Apple’s App Store: More than 1.5 billion served

[AppleInsider]

As Apple's mobile App Store turned 1 year old this past week, the Cupertino company announced Tuesday that more than 1.5 billion total applications were downloaded in the last 12 months, and the store's popularity continues to grow at an incredible pace.

That's another half-billion downloads in the last three months – a trend which suggests the App Store's popularity is gaining significant momentum.

On April 23, the App Store hit 1 billion total downloads, just over nine months after the destination first launched on July 10, 2008. Over those first 288 days, the App Store averaged nearly 3.5 million downloads per day.

But serving up an additional half-billion applications since April 23 has skewed that total much higher. Over the period of one year, Apple's App Store has been home to nearly 4.1 million application downloads per day.

To put the last three months in perspective, to achieve 500 million application downloads since April 23, Apple has maintained a pace of over 6.3 million downloads per day over the past 79 days.

Chalk it up to more than 40 million devices capable of accessing the App Store in consumers' hands. The three iPhone models and the iPod Touch serve customers in 77 different countries.

"The App Store is like nothing the industry has ever seen before in both scale and quality," said Apple chief executive Steve Jobs. "With 1.5 billion apps downloaded, it is going to be very hard for others to catch up."

Apple boasts that the software destination is “the largest applications store in the world.” It also said that there are more than 65,000 apps available from more than 100,000 developers in the iPhone Developer Program.

Still, as a revenue stream for Apple, the App Store may not be as profitable as these numbers might suggest. With a rumored ratio of 15 to 40 free apps for every paid one sold, and an O'Reilly estimate that the mean price for an application is $2.65, Lightspeed Venture Partners' Jeremy Liew suggested in May that Apple may have only earned between $20 million and $45 million from the App Store.

But Apple has maintained that the App Store isn't meant to be a profit generator as much as it is a means of attracting customers to the iPhone and iPod touch, where the majority of profit exists.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[chronster]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

"The App Store is like nothing the industry has ever seen before in both scale and quality," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a press release.

steam

[thadogg]

impressive, should get to about 2 billion by end of september.
hard for others to catch up indeed

[fpsanders]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Apple has shipped more than 40 million total devices capable of accessing the App Store.

Wait, isn't 1,5 billion / 40 million = 37,5 apps per device capable of downloading from the app-store? Taking into account that not every device is working/used, or that not everyone is downloading like crazy (I consider myself a normal user and downloaded about 30 apps) does that mean some users have, like, close to a hundred apps on their phone?

Sounds like a lot...

[hill60]

Originally Posted by chronster

steam

Steam?

1,500,000,000 downloads and 65,000 applications in the first 12 months?

People hated it when it first came out, I don't think they got anywhere near those figures in their first year.

[supremedesigner]

Wow. That was pretty fast. It was a billion like a few weeks ago, something like that.

I wondered if users downloaded and didn't like it, then deleted it afterward. I guess 1.5 billions included removal and re-downloaded. My two cents

[Roc Ingersol]

Originally Posted by fpsanders

Wait, isn't 1,5 billion / 40 million = 37,5 apps per device capable of downloading from the app-store?

This comes up every time they release numbers. Best guess is that they're counting version updates as discrete downloads.

[GregoriusM]

Yes, another article I read stated that some users do indeed have more than one hundred apps on their iPhone or iPod touch.

In fact, you can have more on the device than the 11 screens can hold. You just download them to your device and access them from the Spotlight page.

Some have never downloaded an app and use only the ones on the device. Some have downloaded a half doze.

If I remember correctly the average for the small survey they made was in face in the middle thirties range.

I have 133 apps, but only about half of them are still on my touch. And a good portion of those are Lite apps that I am evaluating, and will purchase some.

I have purchased some good quality apps, and will keep some of the free Lite apps, and a few of the free full apps. So, I'm sure I'll have at least 35 to 40 apps on the touch at any one time, or probably more.

I love that a lot of the apps can be played in just a few minutes at a time whenever there is a bit of time that needs filling. I've had 6 book readers, although I'm close to whittling that down to the two I like best. In fact, I used to be a voracious reader, but haven't read a book in 30 years. I am now once a again a reader, and I love it.

IM app, Tweet App, reader apps, Docs-to-Go, Wikipanion, Wikiaround, a grocery list app, Flixter movies, YP.ca for business, and personal phone numbers, Dictionary, PayPal, Facebook, Google, Google Earth, a few good utility apps for specific purposes that come in very handy, WebMD, Howcast, a host of free games I'm evaluating along with 6 or 7 I have bought.

