I trashed it. Not only did I do that, I knew that it was false, because I have had researched it online enough to know that by simply forwarding the email to make easy money is MOST always a hoax. WHEN YOU'RE ON THE COMPUTER WITH INTERNET, PLEASE DO YOUR HOMEWORK and maybe, CRAP APP will be no more (wishful thinking!).
How is an economy like this supposed to work where 100,000 apps are competing independently, where you set high targets for your life style even get the credit for it when the credit system rears it's head again and then are expected to decide this among a million and one buying options.
competition is good in many respects like as competition gets stronger against Microsoft it actually helps Microsoft and it competitors to raise the bar on consumer electronics and forces them to be more nimble but what about the 90,000 small guys all competing in the same space. There need to be more spaces to compete in and more integration and co-operation in those spaces, This is happening more with bigger groups but what about the smaller groups.
Macrobats (Macro-economic acrobat groups consisting of people with many skills and interdisciplinary skills) could alter this by laying the foundations for this type of transition and by making sure less screws are loose.
- by The_happy_switcher November 4, 2009 1:13 PM PST
- Maybe a lot of you wouldn't have iPhone envy if you could get better jobs than what Mickey D's pays you.
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- by Vegaman_Dan November 4, 2009 1:26 PM PST
- @The_Happy_Switcher:
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- by The_happy_switcher November 4, 2009 1:56 PM PST
- @Dan, Awww, your post gave me a warm fuzzy feeling. No, wait, it's gone.
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- by ckh1272 November 4, 2009 11:05 PM PST
- I have to agree with Dan on this one. What does somebody's job choice have to do with what they buy. Not a thing, that's what. Quit with the silly assumptions already. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go finish those fries.
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (71 Comments)I don't know that it is a wise idea to insult people who currently or have worked in the past at McDonald's. People take pride in their jobs and even if it is a starter job, you got to begin somewhere. I respect anyone who is willing to take the low paying jobs to make ends meet instead of just whining and complaining about no jobs available. There's a bit of pride that goes along with it knowing that you are doing what you can and you aren't going to just lie down and let the world roll over you.
Kudos to McDonald's workers. It's a stressful and low reward job that challenges you to do better. If they choose use their paychecks to buy an iPhone, then that's up to them too.
I'm not about to judge anyone based on their job.
(And no, I have never worked in fast food, but respect those that do- they take a lot of abuse from people and keep on smiling- now THAT is perseverence worthy of my appreciation)