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Apple Announces 3 Billion App Store Downloads

LagunaSol said:
As another poster mentioned above, Apple clarified that they did not count updates as downloads the last time they reported a milestone number, so I assume they did not count updates this time either.



Apps that work this way are a tiny minority.



The potentially-valid examples you cited (#1 and #3), even in a worst-case scenario, certainly would not knock 66%+ of the downloads off the tally. Perhaps a handful of percentage points at the worst.
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1)You know what happens when we assume.

2)I have tons of apps that are free...and nag me (or limit functionality such as my Pac Man game) to buy the "full" version. If I buy the full version (even if it's another full download and install), is it counted again? I don't think it's fair to count it (whether it's a 16byte download unlock key or 5MB full download replacement) as the first version was really trialware.

I still think the numbers are impressive...but I think 3billion seems very high for a few million users.

If there are 100 million iPhone/iTouch users (I believe there are less than 40million but I'll just round up for easy math and playing it safe to include recent iPod Touch models), that would make the ratio like 30 downloaded apps per user. If that's a fair average (I have about 10 that are still on my iphone after 5 months of usage (of which 7 I only use once a month or so) and probably have downloaded a grand total of 20), then I would ask what others were asking: how many of these apps get deleted minutes/hours/days later (maybe the app sucks...or doesn't live up to it's advertisement...or whatever)...or how many of these apps are still regularly used? Again, impressive numbers but to me, without clarification, it's just a number. Like CBS reporting that 3 billion people watched their channel last night...does scrolling through a CBS channel count? What about multiple tvs in my home?...etc. Charts don't mean too much when INSTANTLY people can find ambiguities in them.

-Eric
 
3 Billion Apps Downloaded... Move over McDonalds... ;)

Those numbers are sure going up exponentially. I wish my investments and 401K did likewise!:D

Congrats Apple...

Not as meaningful as some attempts at a few of my other posts, but I just wanted to hit the milestone of 500 posts today... Vanity, I know, I know... :rolleyes:
 
Bigdaddyguido said:
Thats just amazing. I love how every other competitor keeps claiming they'll have equalled or surpassed the app store by next year. That means these other app stores are predicting to have gone from well under a billion downloaded apps to well over 10-20 billion in just 12 months. Plus that estimate could be well under sized if the tablet is a success.

Good luck!
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Ya, the big thing no competitor has is iTunes and the App store. Without a place like iTunes and the build up of customers that it has, all other competing devices are just useless shells.

Apple did things right in having the infrastructure in place 1st and then creating an iPhone that uses that infrastructure. Competitors are making "smart" phones and then at the same time introducing new media markets (or using weak existing ones) to sell media. Few people want to waste the time to develop for these start ups not knowing if its going to succeed or not. There is nothing else like the iPhone and there wont be for quite a while if ever (until Apple releases the next version of the iPhone :p )
 
phillipduran said:
Ya, the big thing no competitor has is iTunes and the App store. Without a place like iTunes and the build up of customers that it has, all other competing devices are just useless shells.
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No competitor has an ecosystem that is as friendly, easy to use, cohesive, and robust as Apple's. Not even close, in fact. One of the issues is that no competitor has an iPod Touch-like device that facilitates cross-polination between itself and its smartphone cousin. The synergistic effect of the iPod Touch + iPhone is incredible.
 
*LTD* said:
No competitor has an ecosystem that is as friendly, easy to use, cohesive, and robust as Apple's. Not even close, in fact. One of the issues is that no competitor has an iPod Touch-like device that facilitates cross-polination between itself and its smartphone cousin. The synergistic effect of the iPod Touch + iPhone is incredible.
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WOW man your on here and AI!!

Apple for life :)

iDisk

:apple:
 
How many iphones and ipod touches have been sold in total? My hazy memory puts it at around 30 million iphones and a similar number of ipod touches, but I'm probably wrong. Given those figures of 3 billion apps downloaded, then that equals around 50 apps per iphone/ipod touch.

The iphone/page screen shows something like 16 apps per page? So that's around 3 or 4 pages worth of apps, which tallies with what I've witnessed (some have many more, and some have pretty much what comes with the device).

Most of my apps are either free or pennies. I'd be surprised if I'm not the norm in that case. Even the ones you buy, download, think "ugh" and delete - it doesn't seem such a big deal when you're talking about the price of a coffee at the cheapest coffee vendor.

So 3 billion doesn't surprise me. It does show though that Apple are perfectly placed to capitalise on any future device that will utilise the walled garden that they have carefully cultivated. Hmm, I wonder what other similar devices they may have up their sleeves....?
 
Graph misleading

Is anyone else bothered by the graph? It appears that the number of apps sold is growing, no, EXPLODING each month! However, the Y axis is TOTAL number of apps. By definition, this type of graph will never slope downward.

A better one would list number of apps sold each month. Then we can see raises and falls easier.

Apple does this a lot at keynotes (number of iphones sold, number of apps sold, number of ipods sold). Of course it looks impressive (skyrocketing) when the graph is the TOTAL sold. Even declining sales will give the appearance of growth (the line gets higher.)
 
Anyone remember the day when the iPhone was completely closed, "web apps" were the only solutions for third party development, and Steve Jobs told us that it was much better this way? I do, cuz it was only two years ago.

I'm glad for the success of the app store, but Apple sure isn't humble about it. This press release should be titled, "sorry, you guys were right all along."
 
kdarling said:
Shazam is an interesting example for other reasons as well. The major carriers rarely talk about how many downloads they sell or give away, but Shazam was a special case:

It took about a year for iPhone users to download Shazam 10 million times.

