“Instead of working on her PhD dissertation, Eliza Block spent her summer designing a program that allows iPhone owners to do crossword puzzles on their tiny touch screen devices,” Matt Hartley reports for The Globe and Mail.
MacDailyNews Take: “Tiny?” Not compared to other mobile devices, Matt. iPhone’s screen is rather huge and gorgeous, thanks.
Hartley continues, “Now, Apple Inc. owes the philosophy student more than $25,000 (U.S.) and counting.”
“Having already revolutionized the music industry with the iTunes music store, Apple chief executive officer Steve Jobs’s latest brainchild, the App Store, is proving to be another in a long line of triumphs for the man who has single handedly changed the face of technology over the past decade.
The App Store – an online marketplace for downloadable games and other software that run on the iPhone – launched the same day as the latest generation version of the device on July 11, is already proving to be a hit with users and a potential gold mine for software developers,” Hartley reports.
“‘It has certainly changed the game,’ said Josh Martin, a senior research analyst with Yankee Group in Boston. ‘We know now that the reason people are buying iPhones … is because they can personalize their experience,'” Hartley reports.
MacDailyNews Take: Hold on a second. People bought millions of iPhones before there was any promise of an App Store, Josh. People buy iPhones for many reasons, foremost among them is that it’s an amazing piece of technology, that – even without an App Store – can do more and more elegantly out of the box than anything else available. So, let’s not rewrite history. The App Store is one reason, not the reason why people are buying iPhones today, as Martin states.
Hartley continues, “Apple keeps only 30 per cent of sales, with the rest going to the creators of the applications, resulting in big paydays for independent developers such as Ms. Block.”
“When Apple first started telling developers how their applications were selling on July 30, Ms. Block was amazed at the popularity of her $5.99 application, called 2 Across. After the program was featured as a “staff pick” on the main App Store page, she was racking up 400 downloads a day,” Hartley reports.
Much more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “David S.” for the heads up.]
95% of App Store’s applications are pretty much useless.
They just get downloaded because the store is all new.
It’ll take time before App Store can live up to the hype.
It’s a game changer underway, but it’s still full of garbage.
That will help pay for that PhD..-:)
After seeing MobileMe I’m thinking Apple was ahead of the curve when it initially insisted on web-only apps for the iPhone. But the rest of the world wasn’t ready to have everything online.
“95% of App Store’s applications are pretty much useless.”
Perhaps that’s your personal experience but there are plenty of people glad to have some of the apps you deem “useless.” One man’s garbage is another man’s treasure.
The App Store most likely has no greater percentage of utterly worthless apps than those for the Windows Mobile, BlackBerry and Symbian platforms. Microsoft loves to tout its 18,000 strong third party app catalog. I wonder how many of those are useful to you?
Hey, Mac+
Have you seen “Team America”? You remind me a lot of the bearded guy in the bar telling the kid how many kinds of people there are in the world. (Three.)
Are you related?
Lucky is she! But the big problem is, there are far too many of these apps that don’t enhance the value of an iPhone.
App store will stop being a crap store when it’ll have GPS navigation, voice dialing, office suite, etc, to download.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2328017,00.asp
Mac+ Ummmm….are you smoking dope ?
Let’s see, looking at my iPhone.
Jott, Voice notes, AirMe, Showtimes, Writing Pad, AIM, WeatherBug. I basically just started downloading apps.
Yaaaa….had all that on my Razor from Verizon.
You must be tokin bowls of hippie lettuce.
“Lucky is she! But the big problem is, there are far too many of these apps that don’t enhance the value of an iPhone.’
If you are too stupid to be selective in your downloads, then you deserve all the crap you can find to screw up your iPhone.
Later, I’ll tell you what I really think.
“Have you seen “Team America”?”
No unfortunately, but please give me a good description of yourself,
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And perhaps I can visualize what this bearded guy looks like.
Mac+
<< 95% of App Store’s applications are pretty much useless. >>
You’re right > useless to someone who still lives in Mommy’s basement and has a job where the phase of the day is “Would you like fries with that?”
I disagree – I think there are a great deal of very useful AppStore applications out there. I have downloaded 20 or so, and at least 50% are used regularly. Not only that, but one needs to look past the utility and into the entertainment side of things. I never used to play games, but now when I have a moment I will use the iPhone as a gaming device. I think the AppStore has broadened the appeal of the iPhone to more people.
” . . . but it’s still full of garbage.”
Like many of these posts and yet the same people keep returning. Go figure.
@Mac+
95%? You really think it’s that bad? Including things that might lie outside of my own sphere of interest or personal usefulness (remember that games can be useful in the right context and setting), I’d say that maybe 20% are perhaps totally useless to anyone – probably. Just one for-instance: Not a few of the apps kind of duplicate function, but having so many choices allows me to really fine tune what apps really get the job done in a way that is actually useful to me personally.
@iLuvMyMacs, @ron, @Colonel Sanders,
You should take example on mister Steve516
The guy is honorably trying to make his point
But neither his explanation, nor you ridiculous posts will change the truth of the matter: App Store got some crap.
I’m not saying App store has no value, but just like any other novelty, people rush to it just because it’s new.
95% of the comments on MDN are garbage.
100% of the apps for PSP and Nintendo are useless but it is still a billion dollar business.
100% of our “entertainment” is useless—sports, going out to eat, movies, olympics, games, TV, internet.
Funny how it doesn’t seem to stop us spending a large amount of time, energy and $$$ on all of them.
We humans do the darndest things!
For someone who doesn’t own an iPhone, I agree that “95%” of the apps on the App Store would be useless. Maybe even 100%!
Apple should eventually extend the App Store to include Mac software. There are many Mac shareware and “donationware” developers who would thrive if there was such an outlet for their software.
@Mac+,
There is a voice dialing app in the store and has been for about a week.
If 95% of the apps are crap and there are over 1000 in the store, that means that 50 are kick @$$. Not too bad for this early in the game.
make it so.
Wow, I just heard that “95% of App Store’s applications are pretty much useless.” That is 5% better than Microsoft and the store is just starting.
Way to go Apple.!
whatever. its a marketplace. in the marketplace the market determines what succeeds and what fails. the app store does not have to live up to any hype. the market will sort it. relax.