Steve Jobs discusses App Store with Wall Street Journal

This morning's Wall Street Journal has a really interesting article (use Google News to view the complete text) about the App Store, complete with quotes from Steve Jobs himself! While the full article is definitely worth a read, here are some of the highlights:

After the first month, App Store sales are about $30 million US, meaning at least $360 million in revenue for Apple if sales continue at that pace (we discussed the success of the App Store on a micro-level, here)
Steve on the App Store: "I've never seen anything like this in my career for software."
Steve on the future of mobile technology: "Phone differentiation used to be about radios and antennas and things like that. We think, going forward, the phone of the future will be differentiated by software."
Steve on the ability to disable a program remotely: "Hopefully we never have to pull that lever, but we would be irresponsible not to have a lever like that to pull."

As Steve Sande pointed out in last night's Talkcast, amid all the criticism aimed at the App Store, we often forget that the store is only one month old. That isn't to say that those criticisms are invalid or unnecessary, it just brings some perspective to the "bigger picture," if you will. Now that we are a month in, it is clear that the store, the distribution format, and the platform are real game changers for the mobile industry and for Apple itself.

Thanks John!

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Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121842341491928977.html

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Analysis / Opinion Apple iPhone App Store

This morning's Wall Street Journal has a really interesting article (use Google News to view the complete text) about the App Store,...

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xanotoes

does anyone else want to see Apple pull the lever. That be awsome. Maybe we are all walking WMD's.

August 11 2008 at 10:27 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

austrini

Geez - can you have some non iphone posts? Just a few?

August 11 2008 at 9:57 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

2 replies to austrini's comment

Kizor

TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

iPhone IS an Apple product. So therefore is CAN be talked about.

August 11 2008 at 11:20 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

(01)

You obviously have no idea how bad it was around here directly following the 2G launch. (shrugs) I own one now, so I don't mind as much, but it IS and Apple product, and a pretty amazing one at that.

August 11 2008 at 1:44 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Commandant Uno

It's fantastic that Apple is maintaining quality control oversight. As a former Palm user, it seemed Palm's solution to every problem was to uninstall all third-party software.

August 11 2008 at 8:35 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Commandant Uno's comment

Christina Warren

That is precisely why I was excited about the "review" process in the first place (I was a longtime Palm user). Now, clearly, Apple still has some major kinks to work out regarding what gets through/doesn't -- but when I think back at the headaches that even "reputable" apps could cause on my various Palm devices, I really want to avoid that kind of thing at all costs.

August 11 2008 at 8:42 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Ben

I fell for the App hype too. I was so excited. Now I have the same iPhone (minus cut/paste and a handful of other irksome little bugs) with a couple of novelty games. Pandora is cool, but the Apps didn't revolutionize my world.

August 11 2008 at 8:21 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

2 replies to Ben's comment

Christina Warren

Keep the faith -- your world might never be "changed" by apps for the iPhone, but I imagine that within time, there will be some really cool tools that you can access that will really enhance your mobile experience. We're only one month in, the landscape and the market are growing so quickly, I think that in 6 months, you'll probably be a lot happier with apps.

August 11 2008 at 8:38 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

(01)

I agree with Christina...I can't imagine the OS X launch, Vista launch, or any other major, new, software launch has gone without it's problems. Since this is a new platform and a new software system, I'm willing to be a little flexible with Apple as they get the kinks sorted out.

Money quote - "Hopefully we never have to pull that lever, but we would be irresponsible not to have a lever like that to pull."

He's right; the first time an App did something terrible to someones phone, everyone would question why Apple couldn't remote-deactivate the problem.

August 11 2008 at 1:43 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply