This post is part of a broader debate on the issues revolutionary iPhone. It focuses on the AppStore whose success goes beyond numbers provided by Apple: 35 000 applications and a billion downloads of May 2009 (press release from Apple: http://www.apple.com / fr/pr/library/2009/04/24appstore.html? sr = Hotnews ). This approach
market place has been taken from Google, Nokia, RIM and Microsoft (for BlackBerry). The concept seems to be sufficiently novel and interesting to be taken by the competition.
Since April 2009, advertisements for the iPhone focuses exclusively on the applications available on AppStore rather than on the iPhone itself. It is a sign of the importance of the ecosystem iPhone in the purchase decision. And who better symbolizes the AppStore this ecosystem. The AppStore
Beginning with the AppStore soon present especially for readers who are not familiar with the iPhone. The AppStore is a great market applications for iPhone and iPod Touch. It is priced applications and free applications.
The AppStore is a department of the famous iTunes Store (the world leader in music sales). It is available from the iTunes software: To navigate through the AppStore, so it is not necessary own an iPhone, just use iTunes. There is a version of the iPhone AppStore, it is possible to view and download applications directly from the iPhone.
The AppStore has different grading applications: in general there are two separate classifications: one for free applications and one for paid applications. Free applications are not hidden or buried at the bottom of the site they have the same visibility as paid applications.
Extent of success of the AppStore
Apple Announces 35 000 applications worldwide, 10,000 available for France. The figure speaks for itself and it is hard not to find the application you need.
Of the 10 000 applications, we will find in the News section by an application for this newspaper and the entire world press. It will thus find an application to:
- reading World
- reading the New York Times
- reading El Pais (Spain)
And many more. Note that this is three different applications.
iPhone can also be used as book reader: it is possible to buy books in electronic format: in this case, a book is an application.
These examples are given to show the actual number of applications is in practice less than 10 000. Nevertheless, it remains very important and probably beyond what is available on competing platforms.
Apple announces one billion downloads: we can estimate the number of iPhones sold around 20 million. It would therefore be on average 50 per iPhone download. That seems excessive. I think Apple has a download for updating. For example, readers of The New York Times that I use had to be updated a dozen times: Apple probably has 10 downloads.
That said, all applications have few versions and what is more: a user is not obliged to make the update. One the other, I think a user has loaded an average of about twenty different applications. This figure is very important if we consider that this is an average for a consumer product composed mainly of non computer.
At the time I loaded on my Palm 4 or 5 applications in 4 years of use. On the iPhone and through the AppStore, an average user has downloaded a twenty applications in 9 months of use.
Such an increase (factor 4) on as wide a population can be the fact that a major change, revolutionary. It is this or these changes we will identify. My Applications
Before going further in the analysis, I will list the 29 applications I installed on my iPhone it will illustrate the different types of applications.
- news sites:
- ElPais.com: application of the newspaper El Pais (Spain) The
- Monde.fr: application of the World. It allows offline reading of sections of the site. Attention items are shorter than those of the printed newspaper.
- NYTimes: Applying the New York Times (USA). The papers seem full (They are much longer than those of the World) but the offline mode does not.
- Sports.fr: A sports newspaper with a live mode that tracks sporting events (such as a day of championship soccer) live.
- Games Crash Bandicoot Nitro
- : A kind of Mario Kart that uses the accelerometer. For me the level of Mario Kart for Nintendo DS with the exception of multi-player mode is not available.
- Hanoi: The puzzle towers of Hanoi
- iChess (Free): a chess
- Mastermind: the game of MasterMind
- TouchMines: a version of Minesweeper. A bit difficult to play because the boxes are too small. Virtual Pool
- Lite: a very good game of pool which makes it very well the feelings of real billiards.
- productivity applications
- SimpleMind Xpress: An application of brainstorming
- Evernote: a great application for taking notes which are spoken, written or also photo taken with the iPhone. There is also a for Windows and a Firefox plug-in to rate music by website.
- references and dictionaries
- dictionary Littré: a very old version and just past that the dictionary Littré I use words to explain to children
- PagesJaunes: this application extends the Web site by making available the use of localization.
- Wapedia - Wiki Mobile: A very friendly version of Wikipedia for the iPhone.