So, yes, the average is about right as far as I'm concerned, and the quality of the apps keeps getting better and better. And they aren't all just games. They are very useful tools that I use on a regular basis. If the apps doesn't suit me, or I don't use it more than once or twice a month, then it gets taken off of my touch.

That being said, I love the choice we are given. This is the best PDA I have ever owned, and that is only the very basic function that I started with when moving from a Palm TX, and we all know what else is on the device that brings it to the very cool, very productive, very entertaining device that it is.

Apps are a very big part of that.

Greg

[JakeBarnes]

As Ballmer and his PC minions said, it'll never catch on.

[chronster]

Originally Posted by hill60

Steam?

1,500,000,000 downloads and 65,000 applications in the first 12 months?

People hated it when it first came out, I don't think they got anywhere near those figures in their first year.

Doesn't matter. Steam has the "scale and quality" and above all else, was here before the App store. It seems like I'm always reading people saying the App store is revolutionary, the first of it's kind, and unmatched. Steam was around long before and it's the exact same concept! Shame on other companies for not copying Steam sooner, and props to Apple for doing just that, but screw them to make people think they came up with the idea.

Sorry for sounding so bitter today. I'm tired an annoyed :/

[DanaCameron]

Originally Posted by fpsanders

Wait, isn't 1,5 billion / 40 million = 37,5 apps per device capable of downloading from the app-store? Taking into account that not every device is working/used, or that not everyone is downloading like crazy (I consider myself a normal user and downloaded about 30 apps) does that mean some users have, like, close to a hundred apps on their phone?

Sounds like a lot...

I consider myself a pretty normal user too. I currently have 139 downloaded apps in my Library (not all installed on my iPhone right now), but I've downloaded more than that. Most of the apps I've discarded were free and either no good or I replaced them with better versions or better apps.

[randythot]

Originally Posted by chronster

Doesn't matter. Steam has the "scale and quality" and above all else, was here before the App store. It seems like I'm always reading people saying the App store is revolutionary, the first of it's kind, and unmatched. Steam was around long before and it's the exact same concept! Shame on other companies for not copying Steam sooner, and props to Apple for doing just that, but screw them to make people think they came up with the idea.

Sorry for sounding so bitter today. I'm tired an annoyed :/

Steam is great, perhaps, as related to games?
But the App Store has a broader appeal including productivity and utilities related to the specialized hardware (GPS, motion sensor, magnetometer, etc.)
Honestly, as a middle-aged adult, I would not make my way quickly or easily to a third-party site, and the mere convenience of a native store like Apple's gives such tight integration that makes my experience much more seamless.

Unrelated to your post, but to the original article, Apple's profit is a moot point. It was all about barrier to entry (for competitors) and competitive advantage/appeal for the iPhone platform. Let's be honest, the App Store is likely a walk-off grandslam. Once all the carrier issues and 4G roll around, Apple will likely be the defacto smartphone, like the iPod to MP3-like players.

[randythot]

Originally Posted by DanaCameron

I consider myself a pretty normal user too. I currently have 139 downloaded apps in my Library (not all installed on my iPhone right now), but I've downloaded more than that. Most of the apps I've discarded were free and either no good or I replaced them with better versions or better apps.

Haha! I do the same thing...makes me feel like a kid upgrading and filling in a collectible toy set. It's oddly kind of a grown-up/geek crack.

Seriously, the level of personalization of one's iPhone with Apps is extremely endearing. Even arranging the Apps on pages.

[chronster]

Originally Posted by randythot

Steam is great, perhaps, as related to games?
But the App Store has a broader appeal including productivity and utilities related to the specialized hardware (GPS, motion sensor, magnetometer, etc.)
Honestly, as a middle-aged adult, I would not make my way quickly or easily to a third-party site, and the mere convenience of a native store like Apple's gives such tight integration that makes my experience much more seamless.

I'm not trying to discredit the app store's significance and importance, it's just that the whole model is so parallel to what steam is that it's pretty obvious they took a lesson or two from it's success.

The app store is common sense. I've always felt that. As I got into steam long before the app store was around, I felt the same way. Like you said though, it's focus is on games and the App store offers a broader range of things to download, BUT, my point still stands: When Apple says the App store is revolutionary, or a fanboy points to the app store and says nobody's ever done it before, I get mildly annoyed since I've been using steam for such a long time now.

[Morky]

Originally Posted by chronster

I'm not trying to discredit the app store's significance and importance, it's just that the whole model is so parallel to what steam is that it's pretty obvious they took a lesson or two from it's success.

