How long before the App Store bubble bursts?

[Locut0s]

Searching through the app store I can't help but think that the vast majority of these apps aren't only just junk but are never purchased by more than a handful of people. Many of these apps are little better, sometimes worse, than Internet screen grabs and wikipedia cut and pastes. Went looking for a geography app the other day and had to wade through hundreds of identical geography quiz apps that all ask the same questions, all have their content crudely cribbed from wikipedia and all offer nothing but still charge for the application. I finally did find one that I liked but this glut of useless apps isn't just relegated to one genre, it's all the apps! Who's making these things anyway. They all claim to be developed by some software company or another and I see many of the same company names all over the place but I'd imagine most of these are single programmer companies. I mean how many shity apps would you need to sell to actually be able to hire more than just yourself!

This isn't to say that there aren't some genuinely good apps and good companies out there, there are.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Sweatshops in lower-wage countries outside the US churn out clones of other apps by the boatload.

If you're paying coders $1/hour and stealing your designs it doesn't take many sales to turn a profit.

 

[bignateyk]

It is already pretty crappy. There are so many apps out there, and 99.999% of them are complete crap. There are so many that you can't even wade through them to find good ones anymore. The only apps I have anymore are ones that come from big name companies.

 

[xanis]

The iTunes App Store has turned into the YouTube of applications. Somewhere, the app your looking for is there. You just have wade through shittons of utter garbage to get to it.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

but the app store has so many options! it obviously can't be competed against.

 

[guyver01]

well.. considering 3 days ago they hit 3 billion downloaded apps..

http://www.digitalhome.ca/2010/01/apple-app-store-tops-3-billion-downloads/

That translates into over 70 million apps per week, 10 million per day, 416,000 per hour, or about 115 apps per second.


It's not going anywhere anytime soon.

 

[xanis]

well.. considering 3 days ago they hit 3 billion downloaded apps..

http://www.digitalhome.ca/2010/01/apple-app-store-tops-3-billion-downloads/

That translates into over 70 million apps per week, 10 million per day, 416,000 per hour, or about 115 apps per second.


It's not going anywhere anytime soon.

It's pretty obvious that the success of the App Store is huge, I just wish they would clean house and get rid of the billion garbage apps that infest all of the search results.

 

[Hacp]

The app store sucks. I havent purchased or downloaded a single app from apple.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I don't get how a single phone platform has become so popular that there even is such thing as an "app store". I'm sure it will be short lived though.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I think the App Store is awesome except for the fact that there's so much repetition. Why do we have like 20 games that do the same thing? Shrug.

Some of my high school friends have made thousands and thousands of dollars. They were the top 10 free app for some time, and they have made news coverage all over.

 

[shortylickens]

Sweatshops in lower-wage countries outside the US churn out clones of other apps by the boatload.

If you're paying coders $1/hour and stealing your designs it doesn't take many sales to turn a profit.

I was gonna say the same thing but with different logic.

Its not like Apple is spending any real money to keep the store running, so its not like it actually had to make a traditional profit. It isnt Best Buy. Most of the stuff they have is free, and having lots of free stuff is what encourages people to buy the iPhone, which is where the real money is at (right now). Eventually they wont be making too much money off of phone sales, but by then they will have tens of millions of customers and if only a third of them bought a one dollar app once in a while it would still be pretty much free money for Apple.

 

[SunSamurai]

It is already pretty crappy. There are so many apps out there, and 99.999% of them are complete crap. There are so many that you can't even wade through them to find good ones anymore. The only apps I have anymore are ones that come from big name companies.

Yeah really


FUCK CHOICE!

 

[SunSamurai]

The app store sucks. I havent purchased or downloaded a single app from apple.

And this guy is correct because he knows EVERY APP EVER MADE BY ANYONE

EVER.

 

[xanis]

I don't get how a single phone platform has become so popular that there even is such thing as an "app store". I'm sure it will be short lived though.

