Apple’s App Store is now over two weeks old, and I have to say that overall I’m impressed with the variety of applications available for download. In the first three days of the launch over 10 million downloads were served up by Apple, and in the first 10 days that number increased to over 25 million downloads. No matter which way you slice it they’re averaging millions of downloads each day.
There were a lot of people who weren’t too happy about Apple’s distribution system particularly because they take 30% of any paid application. Right now games seem to be dominating the paid program arena (only 3 out of the top 10 paid apps are not games). Sega has even said that they expect to sell over 1 million downloads of their famous Super Monkey Ball game for the iPhone, which is a milestone the free Facebook app has already reached. Considering that Super Monkey Ball sells for $9.99 that would put $7 million in Sega’s pocket and a cool $3 million in Apple’s pocket.
The only problem I still see with the App Store is the long wait period for updates to get published. Since Apple has to manually review each update it can take a little while for a new version to show up. I recently contacted Brent Simmons, the developer of the NetNewsWire app for the iPhone, who uploaded three new updates over approximately two weeks before getting the first one published:
My first update (1.0.1) was uploaded before the App Store went live. I don’t recall exactly when 1.0.2 was uploaded, but it was within 2-3 days after the App Store went live. 1.0.7 was uploaded about 4-5 days after that.
Luckily when Apple got around to approving the updated version of NetNewsWire they skipped right to the latest release that Brent had uploaded.
I have to say that I was skeptical about the App Store being hosted in iTunes initially, but now I’ve actually come to appreciate it. It serves as the one-stop source for iPhone and iPod Touch app downloads, and prevents you from having to search all over the Internet for great programs or games. Not to mention the fact that it takes just a single click to see if a newer version of an app is available.
Next week we’ll be highlighting both our favorite free and paid apps that we’ve been experimenting with, so keep your eyes peeled for that post.
For me the updates don’t work sometimes. I can open iTunes, and click Applications in the sidebar, and it says I have 3 updates available. Then I click the arrow at the bottom and it shows me like 15 apps that need to be updated. If I do the same thing again (go to Apps, check for updates), it says there are no updates. So there are some bugs, but it’s a pretty good service still. The only thing I don’t like is the restrictions of the SDK so developers can’t do everything they want in the apps and a lot of jailbreak apps don’t make the cut.
It’s absolutely astounding how Apple has developed into a global company in consumer electronics. From a strict computer company it has diversified into other domains with masterful strikes.
Products like Apple II, Macinstosh, iMac, iPod and iPhone have made a deep impact in American lifestyle. Apple blends easily with DisneyWorld, MacDonalds, the New York Yankees, hamburgers and 4th of July fireworks. What really worries me is that Apple is equivalent to Steve Jobs and the other way around.
What will happen if Steve Jobs is not around anymore? What will happen to those spectacular product innovations? Who will be the next Apple Guru? These are questions that hover nervously over the future of a company that has dazzled all of us with unbelievable products and services.
Very interesting comment Omar. I truly hope Steve can “train” the others at Apple to keep this mindset, or a potential successor with the values that made him do what he does, or that Apple can find a similarly innovative leader (which is gonna be almost impossible looking at other companies). You’re right that it is astounding what they have accomplished so far.
Ryan, wasn’t Apple going to open up a beta store, where selected people (selected by the developer) would be able to download versions not reviewed by Apple yet?
Looks like the paid applications in the Appstore are getting hacked and cracked already.
[gizmodo.com]+-all-apps-hackable
I always update directly from the iPhone, because I never seem to have any problems from there. I have had it where it says there are all kinds of programs that have been updated when in reality there are only one or two.
I’m wondering the same thing. I think at this point they’ve recruited enough talented people that can design great things, and so it shouldn’t be a problem. It’s just a matter of who will people think of when they hear “Apple”.
Yep, they are supposed to. There’s no word as to when that will happen, but I think it’s going to be a pain the butt since the developers will need to hand select each Beta user. Plus there can’t be more than 100 testers for any particular app.
That’s interesting, but you will need to have a Jailbroken iPhone in order to do that.