App Store is a virtual store with iPhone and iPod touch software with an amazingly purchase-friendly interface. No installers, no tiresome filling in personal details - you need only a native iPhone application and active iTunes Store account. You purchase iPhone apps from App Store with simply two taps on its touch screen. You may find yourself spending money not even realising it.That is why, among others, App Store has seen a billion apps downloaded in just nine months. This magical threshold of a billion downloads was crossed last Thursday, which Apple triumphantly announced on its website and awarded a user who made the historical download with a USD 10 thousand iTunes Gift Card, MacBook Pro and iPod touch. Apple rivals are fed up with looking how the market escapes right in front of their eyes knowing it is likely to be bigger than the mobile advertising one in forthcoming years. They rush into introducing their own App Store clones hoping for similar profits. There is much to fight for really. The market of mobile software - including games, ringtones, wallpapers and mobile TV is - according to Strategy Analytics - to grow 18% to USD 67 billion in 2009 despite global crisis.
Each day iPhone and iPod touch users download 3.5 million apps. It means that each and every user out of 37 million Apple clients has so far downloaded 30 apps on average. There are over 35 thousand applications already in the store, verging from the most advanced games, via e-books to professional business apps and even… human fart simulators. Both - third party developers (the biggest players on the market and total amateurs among them) and Apple (that charges a 30% sales commission) cash in on App Store. It is believed the value of App Store sales will cross USD 2 billion in 2010. Apple will earn USD 600 million net, then. Add proceeds from the sales of iPhones and iPod touches to it and you are likely to see Apple boast with at least one billion dollars in 2010 from products that have been around since mid 2007.
There have so far been 37 million gadgets with App Store access sold: 21.7 million iPhones and 15.8 million iPod touches. There is no official statistics in Poland but it is believed Era (T-Mobile) and Orange have so far sold over 100 thousand iPhones 3G. Nobody - probably apart from Apple that does not report partial statistics - monitors the sales of iPod touches in Poland.
Apple's rivals on the smartphone market (advanced mobile phones that are used for surfing the Internet more often than making calls) have no intention of seeing Steve Jobs's company earn thick millions on the mobile software boom. They collectively announced the set-ups of their own App Store clones at the biggest mobile industry fairs that took place in Barcelona, Spain last February. Nokia presented Ovi Store - a mobile store that will be pre-installed on the new N97 models starting this May and that will be available on other smartphones from the Finnish producer. PoacketGear showed App Store for Symbian - a mobile store with software for Symbian-based Nokia phones. It remains uncertain how it will be competing with Ovi Store. Microsoft, in turn, will soon introduce its new mobile operational system Windows Mobile with Windows Marketplace, a virtual store with roughly 20 thousand applications.
Google and RIM - BlackBerry smartphones producer and Palm had launched their mobile stores earlier. Google set up Android Market last October but has been allowing paid apps since last February only. RIM invited developers to write apps for BlackBerry phones last October too but it is unknown when they are available to users. Palm that is preparing for a triumphant return with a new smartphone Pre introduced Palm Software Store last December. There are only about 200 apps in it, though.
The leading global telecoms - T-Mobile and China Mobile plan to open their own mobile software stores too. The Chinese player is expected to benefit from the mobile software boom because iPhone and consequentially App Store have not made their way to the Chinese market yet.
While others are constructing their own mobile distribution platforms yet, Apple is already introducing innovations that will ensure another wave of ready cash to its pockets. The company presented a new mobile OS - iPhone 3.0 last March. The most spectacular changes come in App Store. Apple's new way to boost sales is micropayments. So far purchase has been a one-time event. Now it will be possible to sell additional content in App Store. Moreover, you will be able to sell it inside applications. You can just imagine the consequences it will bring to iPhone users. You play a fancy game; you have just ended the second level and you want the next one? Pay for it without leaving your game. You want to lead a virtual life with an iPhone app? Pay for additional elements of your virtual entertainment without leaving your second life. You want to follow live result of Champions League final? Pay for it. This will boost money flow in App Store and Apple will cash 30% of any additional dollar taken over from users.
komentarze
4 Responses to "AppStore Billions"They're not copying Apple with the App Store. They all came up with the idea this year on their own. They'd been planning to do this for years, but were busy trying to dominate the handset market by their own methods. Besides, no users on the other platforms ever asked for a central app store. They prefer to hunt down apps on their own to show their independence from a central control point.
Y'know, mention to a Mac user that Windows has lots more software available than Mac OS X and you will hear about how most Windows software is crap, nobody needs 37 different word processors, most people don't use the apps and they're all in niche markets and anything you would need is available for Mac or is available via the Web.
Of course, now the Mewling Macintosh Mavens are at it again, denigrating everyone else for not having as many apps as Apple's App Store. Of course, you also don't have 6 or 7 different flashlight apps, as well as fart noises, virtual koi ponds, 5 different twitter clients, lighters, artist promotional websites, etc., etc.
I'm not saying they are copying App Store but its distribution model. This is how Apple has revolutionised this market - they made a very friendly-purchase store with simply two taps to buy. There is no other tool like this on the market yet.
Of course you may not need the 7th flashlight app but how to explain this is the fastest growing mobile platform in history? Why then those serious apps in Microsoft's or Nokia's stores have not been selling so fast as Apple's ones? They have been around for much longer, haven't they?
I'm certain 80% of users do like App Store as a central control point. They simply want to have everything in one place, easy to use, easy to view, which follows the same pattern every time. Tap - view - download with a single tap - use it/play it. The remaining 20% are geeks - the ones who will always want to mess around…
He was being sarcastic.
Post a Comment