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Nov 04, 09 - 11:22 am Comment from: G4Dualie

Apples competition is sitting on the Group-W bench.

Open Mouth

Insert Genius

Nov 04, 09 - 11:25 am Comment from: iPhoner

I wonder how much difference 100,000 apps makes in the mindsets of people who might be torn between the iPhone and Droid?

iPhone = 100,000
Droid = 10,000

If I was comparing the two, I would think that with 10,000 apps the Droid would surely have anything that I wanted and if not - it would soon enough.

I would base my decision on other aspects of the device which is still a win for Apple.

Exactly. That is a huge advantage that the iPhone has over other phones that is not really talked about much. Most phones get older and less relevant and useful over time. The iPhone always gets better over time (kind of like wine.). The o.s. updates just keep expanding iPhone's capabilities, and the apps expand on that even more.

Nov 04, 09 - 11:29 am Comment from: breeze

Key word : PLATFORM

iPhone is a PLATFORM.

That is not something that will ever be achievable by any of it's competitors, who together share a small fragmented market at best.

Nov 04, 09 - 11:32 am Comment from: Apelock

"And all Apple competitors, like Research in Motion, Nokia, Microsoft, Palm, and Google can do is sit there, mouths agape, wondering what to do next."

Well said, and looking at them furiously trying to rip off Apple's whole widget of great design, software, and apps, just goes to show they haven't a clue.

Tipical "Apple hater": But half of that are just fart apps...
Tyoical person with brains: Then, still 50,000 that are not fart based, that still more than 40,000 app more than the competition

Nov 04, 09 - 11:37 am Comment from: January 24, 1984

@G4Dualle: Father-rapers!

Nov 04, 09 - 12:06 pm Comment from: Steveeee

"... Internet is only for PC, not for iphone, so they have 75000 apps..... blah blah blah..." Steve Ballmer. "Oh, wait a minute, internet is not for iphone, so they have 100,000 apps, oh, wait a minute.... 200,000 apps, oh no, wait a minute 1 million apps.... No, Intenet is not for iphone." What s shitting bull.

Nov 04, 09 - 12:08 pm Comment from: El Guapo

Do you honestly think that the competition's app library has a higher concentration of useful (non-fart-based) apps? Don't kid yourself. People will try to make money with the simplest/dumbest apps possible, regardless of the platform.

"plateau"? The upward trend continues, yes?

Nov 04, 09 - 12:28 pm Comment from: G4Dualie

@j1984

Opey looked at the seeing eyed dog...

Nov 04, 09 - 12:32 pm Comment from: Mr. Reeee

It's MUCH more than the sheer number of apps! The iPhone/iPod touch platform has essentially ONE hardware configuration with two variations. The vast majority of apps will work on all devices. The Droids consist of probably DOZENS of different hardware configurations. How does a programmer write ONE app that will supportthem ALL?

I'm sure there's room enough for another App Store, like Google's. Blackberry will have one geared toward business use that will be fine with even as few as a couple thousand apps. It's WinMo and Symbian and Palm that need to worry.

Nov 04, 09 - 12:51 pm Comment from: breeze

KenC:

Yeah there's also room enough for fresh NEW ideas

Nov 04, 09 - 12:57 pm Comment from: qka

@ G4Dualie
Apples competition is sitting on the Group-W bench .
Funniest comment on MDN this week!

Nov 04, 09 - 01:19 pm Comment from: mossman

I use the PandoraBox app to scout on-sale and new apps. Couple days ago a whackload came out under the SuprFan name, each one dedicated to a different celebrity or group.

I have no desire to see these, and thankfully PandoraBox has the option to "block" apps from specified authors. The number of free, new/onsale apps for the day went from almost 150, to just 57.

All those SuprFan apps could've been condensed into a single app, with preferences to select from a list of celebrities.

So while 100K apps is impressive, there's definitely a lot of superfluous stuff to inflate numbers--and I'm not even talking similar apps from different authors or the multitude of "crap apps."

Nov 04, 09 - 01:49 pm Comment from: jjjj

Though it sounds counter-intuitive, Apple should make an App viewer that runs inside of iTunes. Really explode the market.

Nov 04, 09 - 02:04 pm Comment from: disposableidentity

@ iPhoner,

Back in the 90s I used to say that about the Mac. Why would you ever need 100,000 apps, the Mac has every app you'd ever want to use, etc. The mainstream PC market thinks differently from you and me.

100,000 iPhone apps is going to sell a lot of iPhones just because big numbers impress people.

Whoa, E-bay is making $500 million off the app store?

That's the type of numbers that should scare the cr@p out of RIM, MS, Palm, Google, etc. Apple is making money off of every aspect of the iPhone/iPod universe while their competitors are still trying to make money off of their cell hardware.

Nov 04, 09 - 03:12 pm Comment from: MacAdvocate

This is all great stuff. The volume is nice, but the general quality of the apps is also impressive. All credit to Apple for making easy-to-use developer tools, sticking to (essentially) one piece of hardware and even the oft-maligned, but mostly-productive approval process.

The challenge I see for Apple going forward is maintaining a simple taxonomy for this constantly growing library of apps. It's getting harder to find the good stuff fast.

Nov 04, 09 - 03:30 pm Comment from: ABQ Peter

i know someone who works in the building where the group w bench used to be. they aren't allowed to bring in implements of destruction though.

One of Apple's advantages is the fact it's not just the iPhone that pushes the apps.

While the other wannabe competitors and copycats are tied into one device, a phone (with many manufacturers and configurations), Apple also has the highly successful media player in the Touch that probably more than doubles the app downloads.

iPhone + Touch is a double whammy.

(eg, I believe my daughter has more than 5 screens of apps on her Touch)

Nov 04, 09 - 03:38 pm Comment from: breeze

@MacCanuck:

Will it be a triple whammy when the tablet comes out?

Nov 04, 09 - 10:57 pm Comment from: silverhawk

Apple gets 30% from each app sold. That is a huge number.