The App download rate increased to a record 10,753,000 per day during the last 90 days. This remains below the peak reported iTunes music rate of 12 million per day in the fall of 2009, but above the more recent rate of 8.5 million per day reported in March.
The download rates for iTunes are reported to have fallen as tiered pricing has been introduced while App download rates continue to increase.
Last week’s announcement of “well over” 4 billion apps downloaded came 21 months after the App Store opened on iTunes. To give a perspective on how fast that is, 4 billion songs took 41 months to sell on the iTunes Music Store.
The graph below shows the last actual data provided on both the App Store and the Music store downloads (circled) plotted from time of launch.
It also shows a curve-fit forecast of each store’s downloads. If the growth persists, 10 billion apps could be shifted in 28 months post launch, which is around November of this year.
A bit less than one year ago, on April 23rd 2009, Apple reported 1 billion apps downloaded.
158 days later, on September 28th 2009, Apple reported 2 billion apps downloaded.
99 days later, on January 5th 2010, Apple reported 3 billion apps downloaded.
93 days later, on April 8th 2010, Apple reported 4 billion apps downloaded.
The download rate for the past 93 days was 10.7 million apps per day.
Given 85 million iPhones and iPod touches sold, the 4 billion app downloads amount to 47 per device. (Although that number is likely to be considerably higher due to many iPhones/iPods having gone out of use–an attach rate of well over 50 seems like a good estimate).
Total Active Apps: 172,886
Total Inactive Apps: 27,468
Total Apps Seen: 200,354
Unique App Publishers: 34,468
via 148Apps.biz | iPhone development news and information for the community, by the community.
There are now well over 200,354 apps in the app store
Total Apps Total Apps Approved: 200638 Total Available Apps: 173175
link: iPad Apps, iPhone Apps, Deals and Discovery at App Shopper
Apple leads the App Store race with 170,000 apps
Palm announced 2k apps on their store and Google recently crossed over 30k. Blackberry has 5k. Ovi maintains about 7k apps.
According to Appshopper there are 199,885 apps approved and 172,662 available on the App Store. (200k will certainly be crossed today March 21st). Due to churn and policy enforcement Apple has removed 27,223 apps from its store over the years.
In the case of Android, policing may not amount to much catalog erosion so the 30k figure is more comparable to the “approved” Apple figure.
With 27th the deadline for inclusion by the April 3rd launch date, the rush to submit new apps for the iPad is on. No doubt, there will be a significant surge in new apps in March. This might lead to a new record of over 25k apps added in one month.
My initial estimate in February for the 200k milestone was by May 1st. I was clearly off by nearly 40 days. If the add rate is maintained at 20k/mo 300k will come around in August although I’m not as confident in this forecast. The rate of app addition seems to be accelerating.
An estimated one in five iPhone developers are companies founded specifically to create applications for the iPhone, according to the latest Flurry Smartphone Industry Pulse survey. That represents the second-largest category of developers behind only preexisting online companies, including giants like Google, Facebook and eBay. Those established brands take up 22 percent of the iPhone developer share.
link: AppleInsider | Startup developers represent one in five on Apple’s App Store
Flurry argues that with 75 million units sold, the platform is reaching a critical mass where major brands being to take a dominant position in terms of position and sales rank.
This argument is suggesting that the platform will be a sustaining technological improvement to existing industries such as traditional media, online media, retail and traditional gaming.
Since the App Store launched in July 2008, 35,000 unique companies have released applications, which translates to 58 new companies launching apps each day. This appears to be the largest amassing of 3rd party developer support by any development platform in such a compressed timeframe. For example, comparing the number of applications created for the Facebook platform to the App Store over their respective first 9 months, Apple boasted 25,000 apps to Facebook’s 14,000. Comparing respective growth in apps after 14 months, Apple had widened its gap to 85,000 apps over Facebook’s 33,000. At the App Store’s 18 month mark, reached this January, the number of iPhone apps was reported to have exceeded 140,000 compared to 60,000 we estimate Facebook had reached over the same number of months. Apple now leads Facebook with over twice as many available applications. We believe the difference in growth rates can be attributed to the App Store providing better monetization possibilities for application developers than Facebook. Developers, like all rational companies, pursue markets where the path to revenue generation is clear.
link: Flurry Smartphone Industry Pulse, February 2010
148apps.biz cites 191,080 apps seen
appshopper.com says 192,591 apps approved
www.148apps.com says 191,140
Missed by a mile. 200k by April 1st, easy.
