Burrows reports, “It was a joke, of sorts. Apple is not divine—though anyone who rode the stock from $3 to $247 since Jobs’ 1997 return to the company might disagree.”
MacDailyNews Note: AAPL currently stands at $270.83.
Burrows continues, “What Apple has come to resemble is an endlessly expanding cosmos. More than 85 million iPhones and iPod touches are in existence, up from zero in July 2007. IPhone users have downloaded 4 billion apps from Apple’s App Store, and more than 10 billion songs, 33 million movies, and 250 million TV shows from iTunes. IPhone owners, who make up just 2.2% of total mobile-phone consumers worldwide, according to market research firm IDC, chug 64% of all mobile browsing minutes, says Net Applications, another research firm. According to Apple, 500,000 iPads have already been sold, increasing the number of people who have access to a rich life, full of endless media and communication options, without ever leaving the Apple platform.”
“Apple’s neatest trick is that this platform would expand even if Apple were sitting still (it’s not),” Burrows reports. “Forget Apple’s 34,000 salaried employees. More than 125,000 developers now work to make apps for Apple products. Apple pays them nothing. They sign contracts agreeing to Apple’s rigorous terms in the hope that users will buy their apps or view ads on them. In the hope, really, of becoming another little planet orbiting Apple’s sun—with the truly lucky ones landing a spot in the company’s TV spots.”
Burrows reports, “Plenty of companies fancy themselves contenders, including Microsoft, Nokia, Research In Motion, and Google… Yet Apple’s head start in apps may be too great to overcome. More than 185,000 apps are available in the App store, compared with 38,000 in Google’s online store for its Android mobile software platform. Thirty-five thousand new iPhone apps have been produced since February, even as many developers have been working on offerings for the iPad. ‘That’s a lot of developer attention that’s not going to Android,’ notes Bart Decrem, CEO of Tapulous, which makes music-themed iPhone games that are played by 8 million iPhone owners every month.”
Much more in the full article – recommended – here.
There’s no one else doing anything worth even mentioning…
Define boom
Amazing that Apple consistently delivers products want to use. Pathetic that there’s not a company in this country that can give them a run for their money.
@TheMacAdvocate,
there’s not a company in ANY country that can give them a run for their money!
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Ashamed that steve jobs is being portrayed as God-like.
That is just wrong in so many ways.
50,000 apps in Google store last I checked. Most, from what I can tell, are from iPhone developers cross developing.
As much as I love apps for my iPad and phone. I’d prefer there to be a few hundred good apps than the thousands of suck that is in the store. Much like Apple’s mantra back In the day when there were far less apps made for Mac than PC.
@Ashamed
Which God? There are so many to choose from!
One huge difference Jobs and all the other Gods: Jobs exists.
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“anyone who rode the stock from $3 to $247…”
That would be $3 to $540, split-ajusted.
@Well
I guess you haven’t done any research. There are lots of good apps in the App Store.
The App Store’s search engine sucks. If they were to add a real advanced search function, like MacUpdate or VersionTracker, it would help immensely.
As it stands now, I have to spend way too much time reading articles and reviews just to find apps. That doesn’t include trying to determine which are better and/or best for my needs. The “reviews” and ratings in the App Store are of little help.
@fred: define boom
I have an engineering company as a client.
BOOM for them stands for Build Own Operate Manage as they like to design gas processing and compression plant on these terms.
May I suggest that Apple has achieved this in nearly everything it has done: The industrial plant for Apple is iTunes (a solid BOOM). It is the centre of gravity for Apple and its entire ecosystem of platforms (Mac & iPod/iPhone/iPad) is built around it.
“One huge difference Jobs and all the other Gods: Jobs exists.”
Nice!
Mr Reeee,
Your deit)y/al) observation is apt, and could be carried much further. . . . And as to app numbers, if only one percent of the apps were really exceptional, . . . there would be 1,850 really exceptional apps in the store.
I think it’s time for me to order my iPad.
85 million iPhones – not true – at least one was blended,
…”That would be $3 to $540, split-ajusted.”
Actually, that should be $1.465 to $240 (actually, as MDN says, to $270 at the moment), split-adjusted. Apple’s individual share price never dipped below $10 (lowest point in the early 80’s), but since that low, it had split three times (in ’87, ’00 and ’05). If you had $10k burning a hole in your pocket in 1982, you’d have $2M today. More recently, if you had $10k in 2003, you’d have $400k today (seven years later).
Don’t forget, hackers and jailbroken iPhones and iPod touches led the way to the AppStore. Once a market was shown as possible – the fan-made last.fm jailbroken app is better than the current app, for example – Apple was wise to see the opportunity. Wish I could remember all the cool apps.
Perhaps an AppStore was planned by Apple, but they were too busy promoting Widgets.
I wish I still had my jailbroken iPod touch, but it suffered an untimely fate.
As for the Android’s 50k, even if every single one of them was ported from iPhone, this still makes a valid platform, and a concern.
There is a very good strategic reason why Apple sued HTC. The initial knee-jerk reaction to the news of the suit was immediate re-evaluation of strategic planning for all handset makers (the likes of HTC themselves, as well as Samsung, Motorola, Nokia and others, who had been working and pinning their hopes on their grand plans for the Android, and are new seeing themselves diversifying the platform offerings a bit.
If Apple is successful with the suit, Android as a platform will likely collapse. Even if nobody else gets sued after HTC, literally every other handset maker will rather avoid the risk and abandon it for whatever alternative remains on the market (WinMob, Symbian, perhaps WebOS, depending on the fate of Palm).
Apple’s complete dominance now hinges on the fate of the HTC suit. If the suit fails, Android has a very, very solid position as a powerful challenger. Still just a challenger, but a powerful one, nonetheless.
Product launch of the decade was the iPhone.
jjj:
Anyone who knows well how Jobs & Co. operate will know that SDK (and the App store) was part of the initial design. Staggered roll-out was necessary for reasons that are very obvious now (Apple can only stretch themselves so much, when a massive production and support ramp-up is needed to satisfy the demand). To believe that the fringe group of jailbreakers was somehow influential enough to change a design and development course for a most important product in Apple’s history at that moment is a bit naïve.
I have no doubt that jailbreakers allow Apple to keep its finger on the pulse of Apple’s audience. However, they represent a fairly unique type of Apple user that is most certainly NOT representative of the mainstream public.
@ Ashamed,
“Ashamed that Steve Jobs is being portrayed as God-like.”
Who knows? Maybe in 1300 years or so Jobs non believers will be righteously killed by suicide bombers wearing burkas.
@Big Als MBP
Nah…. probably wearing tin foil hats…
@Ting
I like the BOOM definition by your client… I will now think of that whenever I hear BOOM from Mr. Jobs. Thanks.
Cheers from Downunder
It’s like Big Bang. Universe of apps expanding rapidly.
I thought the iPhone was the product launch of the decade too, but that was last decade. This decade it’s the iPad, so far.
@MizuInOz: BOOM
Glad you like BOOM but it’s no surprise really.
I too am Downunder (NSW) as is my client (WA, VIC, QLD)…
Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers…