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NoNothing

macrumors 6502
Aug 9, 2003
453
511
But did you also know...

Umm you do know that Android market is collecting more Apps per day than the Apple App store.

The Android Market is having 2X-3X more applications de-published every day compared to the App Store for a net gain of more applications still going into the Apps Store compared to the Android Market.

The problem with Distmo and other similar numbers is they only look at applications going in and not applications coming out. With Android, the out-going number is HUGE!
 

Meandmunch

macrumors 6502
Jan 3, 2002
496
143
Sweet, 500 actual awesome Apps in the store!!!

Unfortunately you have to sort through 99,500 pieces of crap software to find them.

(Edit, looks like this point has already been made. True though, sadly true)
 

acslater017

macrumors 6502a
Jul 25, 2006
716
123
San Francisco Bay Area
This story motivated me to go to the iTunes store and poke around. I got real confused on the Top Grossing iPad Apps page. A significant number of the 200 top-grossing apps were Free. I'm assuming that in-App purchases count for grossing figure. But that's like the movies counting popcorn sales in their box office figures -- isn't it?

Many real, deep apps make their living off of in-app purchases. My optical Chinese translator is a real piece of software. But the basic app was absolutely free, with the various plug-ins, dictionaries, etc. costing $5, $10, or even $20. The developer was upfront about this so it wasn't a scam or anything.

In addition, many games are like that. In-app purchases should definitely be included - it measures how much worth people put into their app.
 

Azathoth

macrumors 6502a
Sep 16, 2009
659
0
It took Andriod 30 months to get to 200,000 apps. It took the App store 21 months.

It took the App store 16 months to get to 100k apps it took Android 24 months. At this rate the iPad is outpacing both app stores.

For many years the Apple crowd said that "the amount of programs (you know, the old name for applications) isn't important, it's whether the platform has the programs you need/use", back in the days when there was very little SW available for the Mac. Thankfully for Apple the applications (mainly DTP and music at the time) were enough to keep the platform alive.

No person on the planet *needs* 100k apps, or 10k apps or even 1k apps. 10 major apps and a few hundred minor ones would over 90% of people's requirements.

I'm sure the iPad apps are on average better than Android tablet apps (quality of course being much harder to measure). But this numbers game is as stupid as the Cold War arms race - it doesn't matter if you have 1 million apps or 100 000 apps, both are more than enough to cover any conceivable requirement.
 

marksman

macrumors 603
Jun 4, 2007
5,764
5
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)

100k iPad apps 100k non iPad tablets sold in total. Seems right
 

Thunderhawks

Suspended
Feb 17, 2009
4,057
2,118
For many years the Apple crowd said that "the amount of programs (you know, the old name for applications) isn't important, it's whether the platform has the programs you need/use", back in the days when there was very little SW available for the Mac. Thankfully for Apple the applications (mainly DTP and music at the time) were enough to keep the platform alive.

No person on the planet *needs* 100k apps, or 10k apps or even 1k apps. 10 major apps and a few hundred minor ones would over 90% of people's requirements.

I'm sure the iPad apps are on average better than Android tablet apps (quality of course being much harder to measure). But this numbers game is as stupid as the Cold War arms race - it doesn't matter if you have 1 million apps or 100 000 apps, both are more than enough to cover any conceivable requirement.

Please no reasonable posts on MR.

What if app # 100,001 is just the one I would need?
 

i.mac

macrumors 6502a
Dec 14, 2007
996
247
You are being way to kind there. If more than 1000 apps on the market are not garbage I would be surprised.



Umm you do know that Android market is collecting more Apps per day than the Apple App store.

Android app == give acess to crooks

Who needs it?
 

!¡ V ¡!

macrumors 6502a
Jun 21, 2007
850
0
That is the inherent problem with have free or low cost apps with an online distribution model, too much clutter and junk apps and very few gems. QC for these apps lack, since Apple is trying to make sure these apps do not violate any of they own guidelines, restrictions and laws to care about QC. This allows Apple to report x amount of apps on the app store and demonstrate how successful it really is why in reality only a few apps are really worth anyones time.

At least there are no trojan, crook, hacker apps like the Android apps space. :)

I do not notice to how many apps any store has, as long as an app can provide a function or feature that I really require.
 

erzhik

macrumors 6502
Dec 2, 2010
486
395
nothing gets fanboys so aroused like discussion of App Store vs. Android Market. Who cares if you have 100,000 apps or 1,000 apps. You only need one to fulfill your specific app needs.
 

firewood

macrumors G3
Jul 29, 2003
8,106
1,343
Silicon Valley
Too bad about 93,000 are garbage.

And eBay proves that one man's garbage is very often another man's (or woman's) valued prize.

Most people only use a few dozen apps. The problem is that almost every person wants a completely different collection of that few dozen apps to use. The long tail (of what any one person, such as the OP, thinks are just mostly garbage) wins, because there a millions of potential customers, all (thankfully!) different from the OP.

I developed an ugly iPad app for an archaic hobby that probably only interests less than 0.0001% of the world's population. Still sold 100's of copies... and for a lot more than 99 cents a pop.