The app store is common sense. I've always felt that. As I got into steam long before the app store was around, I felt the same way. Like you said though, it's focus is on games and the App store offers a broader range of things to download, BUT, my point still stands: When Apple says the App store is revolutionary, or a fanboy points to the app store and says nobody's ever done it before, I get mildly annoyed since I've been using steam for such a long time now.

When Steve said the app store "is like nothing the industry has ever seen before in both scale and quality", it was pretty clear to me he was talking about the mobile phone/device industry, not the PC industry.

[Morky]

What remains to be seen now is how this can benifit the Mac software ecosystem. In one year Apple has probably by several factors increased the number of developers who have Macs, use XCode and are familiar with Objective-C. I can't imagine that a lot of them won't try their hands at Mac development, porting programs they developed on other platforms.

[ncee]

It's downloads … not used, bought, paid for, just downloads.

We ALL know that many folks download these app's just to try them out.

And let us now forget iPod Touch - how many of these have been sold?

Hell, I downloaded (27 app's) - the FREE app's I could each day, week, month during the contest, (to get to a Billion) and not a ONE of these is on my iPod touch. Although I do still have them in my downloads folder.

Skip

[cameronj]

Originally Posted by fpsanders

Wait, isn't 1,5 billion / 40 million = 37,5 apps per device capable of downloading from the app-store? Taking into account that not every device is working/used, or that not everyone is downloading like crazy (I consider myself a normal user and downloaded about 30 apps) does that mean some users have, like, close to a hundred apps on their phone?

Sounds like a lot...

I would imagine far more than 50% are downloaded, tried, and then deleted.

[anantksundaram]

Originally Posted by fpsanders

Wait, isn't 1,5 billion / 40 million = 37,5 apps per device capable of downloading from the app-store? Taking into account that not every device is working/used, or that not everyone is downloading like crazy (I consider myself a normal user and downloaded about 30 apps) does that mean some users have, like, close to a hundred apps on their phone?

Sounds like a lot...

That's not a lot at all: It's a little over two home-screens worth of app downloads (at 16 per screen). I have about 3.5 screens of apps myself (56 in all), and do not consider myself a power user in any way. Btw, only 3 out of the 56 are paid apps (i.e., roughly 1 in 20, within the range of what the article suggests).

[cameronj]

Originally Posted by ncee

It's downloads … not used, bought, paid for, just downloads.

We ALL know that many folks download these app's just to try them out.

And let us now forget iPod Touch - how many of these have been sold?

Hell, I downloaded (27 app's) - the FREE app's I could each day, week, month during the contest, (to get to a Billion) and not a ONE of these is on my iPod touch. Although I do still have them in my downloads folder.

The Touch is included in the 40 million number.

[chronster]

Originally Posted by Morky

When Steve said the app store "is like nothing the industry has ever seen before in both scale and quality", it was pretty clear to me he was talking about the mobile phone/device industry, not the PC industry.

If I copied the app store and put it on a refrigerator, then said there was nothing like it, I'd still be completely full of shit. Bottom line is the app store isn't some brand new concept, and yes, the computer technology industry has seen the scale and quality before with steam. It's just weaselly comments from Steve Jobs plain and simple. To me "the industry" does blend smartphones with computers. I guess I'm just nitpicking.

[TenoBell]

It's true that the app store is nothing new in concept. It's also true that no one has previously developed an app store quite like what Apple has with the iPhone.

You are pushing this steam example too far. Most people have never heard of much less have purchased apps from steam. I'm sure the iPhone app store far exceeds the use and mind share that steam has ever had.

According to Wikipedia, steam currently has 756 games and 20 million user accounts.

Originally Posted by chronster

If I copied the app store and put it on a refrigerator, then said there was nothing like it, I'd still be completely full of shit. Bottom line is the app store isn't some brand new concept, and yes, the computer technology industry has seen the scale and quality before with steam. It's just weaselly comments from Steve Jobs plain and simple. To me "the industry" does blend smartphones with computers. I guess I'm just nitpicking.

[addabox]

Originally Posted by TenoBell

It's true that the app store is nothing new in concept. It's also true that no one has previously developed an app store quite like what Apple has with the iPhone.

You are pushing this steam example too far. Most people have never heard of much less have purchased apps from steam. I'm sure the iPhone app store far exceeds the use and mind share that steam has ever had.

According to Wikipedia, steam currently has 756 games and 20 million user accounts.

Agreed. I don't really understand how a PC game portal with less than a thousand titles has anything to do with the App Store or how anyone could imagine that Apple used it as a template.

You might as well argue that Apple copied Amazon, which also sells stuff online, or claim that there's nothing particularly interesting about the iPhone since many of its functions were already available on desktop machines.

Apples and oranges.