It took the same amount of time for just dumbphone users to hit the same 10 million download mark on Verizon alone.

And this happened months before the iPhone had it available. Shazam not only wasn't being written about much at the time, but it's also harder for dumbphone users to even find such an app on VZW's store.

Dumbphone apps are a hidden elephant of the business, along with ringtones (which are now dropping from their sales peak).
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I'm calling bull on you this time Kdarling.

A couple of months after the iPhone version of Shazam was released, the Shazam CEO had announced that they had 1.5 million downloads of Shazam on the iPhone in only 2 months; he had also stated in that same interview that this same app on all other phones on all carriers had only seen 100,000 downloads in a year, not 10 million!

Read that again, 100,000 downloads on all phones (smart and dumb) for a year and then 1.5 million in the first two months of the iPhone's app release.

Giving you the benefit of the doubt, maybe you got confused when they also announced (right before the iPhone app launch) that they had hit 20 Million web users... but that took them several years.
 
mattwolfmatt said:
Is anyone else bothered by the graph? It appears that the number of apps sold is growing, no, EXPLODING each month! However, the Y axis is TOTAL number of apps. By definition, this type of graph will never slope downward.
Click to expand...

Exactly...I noticed that as well. This is why I argued in earlier posts for more information about the graph. Graphs, in general, can easily be discounted if one looks at the graph and asks himself/herself a few basic questions.

It's all Marketing anyway...graphs that is. Spin the graph to make people oooh and aaaah.

-Eric
 
It makes sense

It makes sense. New applications are being released at a faster pace now. The app store has been around for a while now and only recently has there been an official flickr, photoshop, imdb, engadget, and tumblr app. There are a lot of other large names that are still holding out for one reason or another, but their applications (most of which are free) are guaranteed to be downloaded. Not to mention the competition is heating up and app developers are jumping to meet the challenge by creating better and more useful apps like Pastebot.
 
infowarfare said:
I'm calling bull on you this time Kdarling.
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I actually do appreciate the research effort you put into your challenge. Nice job! However...

A couple of months after the iPhone version of Shazam was released, the Shazam CEO had announced that they had 1.5 million downloads of Shazam on the iPhone in only 2 months; he had also stated in that same interview that this same app on all other phones on all carriers had only seen 100,000 downloads in a year, not 10 million!
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While you're right about what he said, he wasn't counting the carrier versions of Shazam that have custom names. In this case, it's called "Song Id".

Verizon's Song Id app downloaded 10 million times

VCast Song Id was written for BREW phones by Rocket Mobile, but it's powered by Shazam.

I do see that my memory was faulty though... it took about six months longer for the VZW app to make 10 million than I remembered.

Still, I'm shocked at the number of dumbphone downloads just on one carrier. Plus paid BREW apps have made developers hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties. Like I said, it's a large app store market that no one talks about.

Regards!
 
Wow! This download curve is a clear demonstration of exponential growth. In the near future we will be seeing infinite downloads of Apps causing overloading of the internet. The combined spinning of electrons will create a black hole sucking in the planet and the entire universe. Just like infinite human population growth predictions.
 
SirHaakon said:
Anyone remember the day when the iPhone was completely closed, "web apps" were the only solutions for third party development, and Steve Jobs told us that it was much better this way? I do, cuz it was only two years ago.

I'm glad for the success of the app store, but Apple sure isn't humble about it. This press release should be titled, "sorry, you guys were right all along."
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This is a fair point.

Apple is proud of these download numbers, but they seem to gloss over the fact they were way wrong about thinking it was not the right thing to do in the first place.
 
marksman said:
This is a fair point.

Apple is proud of these download numbers, but they seem to gloss over the fact they were way wrong about thinking it was not the right thing to do in the first place.
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Do people honestly believe that Apple didn't intend on native apps from the very beginning? That they just pulled the SDK out of their butts when the outcry grew too loud to ignore? Seriously???

Palm is still working on their SDK. I guess they didn't think native apps were important either, right? :rolleyes:
 
ericinboston said:
Exactly...I noticed that as well. This is why I argued in earlier posts for more information about the graph. Graphs, in general, can easily be discounted if one looks at the graph and asks himself/herself a few basic questions.

It's all Marketing anyway...graphs that is. Spin the graph to make people oooh and aaaah.

-Eric
Click to expand...

*sigh*. There's nothing wrong with the graph. No, it can go downwards because it's showing the progression of total downloads over a period of time. This graph can show negative trends though as much as positive ones, it's not some marketing magic eraser for negativity like you seem to present it as.

If app store downloads were slowing down, like let's say that 2008 would've seen more downloads than 2009 you would see slope's angle ease out over 2009 where it would be more abrut over 2008. This would be clear sign that something is wrong.
 
HiVolt said:
Yeah, this is great and all, but what I'd like to see the breakdown on how many paid & free app downloads there are, and actually how many are kept on a device for more than a week.
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Pinch Media (now Flurry) publishes estimates of these breakdown and longevity stats in their blog.

There is so much GARBAGE in the App Store.
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There's a saying that 80% of everything is garbage. But that still leaves over 25K apps in the App store that aren't garbage. And one man's garbage is another man's valuable find. Any app that stays in the upper 20% in popularity for more than a month is getting more downloads and more 5-star ratings than a dev can get from just family and friends.
 
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