Thread: App Store on track to do a BILLION items by 2009

You read that right -- it took the iTunes Store a few years, but as Roughly Drafted has calculated, Apple's App Store is on track, even if growth stops right now, to hit a billion apps served up by 2009. Obviously not all of those are paid apps, but by any count, that's a ton of applications dumped onto iPhones and iPod touches around the world.

That said, the App Store is far from perfect -- Apple's approval process has come under fire lately for a lack of transparency, among other issues, and of course the iTunes Store didn't have the benefit of most of its content being free. Of course the App Store is working to get apps on phones, but there are lots of kinks to be worked out, including just how "open" Apple is letting the store be, questions of quality over the software that does make it in, and just whether it's worth developers' time to deliver these applications anyway.

Just as the iFund guys noted, however, we're only in the first few steps of a marathon here. There's a long way to go, but already, in terms of an iPhone software distribution system, the App Store is a huge success.

Via TUAW.

Originally Posted by Crippler

And how many of those BILLION turds will actually be useful, worth owning pieces of software? It just seems like it's #s are getting inflated with tons of worthless shovel ware.

1,567,287 is the official number of useful apps. With over 700 games to choose from, I'm going to guess that a lot of them are games, although there are some really great and helpful apps out there as well.

Also:

[Edit: to clarify, Apple first announced selling 10 million apps in the first 3 days, then announced 60 million downloads July 11, and most recently announced on September 9 “more than” 100 million downloads. The graphic above was corrected to show this. iPhone app sales compared to iTunes Store music has actually been four times greater at the two month milestone.]

Originally Posted by dmiller68

mosh.nokia.com which is our app store has had almost 78m downloads with very little advertising this is over 7-8 months maybe a little longer.

Yes, downloads.

3 days = 10 million downloads
3 months = Over 100 million dlownloads

For comparison, it's ten times greater at launch than the iTunes Store song sales (10 million apps in three days vs 1 million songs in the first 5 days) and four times as great as iTunes music sales in its first two months (100 million apps vs 25 million songs).

ten times greater at launch. This is before action even!

Considering so many of the great ones are free, I'd bet most of them are free downloads.

Even if growth hits a plateau today and sales stay where they are right now, by next year Apple will have sold a half billion iPhone apps (bringing in around a half billion dollars of revenue), before the Windows Mobile 7 Skymarket launches. Of course, Apple’s mobile software sales are not likely to remain at 40 million per month, as its historical iTunes song sales indicate.

They will not be without their competition though, more from the article...

Apple’s iTunes sells music, video and mobile software at low prices to lubricate the company’s hardware sales.

Microsoft Skymarket will be attempting to sell mobile software at a significant profit, and hopes sales will enhance its Windows Mobile platform, even though current WiMo software sales have done poorly.

Google Android Market is hoping to largely give software away and offer some ways to sell software to users at some point, in an effort to enhance its entire platform. The Linux desktop market has so far seen nearly zero commercial software, although there is a variety of DIY software packages.

T-Mobile will be opening a mobile software store that looks a lot like the record labels’ failed attempts to sell their music directly to consumers, as well as resembling Verizon’s BREW store, which attempts to rip off users on the same scale as wireless bills.

Nokia’s Ovi will have a lot in common with Sony’s failed Connect music store: software from a hardware company that doesn’t do software well.

Sit back and enjoy the fireworks. You already know which horse I’m betting on.

Originally Posted by KEEZY

P.S. - So MS is releasing a self-aware AI to sell music? Did Sarah Connor teach us nothing????

She's dead, depending on what story arc you follow. They've learned nothing from her. NOTHING!

John Connor will save us from automated MP3 sales though, I've seen the future, and we're safe.

Originally Posted by dmiller68

I'm glad your backing the company you believe in. I'm backing the company that pays my bills.

That only makes you an indentured servant, and me a freelancer. However you're happy to live is fine by me.