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App Store Almost Reaches 10,000 Apps

Discover, Copy & Improve.

Whilst the frustration with duplicate applications is somewhat justified, I think that the App Store reflects human nature; the wheel may have been invented once, but it has been refined for millennia :)

As an aside, it is fascinating to watch App Store "memes" (e.g. via AppShopper) where recently there have been a flurry of "Call <Relation>" applications and Date-Countdown applications.

Many people acknowledge that, despite the noise, there are plenty of gems. The key issue is discovery. (Discovery of applications has been an issue since Java was first ported to mobile phones.)

Currently developers are under-pricing their applications in order to stay in the "Top 25/50/100" list, and thus to stay visible to consumers. With improved discovery, then developers will be able to invest more in application development and charge realistic* prices.

This will result in a win for everyone: polished and innovative applications, with good support, at a reasonable price.

* No matter how much anyone whines, software developers have to pay for hardware, training, rent, tax, and some of us even eat too. ;)
 
As long as Opera Mini is not available I could not care less about how many apps are in the store... My previously beloved Apple is turning more and more fascist. :mad:
 
fimac said:
Whilst the frustration with duplicate applications is somewhat justified, I think that the App Store reflects human nature; the wheel may have been invented once, but it has been refined for millennia :)
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SO not the same thing.

Each refinement came with improvements, and there weren't 100 slightly different wheels offering some slightly different approach at a simple task.

They were all round, and served the same exact purpose. Now don't go splitting hairs with me... :D

mrwalker said:
As long as Opera Mini is not available I could not care less about how many apps are in the store... My previously beloved Apple is turning more and more fascist. :mad:
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True about the fascism of Apple. It's gotten to the point where not thinking like them, and/or not loving all the toys that come out of Cupertino means something it wrong with you.
 
10,000 apps, yet we can only have about 1% of these (129) at a time

Bring on folders babyyyy

or something haha
 
sflocal said:
It's funny listening to everyone complain ("whine") about the quality of the apps on the iPhone.

Yes most apps are garbage but what did you expect? Most of the complainers would whine if Apple shut out the joe-weekend-developer-of-crapware and scream monopoly. I find it frustrating to search endlessly for that one gem sunk deep in that steaming pile of crap. I suppose one user's garbage is another user's treasure.

This free-for-all is what happens when the floodgates are open and individuals create the crap-for-.99cents and hope they sell a few thousand and then disappear.

If you think this is bad, wait till Android Market is open in full force and it will look like the red-light district in Thailand selling crapware up to the neck.

Honestly people, what did you expect would be out there? You complain when Apple tries doing something about it and you complain when Apple apparently lets anything through. By all means folks, offer some kind of lucid opinion of what should be done.

Perhaps Apple could implement some kind of rating system where if users rate an item as crap, then Apple could remove it providing enough people vote on it? Of course, that would be ripe for abuse from the competition too.
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Seems like a solution could be to create a "premium appstore" within the current one. Leave the current app store as it is but allow best selling and well known developers to be listed in their own section. This would eliminate a lot of crap you don't want to see while allowing the hobbiest to continue developing and if they are good enough work their way into the premium listing.
 
Digital Skunk said:
They were all round, and served the same exact purpose. Now don't go splitting hairs with me... :D
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Would you care to roll your own metaphor? ;)

I see many of these trivial apps as essentially the "Hello, world"s of iPhone programming; developers are learning... and things can only get better :D
 
Auzburner said:
The only problem is finding the good ones worth using and consuming our time.
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as big problem is that some of the most useful apps are being made by folks that refuse to play by the rules and program the apps to work with the apple installer and thus encourage folks to jailbreak their phones. Folks that don't really know exactly what they are doing and screw it up cause they want that app and then they end up with a phone that is hosed and a voided warranty. all cause some programmer just has to flip the bird to apple and play by his/her own rules

and yes i've contact some of these 'non apple store' apps people and been told that they aren't in the store 'cause we don't feel like it' and a couple of folks that claimed it was a political statement against the 'evils of corporate america' (huh? okay whatever)
 
mahonmeister said:
But I can't help thinking that things would be so much better if Apple would impose less restrictions and allow the apps to have more control over the iPhone/touch.
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less restrictions means more power to hose a phone if you screw up the programming.

and apple definitely doesn't want that.
 
