App Store Tops 100,000 Available iPad Applications

[cmaier]

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.

I think you missed the point. I believe the point is that everybody is different. Apps that you love and need may be apps that I think suck (and hence I give a 1-star review to). Whereas apps you think suck or apps you don't care about may be very useful to me. If we eliminated all the apps you think suck, we may be eliminating many apps that I need or love. The advantage of such a big catalog is that while maybe everyone agrees there are 500 good apps, those 500 are not the same for everyone.

 

[tigress666]

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.

Well, that's kind of silly seeing as you get any updates to the app so you'd think you'd want to encourage the developer to keep supporting the app and giving it new features. Personally, I am more likely to leave feedback if I like the app rather than dislike (unless it's so bad it is offensive). Or I suppose the app has potential but has some bad flaws (in hopes maybe they'll fix it).

Personally, I like to see the developers who make games I like do well. It encourages them to keep support on the app and make more apps that I might like. So yes, I will help them with a good review if they make a good app for me.

 

[tigress666]

I think you missed the point. I believe the point is that everybody is different. Apps that you love and need may be apps that I think suck (and hence I give a 1-star review to). Whereas apps you think suck or apps you don't care about may be very useful to me. If we eliminated all the apps you think suck, we may be eliminating many apps that I need or love. The advantage of such a big catalog is that while maybe everyone agrees there are 500 good apps, those 500 are not the same for everyone.

Heh, sorry, you're right, I did miss the point (I thought he was arguing just that most apps were crap and one could tell by the fact most had at least one star reviews).

I fully agree with you about why having a large catalog (even if you find most of it not useful) is a good thing. Also means you are more likely to find an app that does what you want rather than having to settle for one that at least covers the basics of what you want.

 

[Don Kosak]

Why are they described as "iPad-exclusive"?

I thought they were simply iPad-compatible (ie: they do not load at 320x240 on an iPad). Having the same app available on an iPhone (as a Universal binary) or even available on Android device hardly makes them "exclusive".

I know for example "X-Men" is an iPad-native app. It also loads up on iPhone/iPod Touch, and you can download it for Android. I'm sure it's counted in the "100,000+ iPad exclusive" list.

Xenomorph,

There are a lot of apps that only run on the iPad. They're not universal, and they won't run on iPod/iPhone. That's what this list of 100,000 apps consists of. It doesn't include Universal apps or iPhone Apps.

I'm one of the folks that has an "iPad Only" app. It focuses on content creation and editing -- something that's hard to do on a phone sized screen but works nicely on the iPad.

 

[chris200x9]

FRAGMENTATION!

 

[ericinboston]

It is more then just scaling up, there are a lot of iPad specific UI elements.


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.

1)Prove to me what constitutes as an "iPad App" when its "iPhone App" already exists. A Netflix app that is available on the iPhone **AND** available on the iPad **AND** is considerably the same (again, my example of taking an iPhone app and making say screen resolution changes) should NOT count.

2)I meant Rate...not Review...my bad.



It's nice that there are 100,000 apps but I think this number is inflated a bit. But, even if it was 100,00 iPad apps...I've only come across a few dozen that I would contemplate downloading...not due to cost...but due to a)lack of a trial period b)lack of a refund if the app turns out to be junk and c)lack titles that actually are attractive (unlike fart apps, 300 weather apps, 94 world clock apps, etc). If Apple forced a 7-day trial period then I would buy stuff left and right. But I ain't plunking down $4 and finding out the app is buggy or littered with ads or totally misleading advertising. Apple forces so much in the App Store and also grabs a 30% share of the sale...the least Apple can do is offer me a 7-day trial period...but maybe that's Apple's goal: fill the App store with sub-par apps (among the nice ones), grab 30% of the sale, and have people think "ug! This app sucks. Well, I only lost $4"

Yes, I know...everyone's different...everyone's gonna have their own tastes. But in the iPad candy-cane world where everything is $4 and less for apps, theoretically I should be purchasing boatloads of apps compared to the $40+ computer titles and the $50 Xbox game titles and the $200 business class software titles. Why does my iPad have 6 apps on it?

 

[wovel]

Well, that's kind of silly seeing as you get any updates to the app so you'd think you'd want to encourage the developer to keep supporting the app and giving it new features. Personally, I am more likely to leave feedback if I like the app rather than dislike (unless it's so bad it is offensive). Or I suppose the app has potential but has some bad flaws (in hopes maybe they'll fix it).

Personally, I like to see the developers who make games I like do well. It encourages them to keep support on the app and make more apps that I might like. So yes, I will help them with a good review if they make a good app for me.

I never said I did not provide feedback. The review system is completely useless for providing feedback to developers.

Prove to me what constitutes as an "iPad App" when its "iPhone App" already exists. A Netflix app that is available on the iPhone **AND** available on the iPad **AND** is considerably the same (again, my example of taking an iPhone app and making say screen resolution changes) should NOT count.

While it is now clear you have very limited experience with an iPad I am not sure how to explain it to you so you understand. As I stated previously, it is not just scaling, the UI is completely different between the apps, it takes advantage of the larger screen.

While something like Angry Birds is just scaled up, you might make a case. But it is just silly to not to count things like Netflix just because they also happen to run on the iPhone. It is not just scaled up, it is designed for the iPad.

By your logic we can't count pages anymore since it now runs on the iPhone (with a completely different UI). So in your world it does not count as an iPad app if an iPhone app exists to do the same thing. That is beyond absurd.

 

[mazz0]

I don't find that many uses for apps on my iPad.

Apps on the iPhone are great for several reasons: they present data better than a webpage on a small screen can (I'm not sure why that is, I haven't analysed it, but they do); they can be really handy cos they're always in your pocket; they can be pointless and gimicky but cool to show off to your friends because, again, they're always in your pocket.

On the iPhone you don't need website replacing apps cos the web's great on an iPad, and the iPad's not always with you so there's no point having a lot of the apps you have on your iPhone on it.

So I don't think you should expect the iPad app store to grow very massive very quickly, as there's just not so much use for it.

 

[koobcamuk]

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.

Yeah, it's a monthly trend that will continue just like this for the next 10 years...

 

[rhett7660]

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.

I was thinking the same thing. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean somebody else doesn't want it!

 

[ilogic]

80% of which are trash. Still a good number.

 

[pmz]

Anyone have any good ideas on how to make App discovery more efficient?
If so, Apple has been looking for you for a long time.

 

[heisetax]

Premium Price is all we now get.

But they're all fart apps.

Apple was about the first to install a DVD Ram drive. They've lost much of their innovation spirit. They didn't invent the tablet computer, they didn't invent the touch screen, they din't invent the mp3 player. It is just that they put together a better looking total package. They get so much credit for leading now when they are actually following.

I'm a 27 year Mac User that have only purchased 2 computer that can natively boot into Windows & they both Macs.They are an Intel Mac Pro & a 17" Intel MacBook Pro.

The Intel Mac Pro seems to be a follower in many ways. Even inside Apple it appears to be about the last Mac product to have ThunderBolt built into it. This seems to be Apple's idea of who the Mac User is. The iOS push seems to indicate that the Mac User is just becoming an Apple Toy User just like the iOS stuff. Will Mac OS 10.7 Lion prove to be a de-clawed Mac OS. Should it be call iOS X 1.0?