“In the month since Apple opened an online software clearinghouse called the App Store, users have downloaded more than 60 million programs for the iPhone [and iPod touch], Chief Executive Steve Jobs said in an interview at Apple’s headquarters. While most of those applications were free, Apple sold an average of $1 million a day in applications for a total of about $30 million in sales over the month, Mr. Jobs said,” Nick Wingfield reports for The Wall Street Journal. “If sales stay at the current pace, Apple stands to reap at least $360 million a year in new revenue from the App Store, Mr. Jobs said. ‘This thing’s going to crest a half a billion, soon,’ he added. ‘Who knows, maybe it will be a $1 billion marketplace at some point in time. I’ve never seen anything like this in my career for software,’ he said.”
“Mr. Jobs is betting applications will sell more iPhones and wireless-enabled iPod touch devices, enhancing the appeal of the products in the same way music sold through Apple’s iTunes has made iPods more desirable,” Wingfield reports. “‘Phone differentiation used to be about radios and antennas and things like that,’ Mr. Jobs said. ‘We think, going forward, the phone of the future will be differentiated by software.'”
Wingfield reports, “Richard Doherty, an analyst with market research firm Envisioneering Group, says Apple has caught competitors off guard. ‘They’ve lost developers to Apple,’ he says.”
“Videogame specialist Sega Corp. says it sold more than 300,000 copies in 20 days of its $9.99 Super Monkeyball game… ‘That’s a substantial business,’ says Simon Jeffery, president of Sega’s U.S. division. ‘It gives iPhone a justifiable claim to being a viable gaming platform,'” Wingfield reports. “Mr. Jobs said developers’ share of iPhone application sales in the first month was about $21 million, of which the top 10 developers earned roughly $9 million.”
More in the full article, including an Apple spokeswoman quoted as saying that Apple made a “judgment call” to remove the US$999.99 “I Am Rich” app from the App Store, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “davecc” for the heads up.]
Despite the fact that Apple made the wrong judgement call on “I Am Rich,” the bloodbath obviously doth proceed apace.
Jim Goldman writes for CNBC, “Once again, Apple has seen the future, built a bridge to it, and is taking consumers along for the journey. It’s extraordinary that the company has once again seized on another electronic ecosystem, in much the same way iTunes didn’t so much as invent downloaded digital entertainment as it did re-invent it. And iPhone is the direct beneficiary of this ingenuity, proving once again that the device isn’t merely a ‘smart phone,’ but Apple’s next-generation ‘platform.'”
Goldman writes, “You just don’t see this kind of grassroots market place support and development excitement around the sector’s biggest players, like Nokia, Microsof and Research in Motion. And I’m not saying Apple will eclipse them any time soon. But when and if that does happen, Apple’s App Store is the kind of thing that can sure speed it up.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “The_Wzrd” for the heads up.]
Let the games begin!
The snow ball is rolling!
As a witness from Nokia said “That’s sixty million, with an ‘Oh!'”.
…. and how do those folks that claimed the iPod games Apple put on iTunes (obviously a test-bed for this platform in hindsight!) was a silly side avenue and would never amount to anything feel now? Pretty damned stupid I’m guessing!
You could see this one coming over a year ago….
Hmm… well putting my Jim Cramer hat on for a minute, that must mean…
that Apple’s having supply chain problems!! GASP! Short the Stock!!!!
if, and when…
I wonder if they are counting initial download of an app to a unique user account, or all downloads, including updates? Because if it’s the latter, than I think I account for probably 10% of their total downloads because of the busted update mechanism in iTunes that kept reporting some of my apps as needing an update, no matter how many times I downloaded it.
Oh, and for those who had this same problem (iTunes reporting that there are updates available and installing multiple copies in your ~/Music/iTunes/Mobile Applications folder), here is the solution:
http://artofgeek.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=1178&sid=d6572e9f9cfb575f917679f4aded3cae
The pace of download will slow down in a while. Just as any blockbuster movie.
‘Cause right now, people download whatever… it’s a very very childish behaviour
Don’t get me wrong, there’s still be lots of downloads.
However it’ll only be for the most important apps.
Just like in the nature, only the useful apps will survive the rest.
Slowly, app store will be a serious success, not as the current immature one.
For comparison, how long did it take for iTunes music downloads to reach $1M per day?
I’d say Apple hit the cover off the ball.
I bought Netshare and complained about loss of updates when it got pulled – Apple gave me a full refund, and I get to keep the app! (But no updates, sadly.)
