60 million downloads, $30 million, 30 days - AppStore ain't too shabby.

[ajustcircle]

In an article running in todays Wall Street Journal - WSJ says the article is on page B1 if you wanna follow along with that paper copy of yours, but if you're reading it online why would you want to know the page number, you crazy crazy paper publication you - Steve Jobs sat down with Nick Wingfield to chat about the AppStore. Its been a huge success, averaging $1 million in sales daily. For the past month, that's over $20 million paid out to developers (well, when the checks start rolling out), and a cool $9 million for Apple in 30 days. That's $694.44 a minute, and WSJ notes that by Stevey's calculations this could easily become a $360 million revenue per year business for Apple.

This thing's going to crest a half a billion, soon. Who knows, maybe it will be a $1 billion marketplace at some point in time. I've never seen anything like this in my career for software.

The backdoor kill switch rumored about, designed to killall any malicious app from the comfort of Steve's desk in Cupertino, which was discovered by iPhone hacker extraordinaire Jonathan Zdziarski just a few days ago, has been confirmed by Jobs himself,

Jobs confirmed such a capability exists, but argued that Apple needs it in case it inadvertently allows a malicious program -- one that stole users' personal data, for example -- to be distributed to iPhones through the App Store. "Hopefully we never have to pull that lever, but we would be irresponsible not to have a lever like that to pull."

Personally, I would like to think that Apple would never allow, inadvertently or otherwise, an app of this kind into the store - kind of gets in the way of the possibility/marketing ploy/truth that Apple's products are safer than their counterparts especially when Apple hand selects the application. I don't see anything wrong with Apple building the "lever" - for all we know it was part of an agreement with the telecoms they have for partners. Remember the justification for webapps? Steve didn't want to have an app take down Cingular/AT&T's wireless network, and we all know AT&T has no problem developing and using technology to spy on people without their knowledge, so this really comes as no surprise regardless of how you look at it.

Prefecace to the next paragraph: MMi does not support warez the contact was made to investigate the reach of the backdoor only.

I checked in with one of the iPhone app cracking websites and none of the apps they've installed have hit the list, possibly because there may not be a way of differentiating between legit apps and warez. I bring this up only in hopes to illustrate that Apple, at the moment, isn't actively using the list at all, for any purpose other than a safety net.

The Wall Street Journal (have to pay for it so no direct link) via Google News (link to article)

[poetic_folly]

There are some developers making a LOT of money off this - what a cash cow.

It really is making a huge push for the iPhone, not as much now as a device, but as a platform. People will be wanting the iPhone so they can get Frogger, or tune their guitar on the go, or have a trumpet in their pocket, or a keyboard.... smooth move, Jobs.

[bomiz96]

Wow. Lots of Cash Just got made. 60 million download i cant belive that in just 30 days

[tidoxp]

I'm going to just be patient and wait for the Installer to build up to the point where it makes the "app" store look like ****.

[redcard]

MMi has writers now? How about editors or proof-readers?

That 'article' was painful

[ajustcircle]

Originally Posted by redcard

MMi has writers now? How about editors or proof-readers?

That 'article' was painful

I write my posts in a conversational tone, not that of a doctoral thesis. If you'd like I could write a special edition of all of my post especially for you in that fashion – if that would make you feel more comfortable :P.

In all seriousness though, would people appreciate post that would read more like if you'd read the WSJ/other news outlet yourself?

[SERBIAN]

Originally Posted by tidoxp

I'm going to just be patient and wait for the Installer to build up to the point where it makes the "app" store look like ****.

I dont quite understand why you dont like the AppStore..Its a brilliant idea by Apple to have all in one place easy to use/browse, lookin great and get instantly installed...It looks much better than Installer, not to mention Cydia, and it can be used from desktop machine also, unlike mentioned 2, IMHO...And apps are really cheap...Most of the apps/games are 99c which everyone can pay, even me who lives in so called "3rd world"...From the developers point of view, I think they got great store for their products...As soon as few bugs got ironed out /like delays in publishing updates/, I think there will be nothing comparable to AppStore...

My 2c..

[ajustcircle]

Originally Posted by tidoxp

I'm going to just be patient and wait for the Installer to build up to the point where it makes the "app" store look like ****.

Originally Posted by SERBIAN

I dont quite understand why you dont like the AppStore..Its a brilliant idea by Apple to have all in one place easy to use/browse, lookin great and get instantly installed...It looks much better than Installer, not to mention Cydia, and it can be used from desktop machine also, unlike mentioned 2, IMHO...And apps are really cheap...Most of the apps/games are 99c which everyone can pay, even me who lives in so called "3rd world"...From the developers point of view, I think they got great store for their products...As soon as few bugs got ironed out /like delays in publishing updates/, I think there will be nothing comparable to AppStore...

