Mobile Apps: It’s a Numbers Game

Galya
10.18.2009

0.03% of 85000 is 25.5. 97% of 260 is 252.2. Your logic is sound, but your maths sure as hell isn’t.

Fielding
10.18.2009

Yeah, but how many farting apps does one phone need?

Girolamo
10.18.2009

The Signal-to-Noise (SNR) ratio on Apple’s App store is getting pretty low.

Kevine
10.18.2009

It will be interesting if they have apps that Apple doesn’t allow, for example: Google Voice, Opera Browser, Trillian, etc.Appstore has 85K apps, and likely 75K are complete CRAP. So, you know, it all depends.

Viviano
10.18.2009

"this time around it seems all of the best apps are in the App(le) store"Yeah, "all" but those pesky Google apps & anything else big brother Apple doesnt think you’re privileged to have.Maybe if you pray to Lord Jobs hard enough, he’ll bless you with those someday.

Eduardo
10.18.2009

you gotta start somewhere, more competition, better apps for everyone

Xander
10.18.2009

It’s funny; when I first switched to Mac in 2001 it was all about a numbers game then. Windows had a bazillion applications available and the Mac had the proverbial 9.5. The argument is as true now as it was then, if they’re the best 9.5 apps available and you only 5 of them to do your job, it makes no difference.That said, this time around it seems all of the best apps are in the App(le) store, and, it seems to offer the better experience. I wonder if MS sunk Danger/Sidekick on purpose to get all those Win-MO users clamouring at their App store shelves.

Damali
10.18.2009

Not all of Windows Mobile apps are at Microsoft’s app store. What about Handango? I am sure they have more than that… not to mention all the freeware floating around the web.

Jennyl
10.18.2009

but all the songs are in russian

Rafiki
10.18.2009

The AppStore products are cross-referenced by category and then further subdivided into free, paid and "what’s hot" lists, accessed by a search menu and new releases are on the opening screen. The store is available on the web, in iTunes and on your device. Let us not forget that, additionally, iPhone software makers promote their own apps independently of Apple on their own sites and in their own literature. Once you actually find an app you have user reviews, star ratings and screenshots to look at to determine if you actually think it’s useful.Whether you love the Apple AppStore or hate it, you can’t exactly tell me that the Apps for the iPhone are hard to find.

Philippa
10.18.2009

All that tells me is that I have about 84,900 crappy apps I have to wade through to find any decent ones…/iphone owner

Tina
10.18.2009

No, it doesn’t matter, because unlike Apple, I can download Windows Mobile applications anywhere, not just from a marketplace populated only with apps Microsoft decides I should be allowed to use. Also, as the article mentions WIndows Mobile has at least 20,000 apps.

Ossie
10.18.2009

Of course it should matter… Apple is shinier.

Lindy
10.18.2009

Useful apps are only useful if you can find them.

Orenda
10.18.2009

Actually, it isn’t just a generic Twitter client app. It’s an app that will share your location with updates by time/distance interval. For example, if you set it to 1 km, it will update your location every 1 km. Same with 30 min, etc. There is a timer that you can set so it’ll do an auto-tweet after a certain time has elapsed. You can also have pre-set messages that you can select quickly. You can even share a path you’ve taken somewhere. So really it does something that no other Twitter client did or does. Sure it’s a niche area, but I think it is pretty neat myself. Guess I’m the only one though and that is why it isn’t selling! We also have a free Twitdar lite app coming out soon, but it has been stuck in the app store review process for over a month now (that process is a whole story in itself).

Timmy
10.18.2009

Apple’s definitely turned it into a numbers game.

Umed
10.18.2009

A .. is someone butthurt about having multiple fart apps?Unlike you, I didn’t buy those farting apps the day they launched. I found out about them via a segment on The Daily Show. In July. Of this year.Bruce Lee kicked Chuck Norris’s ass.

Oral
10.18.2009

"Apple has 85,000 apps and some of them are so much fun, like that virtual lighter and the Ocarina (that thing is amazing)."This article was seriously written in October of 2009? Has this guy even picked up an iPhone since 2.0? Next he’ll be writing about how fresh and new Shazam and Weatherbug is.

Mia
10.18.2009

Not to sound cruel or anything, but did you consider that a. there are already a couple of very well known and liked twitter client apps and b. they’re free with some pay versions with more features of the same free apps? What made you think it’d suddenly and spontaneously get downloads?You can’t simply go making an app of something that already has a half dozen (if not more) apps currently available for it and expect downloads. For example, i’ve got twitterific on my iphone.. i’ll occasionally try out others but for the most part i’m happy to stick with what i’ve got.If you create an app for the iphone without first thinking things through about how to market it and get it known to the masses then I say you deserve the impending failure. Never mind the twitter client apps that don’t even have a free version. (if there is no free version then I’m not going to go and blindly buy something since I can’t at the least evaluate the free version as an indication of the quality of the app both free and paid)

Jaguar
10.18.2009

That’s still 10,000 good apps by your reckoning, how many of those 260 Windows Apps are any good?

