Apple Boasts 50,000 App Store Apps And 1 Billion Downloads

June 8, 2009

Here’s more evidence of the recent paradigm shift in the Web economy.

Portable apps: part of the new Internet economy

Portable apps: part of the new Internet economy

Apple boasts it now has 50,000 iPhone applications available at its iTunes App Store and that users have downloaded 1 billion of them.

Apple is certainly the leader of this new phase of Internet evolution. The net is truly going mobile and connectivity is becoming more ubiquitous, giving rise to new programming and use possibilities.

One new possibility is the lightweight app, quickly written, easily distributed and sometimes the provider of a small financial payback.

Experts say this next stage of the Internet will spawn thousands of tiny, fast moving software companies trying to capitalize on this new Internet economy as the power and usability of the phone begin to rival that of the PC.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

The App Store Rush Is On

March 20, 2009

Earlier this week, we published a post lamenting the coming app store chaos as operators, hardware makers and software writers jump into the mobile applications pond.

The Android Market is only one of the rush of app stores as consumer chaos is seen

The Android Market is only one of the rush of app stores as consumer chaos is seen

On Thursday, Compete echoed the notion that the app store rush is on. The research firm in a blog post began a list of coming stores, with online proprietors eager to duplicate Apple’s success with its iPhone App Store.

All this enthusiasm could create confusion for consumers unsure of where to find applications for their phones.

Apparently, that hasn’t held back any of the up and comers. Here’s the list Compete started. Please add to in the comments section below:

IPhone App Store
Google Android Market
Microsoft Skymarket
Nokia’s Ovi Store
Blackberry App World
Acer’s app store (speculation)

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Posted by Mark Boslet

App Store Chaos Coming (Except At Apple)

March 18, 2009

Apple’s iPhone App Store is a relatively orderly place, like the rest of iTunes.

But with handset makers, mobile carriers and operating software providers, such as Google and Microsoft, all building app stores of their own – mobile applications elsewhere are heading toward a cornucopia of confusion.

Too many app stores on the way

Too many app stores on the way

In other words, get ready for app-store chaos.

The problem comes down to this: too much choice. Where will the buyer of a phone running the Android software from Google turn to find applications? Should she look on Google, on the Web site of her service provider or on the Internet page of her handset maker -  say Samsung or Motorola?

All have stores. All will have apps. All will want the dribble of revenue apps can bring.

“It’s clear everybody wants to provide an app store,” says Max Mancini, senior director of platform and mobile at eBay. As to the chaos? “It’s probably just ready to begin.”

Eventually, the parties will get together and settle on umbrella app stores for each operating system or handset design, suggests Mancini. “They will have to combine into one store,” he said during an interview at the 2009 Wireless Innovations conference in Silicon Valley.

But until then, Apple’s App Store is going to look singularly calm – all 25,000 applications.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Apple Says IPhone Apps Are Being Approved Faster

March 17, 2009

Apple boasted Tuesday that its immensely popular iPhone App Store now has 25,000 apps and has received more than 800 million downloads since it opened eight months ago.

Average approval time is seven days, company says

Average approval time is seven days, company says

It also tried to counter claims that it drags its feet approving new applications.

During a press conference held to unveil the latest version of its iPhone operating system, the company said that in February, 96 percent of applications submitted were approved.

The average approval takes seven days, it said. The pace has picked up.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Big Software Comes To The IPhone, Blackberry

March 11, 2009

SAP has tried but with limited success to bring its core back-office software to mobile devices – the Blackberry in particular.

With workers increasingly on the go, more was obviously needed. So on Wednesday, the German software giant took hat in hand and launched a key initiative with the help of software vendor Sybase to more fully integrate its business programs with Apple’s iPhone, Research in Motion’s Blackberrys and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile phones.

SAP is going mobile as Apple finds its way into the business world

SAP is going mobile as Apple finds its way into the business world

The initiative is key in several respects. For one, SAP realized it no longer could rely on in-house capabilities to expand to the mobile world, says Jack Gold, principal analyst at J. Gold Associates.

“Part of the problem lies with SAP’s inherent engineering mentality which required it to rely on its own tools and development environment (NetWeaver) to extend its platform to the mobile device,” says Gold. “The problem is, these tools were never quite up to the task.”

Equally important is the recognition of a fundamental change in the work place – and a backhand endorsement that Apple may finally have found a toehold in the business market, with its iPhone leading the way.

Apple’s App Store has been a big hit and is being copied by RIM. It also appears to have sparked the imagination of big software makers, such as SAP.

The first step of the SAP-Sybase partnership will be limited, says Gold. Only selected capabilities of SAP’s customer relationship management software will be available on mobile devices.

This is to expand over time.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

The Secrets Of The IPhone App Store

February 27, 2009

Making it big as an iPhone app is no easy task.

Users quickly lose interest in the applications they download and just as quickly spend less time with the apps they like.

This insight comes from Pinch Media, an iPhone advertising and analytic tools company.

Long term users often amount to 1% of app downloads, Pinch Media says

Long term users often amount to 1% of app downloads, Pinch Media says

According to a presentation recently posted on the company’s Web site, an application that appears on the App Store’s top-100 list can expect 2.3 times more daily new users. Getting on Apple’s top-10 or top-25 lists has better results (an observation that is rather obvious).

But even then, users stop using applications pretty quickly. Long-term audiences usually amount to 1 percent of total downloads, Pinch Media says. Even paid applications see steep drops in long-term use.

(Note: sports-related apps are better at retaining short-term interest while entertainment-related apps hold users better over the long term.)

Equally disconcerting is that the time spent with applications declines rapidly. Usage declines by nearly a third in the first month to just under 5 minutes.

And should you want to make money from advertising…think again. Less than 5 percent of applications are suitable for advertising. The better rule of thumb is to charge for the software, says Pinch Media.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Apple Fights Non-App Store Apps For The IPhone

February 13, 2009

Apple has offered a strident defense of its iPhone App Store, claiming that circumventing the DRM protection it offers could have disastrous consequences for the phone’s function.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is seeking an exemption for non-App Store apps

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is seeking an exemption for non-App Store apps

In an interesting blog entry, Ars Technica notes that every three years, the copyright office considers exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

This year, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is seeking an exemption for people who want to run iPhone applications that don’t come from the official App Store – in effect, jailbreaking the phone.

Apple responds that “Congress did not envision the DMCA exemption process as a forum for economic restructuring of business models” and that doing so would “hinder the creation and distribution of creative works for the platform.”

The company adds that DRM (or digital rights management software) guards the phone’s operating system from modifications. “If modifications of the OS were to interfere with these control functions [volume governors, temperature sensors, charging circuitry], even unintentionally, the phone could be physically damaged or the battery could be overcharged.”

Modification might as well affect the baseband processor, which could “cause operational damage to the [cell] network,” the post says.

Apple says its support staff receives millions of reported problems from jailbroken iPhones.

Read the full post here.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

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