App Store

App Store Sales Top $10 Billion in 2013

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Apple on Tuesday said that sales from its App Store topped $10 billion in 2013. Think about that for a second—$10 billion in apps over 12 months. That’s an incredible amount of apps and money. […]

App Store vs. Google Play revenue

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Headlines blazed across the Internet this week that Google Play revenue grew by 67 percent, while Apple’s App Store only grew by 15 percent during the same time. Something about that seemed odd to me.

Zombies and assholes

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Sascha Segan:

So you see the self-serving nature of this study: Adeven is trying to boost its business by making app developers worry they won’t make any money without Adeven. In the meantime, the company promotes a half-blind idea of what Apple’s App Store is. That’s why I’m not actually linking to the study here.

When are the mainstream media going to get off their asses and realize that the “research” from these companies are designed to help those companies sell their products. Nothing else. The BBC, CNBC and the others are just assholes for falling for this type of marketing.

Microsoft slams Google

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When you buy an Android app from the Google app store, they give the app maker your full name, email address and the neighborhood where you live. This occurs without clear warning every single time you buy an app.

If you can’t trust Google’s app store, how can you trust them for anything?

Maybe Eric Schmidt can answer that for us.

AppGratis

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Federico Viticci:

It may be called “gaming the system” or “forecasting downloads” — in both cases, I don’t think that “showcasing” apps by finding loopholes in the Developer Guidelines and leveraging advertising techniques as tools to manipulate Apple’s ranking algorithm is good for the App Store. I believe this is true for AppGratis and any other native iOS app that is based on this premise. It’s in Apple’s right — and developer agreement — to ban apps that work in this way.

Good story from Federico — worth a read.

App Store screenshots made easy

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Daniel Jalkut:

His approach uses a novel technique in which the target app itself is built with customized screen-capturing code compiled right in. Then the app can be driven through the iOS Simulator with WaxSim, a command-line tool for launching the simulator with various options.

I never really considered how Apple’s recent change would affect developers who had an app available in many languages. This would certainly cut down on the amount of work that needed to be done to get the app ready for the App Store.

App Store trade-off

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And that’s the problem with the new search results on the App Store: If I’m trying to select just one app from a list, and that app isn’t the first one, then I have to go through an inefficient horizontal swipe until the one I want is selected.

Solving a problem

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Apple changed its developer guidelines to prohibit apps from showing for purchase, other than your own. I agree with Gruber — I don’t see the problem this solves.

Malware hits the App Store

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Antivirus researchers at Kaspersky say they’ve spotted an app known as “Find and Call” in both the iPhone App Store and Google’s Play market that secretly uploads all of a user’s contacts to a remote server and then sends text message and email spam to every number and email address listed in his or her phonebook.

I hate Malware. I wonder if Apple will change the way it does app reviews now that someone found a way to get through the walled garden?

App Store reviews

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Matthew Panzarino:

By a huge margin, the number one request by these developers was for Apple to allow them to respond directly to reviews on the App Store.

I agree.

Apple names the App Store 25 billionth download winner

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Apple on Monday named the winner of its 25 billionth app download. The app counter rolled over to 25 billion on Friday night and people have been wondering who the winner was ever since.

According to Apple, the 25 billionth app downloaded, Where’s My Water? Free, was downloaded by Chunli Fu of Qingdao, China. Chunli Fu will receive a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card.

“We’d like to thank our customers and developers for helping us achieve this historic milestone of 25 billion apps downloaded,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “When we launched the App Store less than four years ago, we never imagined that mobile apps would become the phenomenon they have, or that developers would create such an incredible selection of apps for iOS users.”

Apple agrees to privacy changes in App Store

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Matthew Panzarino:

Following several weeks of controversy surrounding the way that applications were handling customer data, the California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today announced that several companies with a stake in the app game have agreed to new privacy protections for users of apps, including Apple, Microsoft, HP, Amazon, Google and RIM.

Now users will be able to view an app’s privacy policy before downloading.

In defense of Atari

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Technologizer: I’m all in favor of developers drawing upon old games for inspiration, improving them and turning them into entirely new ideas. And I like fan-made homages when they expand significantly on the original and–this is important–are not sold for … Continued

Apple’s Mac App Store tops 100 million downloads

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Apple today announced that over 100 million apps have been downloaded from the Mac App Store in less than one year. With thousands of free and paid apps, the Mac App Store brings the App Store experience to the Mac so you can find great new apps, buy them using your iTunes account, and download and install them in just one step. Apple revolutionized the app industry with the App Store, which now has more than 500,000 apps and where customers have downloaded more than 18 billion apps and continue to download more than 1 billion apps per month.

Wow!