[chronster]

Originally Posted by addabox

Agreed. I don't really understand how a PC game portal with less than a thousand titles has anything to do with the App Store or how anyone could imagine that Apple used it as a template.

You might as well argue that Apple copied Amazon, which also sells stuff online, or claim that there's nothing particularly interesting about the iPhone since many of its functions were already available on desktop machines.

Apples and oranges.

I know you think you don't understand it, but you can if you tried.

It takes a considerable amount of time to create an entire PC game verses a fart app for a phone. The lack of titles is simply because of the lack of games. And remember, it's limited to GAMES. The app store has apps that have nothing to do with games which gives it the higher number.

The app store and steam are obviously the same concept. I read steve job's quote to sound like he had come along and done something entirely new. I read it this way because they repeatedly do this. Anything Apple does (even if it's been done before) is somehow revolutionary and new and amazing and blah blah blah

btw, nobody's comparing apple to amazon. That's just you trying to stretch the argument into something so ridiculous that it blurs the original point.

[brucep]

Originally Posted by Roc Ingersol

This comes up every time they release numbers. Best guess is that they're counting version updates as discrete downloads.

Thats 47 apps per secound for a whole year .

[OC4Theo]

Yes, it is a huge profit generator. To get an idea where this is going and what Apple's own internal projection is, one need to take into account the new server farm that was just commissioned.

Why would Apple want to spend a billion+ dollars to set up its own server farm? Apple uses Akamai for streaming/stoarge/iTunes/online store. Well that has been going on for over a decade now. And boom, App store exploded that demand, and the projected growth is so high that Apple doesn't want another company to be in-charge of it.

Apple also said that iTunes was to help its iPod sale. Although Apple never categorize its profit or income from iTunes, it is huge. And the App store potential is even greater.

App Store has PROFIT written all over it! Big Kahuna Profit!!!

[addabox]

Originally Posted by chronster

I know you think you don't understand it, but you can if you tried.

It takes a considerable amount of time to create an entire PC game verses a fart app for a phone. The lack of titles is simply because of the lack of games. And remember, it's limited to GAMES. The app store has apps that have nothing to do with games which gives it the higher number.

The app store and steam are obviously the same concept. I read steve job's quote to sound like he had come along and done something entirely new. I read it this way because they repeatedly do this. Anything Apple does (even if it's been done before) is somehow revolutionary and new and amazing and blah blah blah

btw, nobody's comparing apple to amazon. That's just you trying to stretch the argument into something so ridiculous that it blurs the original point.

How are Steam and the App Store "the same concept", exactly, in non-trivial terms? Why is comparing both of those to Amazon a stretch, while comparing Steam to the App Store not?

If you want to insist that selling fewer than a thousand games online to the PC market is obviously just like selling tens of thousands of broadly varied apps online or over the wireless network to a mobile device, than obviously you are focusing on similarities (software from assorted vendors sold online at a single site) and suppressing dissimilarities (everything else), so it doesn't seem to be a stretch at all to me to toss other online merchandise aggregators into the mix.

You seem to mainly be just sort of cranky about Apple claiming to have done something new, but they very evidently have revolutionized the mobile handset application market, with an unprecedented delivery mechanism that has incontestably resulted in an explosion of development for the platform.

Has Steam resulted in an explosion of game development? Has Steam ushered in a huge influx of game developers? Has Steam resulted in every other player in the market rushing to emulate its success? Has Steam, by popular consensus, utterly reformed the playing field for game sales to PCs?

We can also insist that the iPhone itself was nothing particularly special and interesting, since smart phones were already on the market, but the the special and interesting part of course lies in the particulars, as it does for most things.

[Trajectory]

Oops. Never mind.

[ccoc]

The result is tremendous for Apple and drives sales for the iPhone and iTouch but how many of these 100,000 developers can really make a decent living ? - see comments at http://bit.ly/q9jIb

[hillstones]

Over 1.5 billion served....now where have we heard that before? The old days of McDonald's before they changed the sign to "Billions and Billions Served"

[chronster]

Originally Posted by addabox

How are Steam and the App Store "the same concept", exactly, in non-trivial terms? Why is comparing both of those to Amazon a stretch, while comparing Steam to the App Store not?

If you want to insist that selling fewer than a thousand games online to the PC market is obviously just like selling tens of thousands of broadly varied apps online or over the wireless network to a mobile device, than obviously you are focusing on similarities (software from assorted vendors sold online at a single site) and suppressing dissimilarities (everything else), so it doesn't seem to be a stretch at all to me to toss other online merchandise aggregators into the mix.

