Apple’s App Store has passed the 100,000 app mark within 16 months
Created by hasan.kamal under iPhone
Congratulations are in order for Apple; Apple’s App Store has passed the 100,000 app mark within 16 months. This is no small achievement considering that the concept of an app store along with the product life of the iPhone has been a few short years in comparison to some industry giants such as Nokia, Palm, Samsung, LG, and Sony Ericsson.
The number is milestone considering the tough review that most apps go through when submitted to Apple. With a wait time of weeks to months, Apple’s iPhone is a consumer success along with the App Store that created a massive storm of developers moving into to develop apps.
However, the competition is heating up with Google’s acquisition of specialist social media and web design companies. Clearly, the Android Marketplace seems like it will get a revamp to ensure that it can compete with the integration of iTunes-App Store. The social media will probably integrate with Google searches ensuring that the developers and Marketplace both receive webtraffic.
Secondly, Palm’s holding a conference soon in an effort to attract more customers to its webOS. Interestingly enough, Palm has a number of high-quality apps that have been developed by specialist firms already available. As mentioned previously in the blog, Fandango has its own version available for webOS, which helps build customer trust in the platform itself. The Palm Pre and Pixi will help spread the word of webOS, provided Palm markets them aggressively on Sprint’s network.
BlackBerry is also pushing its OS into the open with a conference in December to help get developers on board their platform. However, the cross porting issues are something that should be addressed to help quickly to build a base of apps that users can purchase from AppWorld to help retain users. Hopefully these issues will be addressed in December’s conference by BlackBerry.
Windows Mobile recently received some significant funding and support from Microsoft as a new version of WinMo 7 looks as one of the best revamps of a technology in a long time. This revamp is important as well since consumers are becoming aware of the Android and BlackBerry platforms thanks to device sales, while sales for WinMo smartphones have been stable based on Gartner reports. Nokia’s continued sales slump does not help the situation along with the recent focus of HTC on Android. Windows Mobile has revitalized itself as well in an effort to catch-up with Apple’s iPhone success.
Symbian has also taken a hit in terms of marketshare due to Nokia’s sales slumping in the face of the new phones released this year. However, Symbian is still leading the share thanks to the legacy of older smartphones running primarily Symbian or Windows Mobile. However, Apple grabbed 2 percent of marketshare from Symbian. It seems that Symbian is also working overtime in an effort to work to support more devices and bring more handset manufacturers to its consortium.
In the long term, what does this all mean for Apple? They have a first mover advantage in this market. The number of developers is mushrooming in growth everyday. To retain these developers Apple needs to streamline the approval process for apps by providing reliable and willing app developers special privileges to priority reviews. App developers that are willing to wait could continue to use the existing review system. In addition, the iPhone needs to evolve as a device into something new to compete with the likes of Nokia, HTC, Samsung and LG whose specialty in phone design is more than capable of winning customers over.
Nonetheless, it’s been a very good year for Apple, and it looks like they are going to be leading the pack for now.
Do you think that Apple will maintain this impetus for the iPhone and App Store? Does it seem like HTC might become the next probable challenger to the iPhone with its phones and technology? Are the other platforms and handset manufacturers collaborating going to change market dynamics? Leave your thoughts and comments below.