One Billion iPhone Apps : Analysis

Countdown to Ecstasy: Apple prepares the confetti and balloons for its big Billionth

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

You can always tell a new Apple iPhone owner from the glassy-eyed excitement they have as they share and compare the applications they have downloaded and tried. The first few days with an iPhone are usually spent downloading any app that is cheap and interesting. This downloading behaviour usually tapers off as users settle into the apps they most use.

Part of the iPhone's appeal is its ability to morph into any of thousands of devices and deliver a whole new way to do things within the interface. It is also the availability of inexpensive applications and while a lot of them are rubbish, there are some very useful apps that have helped cement this success.

The iPhone is a serious product that has not only built a steady market share, it has grown a blossoming ecosystem of third party accessories, cases and peripherals and developed a bona-fide mobile computing platform for itself that has thrived despite the shortcomings of the operating system.

The inability to multitask, the lack of cut-copy and paste as well as the limits of the touch interface have not at all diminished the iPhone's appeal or usefulness.

Now that these shortcomings are to be addressed by a major software upgrade come June 2009, there will be little in the way of the iPhone reaching its full potential. The new OS brings a whole spectrum of new features and the ability to work directly with third-party hardware as well as greater freedom for developers to create killer apps.



Developers, Developers, Developers
The Apple iPhone has really helped bring developers into the Apple fold. Developers, who in the past may have shunned away from Apple's desktop OS, have embraced and profited from creating smart, small and exciting programs for the iPhone.

Prior to the release of the iPhone OS SDK, people were Jailbreaking the iPhone like crazy just to get more out of it and run illicit applications because they could see the potential.

Back then, the only legally sanctioned iPhone apps were limited to web applications which relied on the built-in Safari browser. This changed dramatically with the availability of the iTunes App store and enabling users to purchase new applications on the fly.

Apple's App-specific TV ad spots brought the mobile platform to the mainstream, an unprecedented move. Never has a mobile computing platform focused on specific applications. Now there is a higher global demand for iPhone developers than there is for Facebook developers. iPhonefootprint Blog explains how this growth has recently boomed.

"The trend at the international job site oDesk shows that the demand for iPhone application programming has jumped by a whopping 500% in a period between March 2008 and September 2008. The listing has increased from 30 to over 140 and the jobs span around various aspects emerging from the twin platform of iPhone (and iPod touch) and the App Store. Another trend shown by this site is that this demand is not only USA specific. The oDesk list shows a stiff demand for iPhone programmers and consultants across the globe, including India, Russia, China, Ukraine and a number of other countries.

The types of jobs range from iPhone App developers to iPhone SDK engineers and various other iPhone programming and consulting jobs"


The App store makes spending easy

Apple's success at cultivating developers for its mobile platform has allowed them to focus primarily on what the hardware can do and let the community provide the programs. Aside from the initial bundled iPhone applications and the Remote app (which can control Macs via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth), Apple really hasn't created any new apps itself.

As amazing as one billion downloaded app sounds, and it is quite an achievement on any computing platform, mobile or desktop, things can only get better once iPhone 3.0 rolls out midyear. Expect more flexibility, better application selection and more money going Apple's way.