There's Gold inside that garbage.
 

ericinboston

macrumors 68010
Jan 13, 2008
2,000
475
1)How many of these 100,000 apps are simply iPhone/iPad/Touch universal apps?

2)How many of these apps are simply a recompiled iPhone/Touch app so it appears as an iPad specific app? For example, as a developer I make 3 simple changes to my current iPhone app so that it is now considered an iPad app (maybe screen resolution is 1 item). Kinda unfair to call that an iPad-specific app. Maybe they should count only apps that exist as iPad apps but do NOT have a sister iPhone/Touch app under a similar name.

3)Although 100,000 is nice, how many are really worth even owning on an iPad? 100? Seriously. Same can be said for the iPhone stuff...nice that there are a bazillion fart apps and 98 different flavors of Angry Birds and 200 Restaurant Apps and 769 Funny Sounds apps...but I'd like to see a little more high-value apps...whether they cost $2 or $12.

4)Out of the tens of millions of iPad owners out there, how about a figure on # of iPad-only apps that have been reviewed by more than 500 people? I find a LOT of app store stuff has less than 500 reviews. Since it's a closed app store society of tens of millions of people, most apps should have more than 500 reviews. I don't think Apple should force a review but I find it difficult to remember to go back and review an app. All apps should really have a "Review Me" button that appears on it's 20th launch or somthing...win/win for everyone to get feedback.
 

ghost187

macrumors 6502a
Mar 18, 2010
965
2,042
iOS App Store has quantity and quality. Scroll down the Android App Store and you'll see single music videos, ring tones, or basic mobile site links. Apple did alot of "house cleaning" last summer. I recall them removing over 50K apps from the app store within weeks. Google only cares about the number, as long as they sell more or have more of something they are happy regardless of quality or profit they make.
 
What a world we live in where Apple's 100k apps are all excellent, but a rivals that has more new apps a day are all awful.

Yeah, this iOS centricity is getting old. Whenever Android app numbers are published, all MR acolytes bash them for not being Infinity Blade or Garage Band...when it's iOS, they're all wonderful, no exceptions. FAIL.

I love my iPad, but 90% of the apps are rubbish...it's that 10% that impress and woo me daily;)
 

C. Alan

macrumors 6502
Jan 23, 2009
310
5
That is the inherent problem with have free or low cost apps with an online distribution model, too much clutter and junk apps and very few gems. QC for these apps lack, since Apple is trying to make sure these apps do not violate any of they own guidelines, restrictions and laws to care about QC. This allows Apple to report x amount of apps on the app store and demonstrate how successful it really is why in reality only a few apps are really worth anyones time.

.

This pretty much made the point I was going to make. 99.99% of the apps in the store are made by one guy trying to make a buck. So you do have to wade through quite a bit of garbage to find the gems.
 

wovel

macrumors 68000
Mar 15, 2010
1,839
161
America(s)!
Here are my 50+ favorites on my iPad. I am sure I left something off. I have some other good Apps that duplicate functionality with my favorite App and I really don't use. Each of these is designed for iPad and is not a scaled up iPhone app. I originally wanted to do 50, but went a bit over. Since a couple are basic utility Apps, it will balance out.

My list is in no particular order. I would love to see what some other's like.


  • Evernote
  • Pages
  • Numbers
  • Keynote
  • Goodreader
  • iMovie
  • GarageBand
  • iSSH
  • Netflix
  • ABC App
  • HBO Go
  • Discovery
  • Crackle
  • WebEx
  • Note Taker HD
  • TouchDraw
  • Instapaper
  • Kindle
  • The Civil War Today
  • Dead Space
  • Infinity Blade
  • Fruit Ninja HD
  • Atari's Greatest Hits
  • Real Racing 2 HD
  • Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12
  • Bloomberg+
  • Newsweek
  • Popular Science (Interface Still needs help, but good)
  • Wired (See PopSci)
  • Pulse
  • FlipBoard
  • Zite
  • NBA
  • MLB
  • Contraptions
  • Order and Chaos
  • Osmos
  • iDisplay
  • VNC (I actually use iSSH more for this, but it is a pretty good app)
  • Science 360 for iPad
  • GoToMeeting
  • Bank of America
  • E-Trade
  • FaceTime
  • TurboTax 2010
  • Hulu
  • Vevo (Only Really buggy App I Have though)
  • National Geographic World Atlas
  • Wolfram (This is the only one so far that is a front-end for a web site, but provides a lot of value)
  • Google Earth (See Wolfram)
  • Trainz (Not sure how I forgot that, so cool)
  • 2Go
  • Cisco AnyConnect
  • IM+ Pro
  • Digits
  • SlingPlayer (Dang another great App that did not show up till the end)
  • Nature's Human Genome at 10 (Somewhat Limited, but very cool)
  • Our Choice (Same as above)
  • Peek (One of my new favorites, great if you need to study anything)
 