My 2c..

@ tidoxp
I personally think that Nullriver/RiP Dev waited too long to get an update out to users, also the complete overhaul seems a bit unnecessary – the last version 3.x was great as far as design and usability was concerned. I think they should've refined their package system and ironed out some bugs, not scrapped it and put out this beta. Cydia has become the default jb app client, even if only out of necessity, and a very powerful, feature rich, easy to use and customizable one at that.

@ SERBIAN
I agree with you that the AppStore is a brilliant idea, but there are a lot of limitations from a development stand point – we are still going to need another solution until Apple unshackles developers and lets them out of the sandbox.

[HITCH]

i can live with out appstore..... if cydia and installer are arround....

* Most of the apps/games are 99c which everyone can pay, even me who lives in so called "3rd world".*

no all have access to that currency....

[addybgrilla]

Originally Posted by ajustcircle

I write my posts in a conversational tone, not that of a doctoral thesis. If you'd like I could write a special edition of all of my post especially for you in that fashion – if that would make you feel more comfortable :P.

In all seriousness though, would people appreciate post that would read more like if you'd read the WSJ/other news outlet yourself?

haha well said, i guess that shuts up the people doubting your linguistical prowess!

I personally liked the "article" makes a nice change to get the facts without someone trying to embed puns or wordplay, and in the aformentioned conversational style.

I salute thee.

[tdub]

Please installer and cydia were around way before the so called app store as far as i am concern apple stole the idea from the hacking community. Open Source to Commercial and thats the way its always been for alot of great ideas in the world of computers...Peace out

[ajustcircle]

Originally Posted by addybgrilla

haha well said, i guess that shuts up the people doubting your linguistical prowess!

I personally liked the "article" makes a nice change to get the facts without someone trying to embed puns or wordplay, and in the aformentioned conversational style.

I salute thee.

Originally Posted by tdub

Please installer and cydia were around way before the so called app store as far as i am concern apple stole the idea from the hacking community. Open Source to Commercial and thats the way its always been for alot of great ideas in the world of computers...Peace out

@ addybgrilla
Thank you!

@ tdub
Apple is notorious for doing this – Dashboard and CoverFlow are both examples. I never used the original Dashboard, in fact I can't even remember what the original name was, it starts with a "k" I know that, but CoverFlow is something I think Apple has done really really well integrating into Mac OSX and the CocoaTouch iPhone OS and upgrading it into something much more powerful. For those of you that don't know what the history of CoverFlow, it was an album art browsing application that linked to your iTunes library. It had some really incredible features like auto updating albums without artwork from Amazon and a few other places. Apple bought it outright a few years ago. I still have the original .app and use it from time to time instead of iTunes or FrontRow when I have people over.

[philbowden78]

Originally Posted by SERBIAN

I dont quite understand why you dont like the AppStore..Its a brilliant idea by Apple to have all in one place easy to use/browse, lookin great and get instantly installed...It looks much better than Installer, not to mention Cydia, and it can be used from desktop machine also, unlike mentioned 2, IMHO...And apps are really cheap...Most of the apps/games are 99c which everyone can pay, even me who lives in so called "3rd world"...From the developers point of view, I think they got great store for their products...As soon as few bugs got ironed out /like delays in publishing updates/, I think there will be nothing comparable to AppStore...

My 2c..

it is a good idea, but so far apart from a couple of the commerical games such as Bomberman, Crash and Monkeyball there is nothing new yet that wasn't available pre iPhone 3g in Installer and Cydia......so far for me, the best apps by a country mile are still Customize/Summerboard and now Winterboard, in addition to the NES/SNES Emu and Doom....

So far there is nothing in terms of customization from the app store which is very disappointing......Cydia/Installer still have a massive role to play in the future, though I am looking forward to what the developers can bring in the next 6 months via app store.

[austinw]

nothing like over priced apps

[ajustcircle]

Originally Posted by philbowden78

it is a good idea, but so far apart from a couple of the commerical games such as Bomberman, Crash and Monkeyball there is nothing new yet that wasn't available pre iPhone 3g in Installer and Cydia......so far for me, the best apps by a country mile are still Customize/Summerboard and now Winterboard, in addition to the NES/SNES Emu and Doom....

So far there is nothing in terms of customization from the app store which is very disappointing......Cydia/Installer still have a massive role to play in the future, though I am looking forward to what the developers can bring in the next 6 months via app store.

It is my understanding that there will not be any kind of customization coming to the AppStore. Part of the sandbox of the AppStore is and application not being able to modify any part of the operating system or even other applications. Unless Apple makes an exception for an app to do this you will never see one. Cydia and Installer will continue to play a large role in the iPhone community.