App Store on track to do a billion items by 2009

You read that right -- it took the iTunes Store a few years, but as Roughly Drafted has calculated, Apple's App Store is on track, even if growth stops right now, to hit a billion apps served up by 2009. Obviously not all of those are paid apps, but by any count, that's a ton of applications dumped onto iPhones and iPod touches around the world.

That said, the App Store is far from perfect -- Apple's approval process has come under fire lately for a lack of transparency, among other issues, and of course the iTunes Store didn't have the benefit of most of its content being free. Of course the App Store is working to get apps on phones, but there are lots of kinks to be worked out, including just how "open" Apple is letting the store be, questions of quality over the software that does make it in, and just whether it's worth developers' time to deliver these applications anyway.

Just as the iFund guys noted, however, we're only in the first few steps of a marathon here. There's a long way to go, but already, in terms of an iPhone software distribution system, the App Store is a huge success.

[via Ars]

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Source: http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/09/12/iphone-apps-store-g…

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You read that right -- it took the iTunes Store a few years, but as Roughly Drafted has calculated, Apple's App Store is on track, even if...

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SiLeNt

Wow, you need to rewrite your first sentence. It doesn't make any sense. Are you talking about the iTunes MUSIC store? Also get rid of all those commas.

It doesn't seem right that I should be giving the "blogger" a grammar lesson..

September 16 2008 at 12:01 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Sam

The graph looks pretty and all, but the theory that every iPhone owner is going to go out and download an average of 50-100 apps seems a little farfetched. I think there was a lot of initial pent-up demand, and we'll actually see the volume take a temporary dip as folks become satisfied with the apps they already have.

September 16 2008 at 9:01 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

jthollister

Well, at least they know to take the app store seriously now :)

Listen, this is exciting and no doubt very good numbers for Apple (and what's good for Apple is good for us). Developers seeing this is a very good thing.

However I don't see how you can compare it to iTunes' ascension. I mean, When iTunes started, Apple was a lot smaller than it is now. If anything, the success of iTunes is what made the App Store so popular so quickly.

Not that it isn't an incredible thing! At any rate, I want more apps, and these numbers will surely show developers that this is definitely a viable platform!

Love to see more games like Spore and Force Unleashed, from big-name game developers!

September 16 2008 at 8:44 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Derek M.

I wonder if that figure also includes App Updates that re-download from the AppStore.

September 16 2008 at 12:10 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

(01)

"It took them a few years"
Do you mean months? I wouldn't consider web-apps, the only type avaiable until the 3G launch, part of the "billions," so I'm not sure where the years time frame is coming from.

That aside, good up to Apple, I just hope some more improvements come to the apps/store as we get closer to that number.

September 15 2008 at 9:16 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to (01)'s comment

chris yang

I think he meant it took the itunes music store a few years to sell a billion music tracks (songs) while it's only taken the app store a couple of months (to sell/give away a billion apps).

However if the overall market is like my downloading/purchasing history, there are many, many less paid apps being bought. My ratio is about 35:1 free apps to paid apps. I've only bought 1 and downloaded 35 free ones.

September 15 2008 at 9:36 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

frank.lowney

When you say that the iTunes Store had / has no free content, are you considering the 100.000 + free podcasts? Would that matter in the comparison of the App Store to the iTunes Store?

September 15 2008 at 8:42 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply