Apple Announces 40 Billion App Store Downloads, Nearly 20 Billion in 2012

[dannyyankou]

That's around 80 apps per user. Not bad.

[Navdakilla]

Originally Posted by FSMBP

I don't get why they brag so much about 775,000 apps. It's getting harder and harder to find decent ones.

no kidding.

I've personally probably downloaded 500 apps in the past years, and deleted 90% of them

[lkrupp]

Originally Posted by KdParker

Wonder how this compares to the other 'app' stores for android and Windows(not really windows ).

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sure....but i am able to find some usefull ones every now and then.

Just know that paid iOS apps vastly outnumber paid Android apps. Every study or survey confirms it time after time. Developers can actually make money on iOS.

[SmileyBlast!]

Originally Posted by Masterkona

Even if growth stalls, the refresh/upgrade cycle alone will ensure 150-200million iPhones sold annually, with the figure likely being much higher. Consider that at least 10-20% of buyers will buy everything Apple makes, and it seems very realistic to forecast 30% + average growth for the next 5-6 years. Mr market is pricing in reduced margins and lower revenue. Something is out of whack.
...Any thoughts?

The thing is that the SmartPhone market will eventually be replaced with something else like wearable computers like the Google Glass thing.
Maybe all we will need is a pair of glasses or shades for our computing device.
That is why there are rumors of the iWatch.

Something will eventually replace the current way of doing things. Also the competition is catching up and surpassing Apple's growth in the SmartPhone arena.

[BornAgainMac]

Probably some good apps that never make it to the top 100 and people never discover them.

[Oletros]

Originally Posted by lkrupp

Just know that paid iOS apps vastly outnumber paid Android apps. Every study or survey confirms it time after time. Developers can actually make money on iOS.

He was talking about app downloads, not about who makes more money

[xkmxkmxlmx]

Imagine if Steve Jobs had stuck to his initial no third party apps stance from back in the day.

[LagunaSol]

Originally Posted by SmileyBlast!

The thing is that the SmartPhone market will eventually be replaced with something else like wearable computers like the Google Glass thing.

Yes, I can't wait until we are all fed Google ads 24x7 through our eyewear. Or better yet, implanted lenses. I dream of living in a Minority Report ad-saturated world.

Originally Posted by SmileyBlast!

Also the competition is catching up and surpassing Apple's growth in the SmartPhone arena.

It helps when your competition (Google) gives its stuff away for free.

[tann]

Means each of the 775k apps has been downloaded (on average) 56k times!!

Obviously not true, as Temple Run has got at least 1140x more than this but still impressive!

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Originally Posted by SmileyBlast!

The thing is that the SmartPhone market will eventually be replaced with something else like wearable computers like the Google Glass thing.
Maybe all we will need is a pair of glasses or shades for our computing device.
That is why there are rumors of the iWatch.

Something will eventually replace the current way of doing things. Also the competition is catching up and surpassing Apple's growth in the SmartPhone arena.

I don't think the smartphone will be replaced anytime soon, I just think that other things will be added to the everyday user.

Glasses is cool... but how do you take a call, or send a text? They could be used in addition to a phone (to display a route, display a text, display song playing or notifications) but I think that that's what it will be for the foreseeable future, just things being used in addition to others. To complement them!

[petsounds]

Originally Posted by xkmxkmxlmx

Imagine if Steve Jobs had stuck to his initial no third party apps stance from back in the day.

Steve Jobs was swayed from that stance by the notion of a curated App Store. Unfortunately, Apple did not carry out Steve's wishes on this matter. The App Store is not curated. In fact, Apple started boasting in ad campaigns how many apps they have. Not the quality level, but how many! This was unfortunately a holdover from iTunes, where the amount of music on iTunes Store was more important than the quality of it.

But what may be an acceptable strategy for iTunes has been terrible for apps. Without any curation or standards, the App Store was quickly flooded with low-quality content. Fast-forward to a couple years ago, and Apple – realizing it's becoming near impossible to find good apps in the sea of garbage – double-down on poor decisions: they buy Chomp, reskin it, and introduce it as the new App Store in iOS 6.

Instead of pruning the App Store of its rotten fruit, instead of fixing the widespread problems with fake reviews, instead of introducing tough standards on new apps, they introduced a new App Store app which not only doesn't resolve the problem of finding cool apps, they also destroyed the ability for users to explore the store on their own with a UI that violates most of Apple's own interface guidelines.

And to top it off, here again Apple is boasting about the number of apps they have. And about iOS developers are rolling in downloads and profit. Well, if you start talking to developers, you'll find out it's just not true. People can't find most of the apps out there. Except for the few they feature on the App Store homepage.