Esther
10.18.2009

I don’t think it’s going to work out that way though. Judging by the number of downloads that Apple are advertising plus the fact that most downloads are free apps, it looks like most people consider iPhone apps to be disposable. In fact, the low prices in the AppStore only encourage this way of thinking. If the apps are disposable then you can’t lock users to your platform.

Zevi
10.18.2009

Quality over quantity

Hulda
10.18.2009

The problem isn’t always the number of competing apps – it’s the number of competing apps that provide a unique and polished experience. If you want to make a splash, you’ve got to develop something more ambitious than just another Twitter app.

Xenon
10.18.2009

Its clever enough, but what is it’s practical purpose? I cant think of any situation where I would want to track someone, or be tracked. Maybe if i ran a marathon I suppose. Pretty niche app imo.

Osric
10.18.2009

Forgive me if I’m wrong, but aren’t most of Apple’s Apps relatively simple affairs that I often find written in flash or java online for free on my PC?

Xakery
10.18.2009

If you’re looking for an app, and there are 10 or 20 apps that fit that specific purpose, there’s a pretty good chance you’re going to find one that works exactly how you want it to work. For example, there are way more chess apps on the iPhone than Android. By extension I was able to find an iPhone app that I felt was perfect while the Android chess app I now use, while functional, is lacking in several areas I consider important while excelling in various areas that are irrelevant to me.Another example is calorie counting apps. On android I only have a few to choose from while iphone had dozens. As expected, the iPhone app I used (LooseIt) was a lot better than the best Android app I could find (FatSecret). I specifically dropped the LiveStrong iPhone app because I wanted one that wasn’t totally dependent on a persistent connection (my phone has no connection inside my workplace), with the large amount of overlapping apps on the iPhone I was able to find a replacement (the aforementioned LooseIt) which didn’t need a network connection (it used a local food DB). The small amount of apps on Android means I don’t have enough flexibility to pick and choose apps like this, usually I’ll be happy to find an app that does what I want and doesn’t completely suck. Finding an app that has a specific secondary feature(s) is usually not possible on Android.

Fielding
10.18.2009

well, considering how many appstore apps blow balls, yes, it does matter.

Tabananica
10.18.2009

HTC FTW!!

Gunda
10.18.2009

Apple is all Nazi on what Apps are in their store.The question is, is Microsoft?

Yanichel
10.18.2009

The important thing is that you don’t need the store to load apps onto Windows Mobile.

Abie
10.18.2009

Real life example:I used Windows Mobile for several years before i switched to iPhone (from launch). If we exclude "homebrew" (from Cydia etc) I don’t enjoy apps on iPhone any more than on WM – mainly because of all the limitations that prevents many of them of being really useful. Of course the interface is way better in all apps, but it doesn’t make them useful.But there’s probably a bunch of awesome apps for iPhone i never tried, because i have now basically given up the App Store because 99% of the apps are complete crap and/or "duplicates", and I don’ bother spending time looking for the good ones.Conclusion: In my opinion, usefulness/enjoyment of apps on WM is equal to apps on iPhone.

Michaela
10.18.2009

According to my calculations one phone needs 6 farting apps for optimal performance.

Bash
10.18.2009

Some are… most though? I wouldn’t say that.

Urmi
10.18.2009

For developers it’s also hard to get noticed with 85,000 apps to compete with. I worked on this Twitter client app (Twitdar – bit.ly/twitdar) and it gets almost no downloads. The number of apps being made is sure to slow down as developers realize that people are unwilling to pay even a couple of dollars for most apps even when they are able to find it.

Deniz
10.18.2009

It matters tremendously. It’s exactly the advantage, in the opposite direction, that allows Windows to keep dominating the Mac.

Annabella
10.18.2009

Not quite. Right now there are so many apps in the App Store that there is just a general pressure to keep prices below $3 (hell, there are people complaining that $2 games by reputable developers is too expensive!). With prices that low and such difficulty to make the product stand out (you can only have so many featured apps), there aren’t many developers looking into making high end apps, because they’d be laying too much money on the line.You get a lot of bang for your buck in the App Store, but there is now a lack of great apps since there is such an overabundance of people making them. It’s like a gold rush, and right now we really need to wait for this gold rush to go bust so that we can be left with a reasonable number of apps and app developers; enough for competition to keep it interesting, but not so much competition that you have 300+ to do apps.

