As of the 16th, Mobclix has reported that Apple has blown through the 300,000 barrier for the number of apps on the App Store. The number is pretty staggering, although Apple has not officially confirmed it. It is predicted that Apple may announce a 275,000 app figure at tomorrow’s Back to the Mac event. 148apps.biz have some interesting stats, namely:
- The total number of apps seen in the US App Store is 334,639, though they list the number of active apps actually at 278, 723 – so not quite the 300K we are reading about. Currently, Android is thought to have hit 100,000 and RIM is listed at 10,000 BlackBerry apps.
- Within those numbers, games are at 40,026, with books at 48,171, so books are overtaking games slightly.
- The number of inactive apps are at 55,916, which may account for the discrepancies in the figures.
- App submissions to Apple are on average 83 games and 568 non-games every day.
If we think of the numbers in real terms, and consider the number of apps we actually have on our devices, then we can put it into some kind of perspective. I think of myself as a pretty big app user (see image left for one of my game screens), and have over a thousand easily – a huge percentage of those are not worth the download, and I think this could be representative of the number of apps on the store. As it continues to grow, this may become a larger problem as good apps have to fight for a spot on the first few pages of the App Store. For me, the current means of navigation through what is on there isn’t good enough. I patiently wade through pages and pages of apps, but most people wouldn’t. Showing 180 apps at a time isn’t really working.
Whether there is currently 300,000 or not isn’t really that relevant. What is worth watching are the predictions of Apple selling as many as 45 million iPads in 2011. The more devices they sell, the greater the demand for apps will be. I hope the developers that are currently making awesome apps continue to do so. There are some real gems on the App Store.
Navigating through 180 apps at a time on the App Store is going to take you a while.
How many apps do you keep on your device? Do you have any apps that you find yourself using a lot more than the others? How often are you getting new apps? Is 300,000 enough – or do you want more?
Article via iPodnn
there is an app "consultant" for that! errrrr, i meant "ought to be" :)
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LikeI know they won't 'curate' the store like you point out, cause of the backlash, but does your grocery store stock substandard products? Do the recording companies record every artist that walks in & tries to sell their single?
The entire world has standards and Apple have great standards too, I think a lot of the crap slipping through is in a way, trying to please those folks complaining that Apple have too much control. I'm really passionate about this, and find it overwhelming to try to get to the good stuff. There's brilliant apps out there - how can we find them?
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LikeChristine,
You're absolutely right. There is way too much dreck in the App Store. If only someone took on the task of highlighting the best apps in different categories.... ;-) I know Apps and Hats is behind you, but seriously, there needs to be some trusted source for finding the best, e.g., tip calculator or notes app. The current App Store is just a popularity contest.
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LikeHi Larry, thanks for the comment and I agree, there should be new apps because we are changing how we use our devices all the time. I think maybe Apple should find a way to eliminate certain apps but being a bad seller isn't necessarily the way. Some of the smaller apps struggle to get noticed yet all the big games house apps fly through even if they aren't so great. I'm pretty fussy about my apps & would love to have my own app approval process :D
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LikeI say we put Christine in charge of eliminating the crap from the App Store! ;)
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LikeI reluctantly say we need more apps simply because of the ever so quickly changing world. What the App store should do is eliminate the apps that do not sell at acceptable levels within a given period of time. This will help filter the system and eliminate the apps that are just taking up space and cluttering searches.
I would suggest that someone create an app that helps you search for the right type of app that you are looking for----- but something tells me that there probably is one (or a thousand) out there that does that.
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LikeI think you're on to something, but Apple won't even consider playing curator again. There's way too much pressure on Apple to "open" the app store, and if they start to remove crappy apps, the internet will be up in arms again. It's looking like there's going to be an ever increasing need for App review sites, and I can't complain about that... ;)
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