Where the App Store is concerned, Apple has forgotten what sets them apart. Not quantity, but quality.

[Oletros]

Originally Posted by LagunaSol

It helps when your competition (Google) gives its stuff away for free.

What stuff gives away for free?

[DipDog3]

Originally Posted by hybroid

This is great but App discovery and the store need a LOT of work. Great if you know exactly what you're looking for. Rubbish otherwise. How many hidden gems are yet to be uncovered or ever will be?

This is true, some of the best apps that I have found were found by accident. The whole Top Apps and Recommended aren't always the best.

[Liquorpuki]

Originally Posted by hybroid

This is great but App discovery and the store need a LOT of work. Great if you know exactly what you're looking for. Rubbish otherwise. How many hidden gems are yet to be uncovered or ever will be?

I don't think Apple cares. It actually benefits them to make apps hard to find because it increases competition between devs, which drops app pricing, which lets users download more apps for less $$$ and become more vested in the ecosystem, which they're gonna need to buy/upgrade an Apple device to continue using.

Originally Posted by Masterkona

I have a hard time believing Apple isn't planning something big for 2014-2015. My bet is that they are waiting for costs/technology to catch up to a point where they can make their next major tech for a price that makes sense. Apple TV will be released this year, which I can honestly see causing earnings to nearly double. Imagine if Apple were to make itself a direct competitor of Cable/Dish. They already have the devices deployed. The Ipad/iphone/iPod touches are basically televisions. They could also release a $1500-2000 television that would make for a higher end consumption device for those that want it. Apple TV will be software that is equivalent to what cable providers offer and will allow those that opt for it to access content via the cloud from anywhere at any time. This will increase the amount of television that people watch, increasing the premium for the content. It will kill/hurt Netflix, and will bring in billions for Apple.

This is what I'm waiting for. Apple grows and maintains momentum by entering a new market every few years. They're overdue for one, and everyone knows it's gonna be television.

[mw360]

Originally Posted by petsounds

Steve Jobs was swayed from that stance by the notion of a curated App Store. Unfortunately, Apple did not carry out Steve's wishes on this matter. The App Store is not curated. In fact, Apple started boasting in ad campaigns how many apps they have. Not the quality level, but how many! This was unfortunately a holdover from iTunes, where the amount of music on iTunes Store was more important than the quality of it.

But what may be an acceptable strategy for iTunes has been terrible for apps. Without any curation or standards, the App Store was quickly flooded with low-quality content. Fast-forward to a couple years ago, and Apple – realizing it's becoming near impossible to find good apps in the sea of garbage – double-down on poor decisions: they buy Chomp, reskin it, and introduce it as the new App Store in iOS 6.

Instead of pruning the App Store of its rotten fruit, instead of fixing the widespread problems with fake reviews, instead of introducing tough standards on new apps, they introduced a new App Store app which not only doesn't resolve the problem of finding cool apps, they also destroyed the ability for users to explore the store on their own with a UI that violates most of Apple's own interface guidelines.

And to top it off, here again Apple is boasting about the number of apps they have. And about iOS developers are rolling in downloads and profit. Well, if you start talking to developers, you'll find out it's just not true. People can't find most of the apps out there. Except for the few they feature on the App Store homepage.

Where the App Store is concerned, Apple has forgotten what sets them apart. Not quantity, but quality.

It's a good rant, and there's not much to disagree with but I quite like the fact Apple hasn't completely sewn up the discovery process. It leaves the door open for a little cottage industry of alternative discovery services and websites. Most of my 'discoveries' have come from tips outside of Apple. It would great to see those services flourish and honest tipsters and reviewrs make a good living.

[Popeye206]

Originally Posted by Rogifan

And the stock is down 2% in trading so far today. I'm just waiting for earnings release when they announce something ridiculous like 50M iPhones, 20M iPads sold and $10bn profit and the stock drops 5%.

Yes... amazing how wall street has gotten so demanding on Apple. 6 months ago they we're all saying the stock was going for over a 1,000 now they act like Apple's on it's death bed.

[newagemac]

Originally Posted by HenryDJP

Uh not really, unless you're a major company or have some inside connections with Apple to get your app on the top 25 list your app will undoubtedly get lost amongst the hundreds of thousands of apps.

Well no point anyone making anymore websites then. There are already hundreds of millions of them. /s

The cream rises to the top. If what you have is good, the word gets out. Especially in this day and age of social media, the playing field is more level than it ever has been.