John said:”You could see this one coming over a year ago….”
That’s true and you can see that even when the competition is given a clear warning they still have that “deer in the headlights” look and WTF happened?! An Apple App store where did that come from?! Doe!
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I don’t understand why MDN thinks that Apple made a bad call in removing “I am Rich”, and refunding the money to those who asked for it. At least a couple of people said that they didn’t even mean to buy it.
If you dont own Apple stock, buy it now..
it”ll never be much cheaper..
Refunding the money to those that didn’t intend to buy it is fine, but pulling the app for no reason other than that it was tacky was ridiculous. This is still a free country the last time I checked after all. If someone is stupid enough to waste their money on something useless like that, it’s still their free right to do so.
@Mac+
How will the pace slow down? Did Apple already discontinue the iPhone and iPod Touch. Because, when I think of snowballs, as they are rolling down the hill they are collecting more and more snow along the way. So along the way the get bigger.
Oh, you meant that developers have made the last App.. Well then I stand corrected.
Look, Apple will sell more and more Touch devices, which we and others will be in droves. Developers will create more Apps which we and others will buy.
My prediction, 100 million Apps for the 2nd month.
@ jarrettdailynews
“they are rolling down the hill they are collecting more and more snow along the way”
This is not the way it works. There’s a fact: Tons of the apps aren’t useful at all
Today people download just for the sake or the fun of it, because it’s all new.
Tomorrow most of the customers will realize they use only 1 or 2 of their 20 downloads.
And this is where the pace is going to slow down big time in the upcoming months.
Now my theory is that slowly, the real useful apps and cool games will emmerge above the rest.
It’ll be about the top 10 games, the top 10 productivity apps, etc, and the rest will be crap, crap, crap.
When that happens, and only when it’s happen, we’ll know what’s the real pace of download.
I trully think that basing analysis on people downloading non-useful stuff is totally unrealistic.
Where are all the nay-sayers from last year who said that anyone who wanted real apps on the iPhone was a whiner?
MDN, where are the links to your takes from last year saying that no apps, or later, web apps, were all that anyone would ever need?
Anyone willing to admit that people pushing on Apple to provide what they want is a good thing?
Daniel, the whiner
DanielN,
Apple planned the App Store all along. Anyone who know anything at all about OS development knows this. The iPhone OS was designed for an eventual App Store. Apple is merely rolling out the next great platform in measured steps. Copy-and-Paste is next.
“Cause right now, people download whatever… it’s a very very childish behaviour”
How dare you! “More Cowbell” is the best app ever.
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It would be awesome if Apple would let us make and distribute our own music through iTunes in the same fashion …. ………… ……..
And my downloads only account for 1.5 million of the total.
Backing them up in iTunes is a bitch.
It’s gonna to take a while for this ball to stop rolling.
First, the number of iPhones will be going up exponentially over the next 5 years.
Second, the number of apps will be going up exponentially over the next 5 years.
‘Who knows, maybe it will be a $1 billion marketplace at some point in time.? Maybe? Maybe!! Sure the downloads will slow for the stupid apps, but all you need is a few more “Super MonkeyBalls” to pick up the slack. This thing is barely off the ground and mainly supplied by small developers. Just think what will happen when the big boys get involved—Oracle, IBM, Adobe, Id software. Just think what happens when Apple revamps its iPod touch and offers a $199 version. PSP and Nintendo DS could be in for a world of hurt.
I bet it will be $1 billion within the year.
“all you need is a few more “Super MonkeyBalls” to pick up the slack.”
You could start by harvesting Ballmer’s.
To the doubters, look at it this way… those 300,000 Monkeyballers are just 10% of the iPhone 3Gs sold in the first month…
That means Apple’s already got a HUGE market for their apps. Developers are going to flock to iPhone even more. Just imagine how it will be when Apple’s selling 40 million iPhones per year!
jarrettdailynews,
I agree with you, and consider Mac+’s arguments only valid in a more or less static market. But it isn’t static.
Twenty-two new countries in a few days are going to get the iPhone and before the end of the year it’s going to be another twenty odd – probably including China!
But that’s not all. The sales of iPhones will probably maintain momentum or increase in the countries where it’s now selling.
That means the number of iPhone (and iPod touch) owners will dramatically increase in the coming months, which means, of course, that the number of sold ‘apps’ will also dramatically increase.
You’re still wrong on the “I Am Rich” issue MDN. Apple made the correct judgement call in deciding that they would not knowingly host and endorse a scam.