Bahari
10.18.2009

apple fanboy has something to rave about. Good for you

Durand
10.18.2009

Only when they block the ***** that shouldn’t be blocked, see: C64 app, Google Voice app…

Yates
10.18.2009

How many ways can you make an app that makes fart noises?Apparently about 70,000…

Gallagher
10.18.2009

I just installed an app in my wm phone that let’s me turn it into a wifi router. do they have that in the apple store?There’s a ton of software out there for WM. It’s just not neatly packaged into a store. iphone’s app store is simply brilliant and if microsoft can pull it off they can at least level the playing field.Of course if apple wanted to win they’d release the iphone onto all the carriers.

Nura
10.18.2009

How many Java apps are there for the numerous MIDP enabled phones?

Baden
10.18.2009

I complain all the time about sony’s imposed limitations on the ps3, just not out loud most of the time.

Taber
10.18.2009

You think hardware doesn’t make a difference? Really? Have you been paying attention for the last 20 years? Hardware always has to be in place for the software to be developed.

Wally
10.18.2009

I think that part of the problem is finding apps on Itunes. Sure I can search, and get a big long list of apps, but how is that helpful? The new Itunes makes this a little better, but I would imagine as a developer this is still not so good. In itunes I cannot, open multiple tabs and compare apps side by side, or search for apps with more specific information, or see the rating without clicking on each app individually. Until apple fixes itunes, developers and consumers are going to have a difficult time with it.

Aster
10.18.2009

Isn’t that what people said about Twitter in general though? I made the app after watching Twitter being used after major disasters and during political strife and thought it would be neat to see precisely where these tweets were coming from. Sure, it may not be used that extreme way everyday, but I could see people wanting to share where they are with others so they could meet-up, hang-out or whatever. And unlike apps like Google Latitude, you don’t have to keep it on the entire time – you can choose when and where to release your location tweet.

Estelle
10.18.2009

Why do people keep making the mistake of thinking that a faster processor or other specs are what make a good smartphone. It’s about the interface and overall experience. When the competition understands that then there will be something for Apple to worry about. A faster processor… you really think that’s going to make the difference? Really? Really?!

Fidella
10.18.2009

It’s not about who has how may app’s.The first thing that comes to mind is what OS is running on the phone… If it’s windows CE.. for get about it. that OS sucks… the latest version may be better butthe last version sucked so hard it drove me away from any phone that was running it.The second thing that comes to mind is what network does the phone work on.If it’s AT&T. Then I may as well stay with the iphone. I only put up with the ATT because I love the Iphone.Now and only now I’ll look at the app’s… ya 85,000 app’s is a lot but I would say most of them are junk or just stupid.but there are some great jem’s.. With a selection of only 200 app’s my guess 90% of them are junk.

Swoosie
10.18.2009

I had Android and I left it because there were so few apps available. The great thing was almost everything was enormously useful and best of all free. I think I paid for about 5 apps out of the few dozen I downloaded. I felt like I wanted more though.Enter my sexy new 3Gs and all the shiny apple apps…which I pay though the nose for, and they don’t have near the functionality in many cases that the Android platform allows for. For instance I REALLY miss being able to multi-task. And as someone else said 75K of Apple apps are total CRAP…and as someone else mentioned, how many fart machines can one person possibly use, and while I’m at that…I really only need 1 tip calculator if I can’t do math… The thing with Apple though is the platform is so incredibly poplular that nearly everyone makes an app for the itunes store. I can unlock my house and my car with my iphone, but nothing even close with my Android.I believe that Android will catch on over time, due to the utter functionality and the whole free culture associated with it. Will it ever get marketshare from Apple…not bloody likely. People are crazy loyal to that company for some reason I have not as of yet been able to discern. I believe the Android rise in fan base will come from new users.My 2 cents.

Cais
10.18.2009

It’s not simply a numbers game. First off, most apps are quite cheap. The writer cites the PC app market as the reason this is not sustainable, well PC apps ran a lot more than 99 cents an app even for throw away stuff it was usually around 10 dollars. Looking to the what Microsoft is offering for mobile is a bit of a joke as well. Does anyone remember about 3 years ago when they launched "Games for Windows" and then promptly followed that up with zero support and zero games. In fact they did the exact opposite of what they said they’d do, they bought up a bunch of games companies and then stopped them supporting the Windows platform. Apple has learned everything right about how to run this market and they’re running it correctly. Microsoft has learned how to kill a market but can’t figure out why it’s not working this time.