[stepshows]

Glad I could help.

[MuddyPaws1]

Originally Posted by FSMBP

I don't get why they brag so much about 775,000 apps. It's getting harder and harder to find decent ones.

Exactly. 775,000 apps and maybe a 10th of them are any good. And then a super small percentage of those appeal to the person that matters most....ME.

But as long as stocks don't plummet...then i'm still happy.

[inscrewtable]

The pace of downloads continues to accelerate...

It's the dark energy.

[olowott]

That is one crazy figure


Damn, now i dont mind that amount of downloads of my future app

[iGrip]

Quantity != Quality.

Even when you are in a position to brag about "Billions and Billions Served", it is, ultimately, meaningless.

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Originally Posted by Masterkona

I wonder what would happen if Apple announced a plan to overhaul IAds and released a product that no-one is expecting.

Likely it would flop. Apple has got to stop copying Google. They are not capable of introducing credible competing products. Google is way too far ahead. Apple needs to leverage its strengths, and not get distracted by disparate markets in which it has no expertise.

[LagunaSol]

Originally Posted by iGrip

Apple has got to stop copying Google. They are not capable of introducing credible competing products. Google is way too far ahead. Apple needs to leverage its strengths, and not get distracted by disparate markets in which it has no expertise.

Oh please. Kinda like how Google didn't copy Apple by introducing an app store, online music market (with song matching), office productivity applications, email...

Glad you aren't Apple's CEO or we'd never have had the iPhone. Or iPod. Or anything else that didn't have "Mac" in the title.

[firewood]

Originally Posted by tann

Means each of the 775k apps has been downloaded (on average) 56k times!!

That's almost lying with statistics. The mean average is thrown way off by a few top apps. The actual median average is more like 1 download per day, with 50% of all paid apps getting even less action.

Originally Posted by FSMBP

I don't get why they brag so much about 775,000 apps. It's getting harder and harder to find decent ones.

It takes a lot of effort and/or investment to make a decent app (some blogs estimate that from $25K to $35K is common). And then some customers complain about paying 99 cents for the result. That really encourages small developers to invest more in making better apps. Not.

[WilliamLondon]

Originally Posted by iGrip

Apple has got to stop copying Google. They are not capable of introducing credible competing products. Google is way too far ahead. Apple needs to leverage its strengths, and not get distracted by disparate markets in which it has no expertise.

What I'd like to ask is what people (you?) think is Google's raison d'être? By that I mean, why is Google producing all these devices, especially in light of their admitting they make no money off them? Why are they in the markets they are in? They're not a consumer electronics product company, given that the revenue and profit they make comes almost entirely from products that aren't physical, so why are they in the markets they're in?

Please don't think I'm being argumentative or disrespectful at all, I'm just interested in a discussion as to the purpose of Google (and more interestingly what this may indicate as to what their future path is and what we can expect from them). Microsoft is a software company, Apple is a hardware company, Google is an advertising company.

What I'm getting at is that I think Google is playing in a market in which they have no real intention of excelling or producing products that are either innovative or unique but are rather a means to another end for Google, namely, the products they produce are 1) going to phone home to Google every action you make on them, every location you take them, and every interaction with the external world they perform, all of which is data they will then sell to companies wanting to advertise to you (in very personal ways based on what Google learned about you), or 2) a conduit for media they can sell on Google Play (which also tie in with number 1).

If that's true, then what can we really expect from a Google in the future - what I mean is, where will their R&D focus? Will it really be about creating an exciting (new and unique) user experience in tomorrow's consumer devices? Will it be about creating a new device of which no one has imagined? Will they create the next "iPod," is that what we can expect from them?

You say Apple has to stop copying Google, but I see it exactly opposite, Google has to stop copying Apple. Google isn't in this game to create amazing devices, and I don't think we'll ever see anything earth shattering from Google, unless you consider new ways for companies to profit off your privacy as something amazing and innovative.

I think you're wrong about Google and Apple, and I think that if we could extract Google's search engine functionality as a society and make it available for everyone for free (meaning we found other ways to pay the costs of this basic internet-based societal functionality and requirement) and dissolve the rest of the company that was all about creating new and insidious ways to peer into the personal and private activities of every single internet connected human on the face of the planet, life would in one moment be more interesting.

That's my $.02 and I'm sorry I pulled out the soap box, but I detest Google and think they are one of the most evil companies on the face of this planet.

[iGrip]

Originally Posted by WilliamLondon

You say Apple has to stop copying Google, but I see it exactly opposite, Google has to stop copying Apple.

What has Google copied?