You seem to mainly be just sort of cranky about Apple claiming to have done something new, but they very evidently have revolutionized the mobile handset application market, with an unprecedented delivery mechanism that has incontestably resulted in an explosion of development for the platform.

Has Steam resulted in an explosion of game development? Has Steam ushered in a huge influx of game developers? Has Steam resulted in every other player in the market rushing to emulate its success? Has Steam, by popular consensus, utterly reformed the playing field for game sales to PCs?

We can also insist that the iPhone itself was nothing particularly special and interesting, since smart phones were already on the market, but the the special and interesting part of course lies in the particulars, as it does for most things.

Steam allows you to browse game titles, read reviews on them, see a "meta score", see a preview of the game, and once purchased, it is forever attached to your account so you can re-download to another pc in the future if necessary. Steam also features a community aspect where you can join groups and use an instant messaging system to talk with friends, so it one-ups the app store.

So what is the app store? The app store allows you to browse app titles, read reviews on them, see a rating, see screen shots, and once purchased it is forever attached to your itunes account so you can re-download in the future if necessary.

They both are a central platform-specific hub that provides an easy access point for a specific type of software content. Amazon is an online store available to anyone and everyone, selling physical items like a store does. You can't keep a list of the items you bought with Amazon then have them send you out a new one whenever you like...

Now, you can make the point about one being for a mobile device, the other a pc, or that one only has games while another has a wider variety of types, but it's the same thing. It worked good for PC gamers, and it definitely worked out great for iphone users. It was common sense that Apple take the idea of Steam and apply it to their device. BUT NOW, if any other company tries to do the same thing as STEAM DID, they are suddenly copying Apple.

Yes, I am cranky that Apple claims this was their idea, and that people are copying them when trying to create a central hub for software purchases. But you know, re-reading it, I can see I took it wrong and if Steve Jobs had said "The mobile device market" I wouldn't have spoken. To me, the industry is a broad range of things.

[chronster]

Originally Posted by hillstones

Over 1.5 billion served....now where have we heard that before? The old days of McDonald's before they changed the sign to "Billions and Billions Served"

Yeah I'm pretty sure by now, every single person who ever existed could have had at least one mcdonalds item :P

[DocNo42]

Originally Posted by addabox

Has Steam resulted in an explosion of game development? Has Steam ushered in a huge influx of game developers? Has Steam resulted in every other player in the market rushing to emulate its success? Has Steam, by popular consensus, utterly reformed the playing field for game sales to PCs?

Exactly. I've had a Steam account since 2004, but it's nothing like the App store - especially in the ways you have outlined.

[chronster]

Originally Posted by DocNo42

Exactly. I've had a Steam account since 2004, but it's nothing like the App store - especially in the ways you have outlined.

the ways he outlined? He's speaking to the result of the product, not the underlying concept of it, which is the main point to begin with.

jeesh

[parky]

Originally Posted by Roc Ingersol

This comes up every time they release numbers. Best guess is that they're counting version updates as discrete downloads.

Happy to see that Apple have specifically now stated that the 1.8 Billion Apps download do NOT include updates. Humble Pie?

[parky]

Originally Posted by chronster

Steam allows you to browse game titles, read reviews on them, see a "meta score", see a preview of the game, and once purchased, it is forever attached to your account so you can re-download to another pc in the future if necessary. Steam also features a community aspect where you can join groups and use an instant messaging system to talk with friends, so it one-ups the app store.

So what is the app store? The app store allows you to browse app titles, read reviews on them, see a rating, see screen shots, and once purchased it is forever attached to your itunes account so you can re-download in the future if necessary.

They both are a central platform-specific hub that provides an easy access point for a specific type of software content. Amazon is an online store available to anyone and everyone, selling physical items like a store does. You can't keep a list of the items you bought with Amazon then have them send you out a new one whenever you like...

Now, you can make the point about one being for a mobile device, the other a pc, or that one only has games while another has a wider variety of types, but it's the same thing. It worked good for PC gamers, and it definitely worked out great for iphone users. It was common sense that Apple take the idea of Steam and apply it to their device. BUT NOW, if any other company tries to do the same thing as STEAM DID, they are suddenly copying Apple.

Yes, I am cranky that Apple claims this was their idea, and that people are copying them when trying to create a central hub for software purchases. But you know, re-reading it, I can see I took it wrong and if Steve Jobs had said "The mobile device market" I wouldn't have spoken. To me, the industry is a broad range of things.

What you are missing is the fact that the App Store has changed the whole concept of App development, sales, marketing and uptake. Steam might be similar but how has actually heard of it, never mind use it. When will Steam pass it's 1.8 billion download mark?