- 160 000 Recipes: A recipe site (in English)
- Help moving
- Wikango: an excellent warning radar
- PanameTraffic: To view the traffic on the Paris region, become a little less useful since the traffic is also available directly on the implementation plan (Google Map)
- GoVelib: To know the Velib stations around you and their availability cycling.
- Locly: to understand a few types of businesses or services (such as ATM card blue) around you.
- Entertainment
- Liveradio Orange can listen to radio stations over the Internet.
- First: The latest film critics with sessions near you.
- Stanza: a book reader for iPhone. The application allows the downloading of large quantities of books in English or French (all old).
- Utilities
- Orange spot'finder: Enables you to find the Hot Spot WiFi around you.
- Speedtest: Measures the speed of your Internet connection. One application which has in August / September 2009 to highlight the clamping of the Orange 3G.
- 9 - Toolbox (Free Event): a series of small utility that runs from the unit converter spirit level
- Social Networks
- LinkedIn: the application to connect to professional social networking site LinkedIn
- The gaming applications
- Lightsaber Unleashed: A Star Wars lightsaber. Ideal to impress young children.
- Applications advertising
- Angoulême 2009: Application created for the festival of Angoulême BD who can flip a series of comics.
From this list of applications only Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D pays off: the rate of 5 € price is very competitive with a Nintendo DS at 35 €.
Benefits
The concept AppStore AppStore may be regarded as deriving from the iTunes Store: a marketplace for applications. It enjoys the same advantages:
- simplifies the search: it is not necessary to search multiple stores or on different sites which application is best or what application is available. Just go to the AppStore and see if there is a new application that might interest us.
But the AppStore adds a characteristic application markets:
- confidence in applications: applications are "validated" by Apple. Even if you do not know what it really implies, it is certain that this excluded the virus.
- Creating a market place has had another benefit for users: the competition between producers of applications to cause a significant drop in prices: the majority of game publishers have launched their games at prices close to 17 $ few days later regained the same games around $ 7. So, there are many applications at prices significantly lower on the iPhone than on competing platforms. In my list Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart is a great example: for 5 € was a game that would be € 35 for Nintendo DS.
These three points certainly explain the one billion downloads in less than a year.
The AppStore as a social bond
confidence and simplicity to grow downloads "fun" I mean, downloading of applications (often free) just to see what they do. It does not necessarily seek the utility side but the "fun": a mixture of surprise and "fun", see a lag. These are applications that we will show that will serve to initiate a discussion: it serves to create a social bond between two people is sometimes used as a newspaper article, an event where more systematically a sporting event.
Among these applications we find the emblematic Shazam that can recognize a song and that is regularly used in Apple advertising. In my list, you will find Light Saber that can bind the conversation with children. Some small games are also ideal for little short they are simple and fun.
In the list of applications you will find a box silly moo (moo fact that when the returns), a whoopee cushion, aquariums ... These downloads
"fun" is a real phenomenon among iPhone users and can easily account for a third of downloads. This phenomenon is even stronger than with the iPhone version of the AppStore, the viewer can move quickly conquered download the new application immediately and with confidence because it hosted on a site controlled by Apple.
This type of behavior would not be as important (a half-dozen download per person on average) without the feeling of confidence inspired by the AppStore: the stroke of genius from Apple. This is a revolution in user behavior even if I should limit its usefulness seems to me.
Beyond this playfulness, the choice of a lot of applications must also be some affirmation of identity of the owner of the iPhone: the choice of a newspaper is not neutral for example. We find a modern equivalent of family libraries for displaying through the selection of books placed prominently on the shelves social status. It is applications like books: not because it is present on an iPhone it is used. Conclusion
The AppStore is a breakthrough offering iPhone behavioral changes that resulted. This change was possible only because users felt confident about the existence of a market place under the control of the manufacturer.
What is revolutionary is the attention and importance that is Apple's ecosystem, many analysts have explained the defeat of MacOS on Windows by the little attention that Apple developers had to wear while they have always been pampered by Microsoft. The lesson seems to have been chosen by Steve Jobs and the thousands of expected new API with the 3.0 firmware of the iPhone should not deny this change.