Last edited:

wovel

macrumors 68000
Mar 15, 2010
1,839
161
America(s)!
1)How many of these 100,000 apps are simply iPhone/iPad/Touch universal apps?
It is more then just scaling up, there are a lot of iPad specific UI elements.
2)How many of these apps are simply a recompiled iPhone/Touch app so it appears as an iPad specific app? For example, as a developer I make 3 simple changes to my current iPhone app so that it is now considered an iPad app (maybe screen resolution is 1 item). Kinda unfair to call that an iPad-specific app. Maybe they should count only apps that exist as iPad apps but do NOT have a sister iPhone/Touch app under a similar name.
That would be silly. So Netflix should not count as an iPad app? Kindle? The interface is completely different.
3)Although 100,000 is nice, how many are really worth even owning on an iPad? 100? Seriously. Same can be said for the iPhone stuff...nice that there are a bazillion fart apps and 98 different flavors of Angry Birds and 200 Restaurant Apps and 769 Funny Sounds apps...but I'd like to see a little more high-value apps...whether they cost $2 or $12.
I listed my favorites (that I actually own), but I have only had an ipad since March.
4)Out of the tens of millions of iPad owners out there, how about a figure on # of iPad-only apps that have been reviewed by more than 500 people? I find a LOT of app store stuff has less than 500 reviews. Since it's a closed app store society of tens of millions of people, most apps should have more than 500 reviews. I don't think Apple should force a review but I find it difficult to remember to go back and review an app. All apps should really have a "Review Me" button that appears on it's 20th launch or somthing...win/win for everyone to get feedback.

I don't take the time to review anything, and people tend to be more likely to review something they don't like. I may be a jerk, but if I pay for your app, you can do your own marketing. I do try to rate apps after I use them a while, but I am not going to take the time to review them.
 
Last edited:

Skoal

macrumors 68000
Nov 4, 2009
1,770
531
Here are my 50+ favorites on my iPad. I am sure I left something off. I have some other good Apps that duplicate functionality with my favorite App and I really don't use. Each of these is designed for iPad and is not a scaled up iPhone app. I originally wanted to do 50, but went a bit over. Since a couple are basic utility Apps, it will balance out.

My list is in no particular order. I would love to see what some other's like.


  • Evernote
  • Pages
  • Numbers
  • Keynote
  • Goodreader
  • iMovie
  • GarageBand
  • iSSH
  • Netflix
  • ABC App
  • HBO Go
  • Discovery
  • Crackle
  • WebEx
  • Note Taker HD
  • TouchDraw
  • Instapaper
  • Kindle
  • The Civil War Today
  • Dead Space
  • Infinity Blade
  • Fruit Ninja HD
  • Atari's Greatest Hits
  • Real Racing 2 HD
  • Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12
  • Bloomberg+
  • Newsweek
  • Popular Science (Interface Still needs help, but good)
  • Wired (See PopSci)
  • Pulse
  • FlipBoard
  • Zite
  • NBA
  • MLB
  • Contraptions
  • Order and Chaos
  • Osmos
  • iDisplay
  • VNC (I actually use iSSH more for this, but it is a pretty good app)
  • Science 360 for iPad
  • GoToMeeting
  • Bank of America
  • E-Trade
  • FaceTime
  • TurboTax 2010
  • Hulu
  • Vevo (Only Really buggy App I Have though)
  • National Geographic World Atlas
  • Wolfram (This is the only one so far that is a front-end for a web site, but provides a lot of value)
  • Google Earth (See Wolfram)
  • Trainz (Not sure how I forgot that, so cool)
  • 2Go
  • Cisco AnyConnect
  • IM+ Pro
  • Digits
  • SlingPlayer (Dang another great App that did not show up till the end)
  • Nature's Human Genome at 10 (Somewhat Limited, but very cool)
  • Our Choice (Same as above)
  • Peek (One of my new favorites, great if you need to study anything)

Great post and the kind I like to see! I'm always looking for apps that do a task better than the app I have (and it's usually out there). It takes forever to find one that suits and is worth a damn but I suppose I'd rather have a bunch to choose from than one or two. I just don't need 50,000 ways to view the weather.
 

tigress666

macrumors 68040
Apr 14, 2010
3,288
17
Washington State
Less.

Go ahead, delete every App store app from your device that has even just one 1-star rating or 1 negative review, or more. See what you have left.

That's why a store needs 100k apps that someone thinks are bad.

That's a ridiculous criteria. Any app can get a one star, it just takes one stupid person (I saw an app that was for tracking where you walked to help those of us who hike a lot see our trail get one starred cause the lady wanted it to tell her how to get somewhere in her car. She totally missed that the app was not for that and was furious that it wouldn't give her directions! I've seen stupid reviews where the person one starred the app cause it was a puzzle game and it had no action! They obviously didn't read the description. I see Asphalt 6 has a one star cause it has no girls <- it's a racing game. I've seen one star reviews cause the company dared put the app on sale and the people who missed the sale were bitter that they missed it).

It is kinda like ebay, if you sell a lot, you will eventually get one person who is unhappy and sometimes, that person is being stupid/unreasonable.

So to eliminate an app just cause one random person disliked it is kinda stupid. It doesn't mean the app is bad. In fact, if it has plenty of reviews and just one one star review, even if it is a valid review, I'd still say that speaks more in its favor than not.
 
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