I'm surprised

I was expecting more apps from real companies. I wanted a bank of america type app for my bank (wamu). I wanted an official app from the nba so i could check scores. I wanted an app from each of the newspapers/magazines I read that was similar to the NY Times one. So far there is no Washington Post, Salon.com, Economist, New Yorker, Harpers, etc. No official app from wikipedia. Hell, no app from macrumors. I just expected more first-party's to put out some software instead of relying on crappy 3rd party stuff.
 
kajitox said:
I am not impressed until Apple can go through the ones that are literally not worth having. If you let things get too out of control, you turn into YouTube.
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that is a matter of opinion.

for example. you might think that an app that gives you a chuck norris cartoon telling you some cool 'fact' about chuck and then you give it a little shake and he tells you another one is awesome.

I think it ain't worth the sweat off a dead monkey's balls.

so whose opinion decides if the app stays or goes

I will agree that it would be nice if they could moderate reviews all over the itunes store (I'm so sick of 500 reviews that are 'he's so hot, say yes if you agree'), require that you own before you can review and let you sort by rating.

but there's too much potential legal trouble if you start judging worth etc. judging by technical requirement, following the SDK rules and removing things that have known issues with causing trouble to phones is about all Apple can do and not get sued.
 
In other words, flashlight apps, we've got room for all of you. Tethering apps, GTFO!
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iParis said:
But... even though I may agree without, don't tell people on here GTFO...
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He didn't. You misread his post.

He was talking about how Apple accepts duplicates of simple apps, but often rejects the ones that people want most, or that compete with Apple.
 
now maybe if Apple would Approve our Developer Application that we submitted the day the put up the Application maybe we could put some of our Apps on the Store too...
 
i must say, apple has done a great job with the app store. granted, a lot of the apps aren't all that good, but better and better apps keep coming, along with not so great ones as well. either way, i love the app store
 
To disclose my bias before I begin, I am one of the iPhone application developers currently rushing to market. I released my first application (a game) a couple of days ago, and so far it is getting a critical mauling.

I agree with those above who say that the problem isn't the number of applications, it's the difficulty in discerning which ones have value. The star ratings are a hot topic in the development community right now because of Apple's new rate on delete feature, which almost seems to be asking people "Given that you don't want to keep this application, how good do you think it is?". Average scores for cheap or free titles are likely to drop dramatically soon; whether this is fair or not depends on where you stand. In any case, it may lead to a much greater range of scores in the near future.

Re: my own application, I can't help feeling that the unified ratings system could be a bit of a problem as the market diverges. I'm sure I'm just trying to protect my own self esteem, but I feel that part of my application's problem is that it's not likely to appeal to a very wide audience and low ratings may prevent me from making that connection. However, I'm not sure that it is fair to say that this is Apple's problem. The neat way that the iTunes store is integrated into the synchronisation tool probably makes their role seem more benevolent than it is; I think it's entirely correct that they offer a listing for everyone and reserve high billings to applications that have universal popularity. It's really for the third-party sites to highlight further diversity.
 
why not start selling other apple applications, Logic, Final Cut etc through it, and open it up as a software sales. Might help to curb piracy in the same way the itunes store has.
 
BornAgainMac said:
Since Widgets, Web 2.0 Apps, and iPhone Apps take no shelf space, it makes me wonder if future PC/Mac software will have an App store too. DVD sized titles excluded.
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That seems to be the logical next step, not only the store itself is tempting but also the centrally controlled DRM that is Mac/PC/iPhone/iPod compatible. Imagine Apple taking a 30% cut on the desktop apps, i definitely need to find some extra money to buy Apple stock. :eek:

Don't need to exclude the DVD titles, the DVD's itself can be free or low cost with the actual sale going via the app-store.
 
mahonmeister said:
But I can't help thinking that things would be so much better if Apple would impose less restrictions and allow the apps to have more control over the iPhone/touch.
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Strange, don't take this personally but first people bitch about the cazillion crappy apps out there but on the other hand don't mind to give the same programers more ways to screw up there iPhone.

The iphone still has many years to go, the software will mature over time.
 
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