When the iPhone was released, what other phone on the market had the same features and offered them in such an intuitive, easy-to-use package with one of, if not THE best touch screens on the market? IIRC, nothing. Of course, being an Apple-branded product helped its success more than a little, but there's no denying that the iPhone was an extremely impressive and groundbreaking mobile device despite its flaws. I don't see it going anywhere anytime soon.

 

[Gunslinger08]

I have about $45 in iTunes credit, but I can't find any apps I actually want to buy beyond the ones I already have.

 

[HannibalX]

Searching through the app store I can't help but think that the vast majority of these apps aren't only just junk but are never purchased by more than a handful of people.

Sounds about right.

 

[SunSamurai]

I dont understand the Apple bashers. You guys are almost, almost as bad as the Zealots. This thread is just another cock sword fight while making fun of gays.

Its Apples fault people make apps you dont like. Here is a crazy idea, dont download them, because frankly its laughable you think the whole system is going to fail because you dont want to download any apps, while its obviously a wildly successful business model.

Dripping of business envy in here.

 

[bignateyk]

I dont understand the Apple bashers. You guys are almost, almost as bad as the Zealots. This thread is just another cock sword fight while making fun of gays.

Its Apples fault people make apps you dont like. Here is a crazy idea, dont download them, because frankly its laughable you think the whole system is going to fail because you dont want to download any apps, while its obviously a wildly successful business model.

Dripping of business envy in here.

I happen to own 2 iPhones, so it's not because I hate apple. It's because the App store sucks. It would be alot better if there was a way to filter out all the small time junk apps and just keep the ones released by legitimate companies like the weather channel, cnn, garmin, etc....

Having an option to remove all the apps made by 24 year old Pete in his moms basement would get rid of 99.999% of the crap on there.

 

[vshah]

it pisses me off how there are different apps for DIFFERENT FUCKING COLORS of a theme or something (on android market)

seriously you idiots, make the color configurable, and have one download.

 

[DT4K]

The app store is filled with crap because of the news stories about a few people who got fabulously rich by developing an app. After that, everyone wanted to write an app and get rich and Apple makes it pretty easy for people to do that. Before the app store, programmers who wanted to sell software had to put a lot of time and effort into marketing their software. To some extent, this is still true on the App store if you want to get many sales, but it's certainly easier with a marketplace already provided for you.

I've got two apps on the app store. One is a pretty simple practical joke app, but it does exactly what it says and it works without any issues. The other one is nothing fancy or groundbreaking, but it's a fun little game that I think is worth the 2 bucks I'm selling it for. I've been selling a couple copies a day, so I'm making money off of it, but certainly not getting rich. Maybe 40 or 50 bucks a month.

 

[shortylickens]

So do all you guys who hate the Apple app store like the Android Marketplace?

 

[Locut0s]

So do all you guys who hate the Apple app store like the Android Marketplace?

I don't hate the Apple store, I hate most of the apps on it. There is a very big difference.

 

[QueBert]

I <3 the Apps store, I hate it having so many apps because I gotta wade thru to find what I want. But, I've spent over $500 on apps, slowed down to almost nothing now. But I have some of the most awesome apps I've ever used on a mobile device, and the 3 I use the most aren't available on any other phone, and you can't even find a comparable app from somebody else for WM or Symbia. For what I use my iPhone for, there's no other phone on the market.

I can't speak highly enough about the iTunes store, and I absolutely love how they only let a user review an app if they've bought it. Even if a lot of the reviews are crappy, I at least know the person owns it and has more than likely used it.

 

[Locut0s]

I <3 the Apps store, I hate it having so many apps because I gotta wade thru to find what I want. But, I've spent over $500 on apps, slowed down to almost nothing now. But I have some of the most awesome apps I've ever used on a mobile device, and the 3 I use the most aren't available on any other phone, and you can't even find a comparable app from somebody else for WM or Symbia. For what I use my iPhone for, there's no other phone on the market.

I can't speak highly enough about the iTunes store, and I absolutely love how they only let a user review an app if they've bought it. Even if a lot of the reviews are crappy, I at least know the person owns it and has more than likely used it.

What are your top 5 apps?

 

[Chunkee]

try the new waffle game..its a riot