14 DAY TRIAL // Talk about being a show-off! But hey, Apple has got pretty good reasons to issue a press release saying “App Store Downloads Top 100 Million Worldwide.” That's quite a number of apps downloaded in just under two months’ time.
With the release of the new iPhone 3G, pre-loaded with OS 2.0, Apple also introduced its fans to a new side of the iTunes Store, the App Store. Currently, the venue holds around 3,000 applications, 90 percent of which are priced at less than 10 bucks.
It is worth noting, however, that as many as 600 iPhone and iPod touch-compatible apps are being offered for free, giving us a pretty good idea of where the 100 million downloads stemmed from. Nevertheless, many of the purchasable applications boast some impressive features that can take advantage of the iPhone’s multi-touch functionality, hardware-accelerated 3D graphics, built-in accelerometer and location-based technology. Combined, these features make even the more expensive apps simply irresistible.
Following yesterday's event, John Pollard, Jott CEO, said, “[the] iPhone’s unique capabilities, easy SDK and the ability to reach an audience of millions via the App Store made this an easy development choice for us. To date, we’ve had hundreds of thousands of downloads of Jott for iPhone, which has been a major win for our company.”
The same official report also includes quotes from Steve Demeter, founder of Demiforce (developer of Trism) and from Bryan Henry, the developer of Equivalence. Demeter points out that, given that he already had a full-time job, he had to create Trism in what little free time he got from work. But it all paid off - “[...] in my wildest dreams I never expected this kind of result,” as he declared. “Selling over 27,000 downloads in the first three weeks means I now have a significant new income stream and some exciting career choices that I didn’t have a couple of months ago,” Steve Demeter concluded by saying.
Trism is one of the first third-party apps to truly impress an audience already in love with the capabilities of the iPhone. It is a color-matching puzzle game that has players tilting their device in accordance to the falling pieces that appear onscreen. Have a closer look at the app here.
“As an 18 year old iPhone Developer Program member I won an Apple WWDC student scholarship and used the opportunity to complete my app over the summer,” the developer of Equivalence, Bryan Henry, said. “It was a lot of fun to pull it together and certainly the most lucrative summer job I’ve ever had as I made over $8,000 in my first month of App Store sales.”
The App Store works over cellular networks and Wi-Fi. Users can wirelessly download applications directly onto their iPhone or iPod touch, and start using them immediately.