iSights.org

Android App Store Passing Apple's In Five Months? Hardly.

According to a new report from analytics outfit Distimo, if Google’s Android Market maintains its current rate of growth it will surpass Apple’s App Store to become the largest app store in number of applications in just five months.

You can see the blue growth line for Android set to pass the green Apple App Store line in the chart below:

Oddly, however, Distimo analysts chose to break out iPad applications into their own distinct category.

If you combine the iPhone and iPad numbers into a single iOS platform number, as I did, then Apple ends up being the top line in the chart, and that line seems to tell just a slightly different story.

Guess it was a slow news day.

[via All Things D]

When Is New Not New? On The App Store, Of Course!

Apple recently pulled the "Show All New Applications" menu item from the iTunes based version of the App Store, apparently deciding that the "New" applications block at the top of the page served the same purpose.

It doesn't. Especially when the "New" applications are cherry-picked from all of the new submissions and--worse--the entire list is only updated once a week. If that.

As the above screenshot shows, as of today, October 6th, the most recent "New" application listed is from September 26th. Ten days ago. And this despite the fact you can dive into practically any category and see more recent applications. Some released as recently as October 5th. Yesterday.

Apple needs to return the "Show All New Applications" list, or add a "Just Added" block that automatically shows ALL of the new submissions during the last week, or get their store editors off their sorry rear ends and actually update the store listings.

New indeed.

Worthless App Store "Reviews"

Is it just me, or are you also getting tired of all of the application "reviews" on the App Store that say nothing more than "first post", ask "who would want this", complain about the price, or offer some other in-depth opinion of an application... that they don't even own.

I'm especially fond of the "reviews" that complain about features and point you to some other application, often free, that supposedly does the same thing... when it's obvious they haven't used either one, and as such have no way of knowing that app B is actually and in fact a true replacement for app A. Who cares? It's free.

Personally, I think you could increase the quality of the reviews considerably if you limited the ability to review an application to those customers who have actually purchased, downloaded, and installed the application in question.

Another issue relates to the current mess with Electronic Arts, Spore, DRM, and Amazon.

Updated iPhone Applications Already Available

If you're one of those who purchased and downloaded iPhone applications over the weekend, you might want to check to see if your brand spanking new application has already been updated.

I did, and found that Cro-Mag Rally, BoxOffice, NetNewsWire, NYTimes, and World News NetWork (AP) were just a few of the applications that have already received bug fixes and updates since the App Store opened for business last Friday.

iPhone App Store Up To 800 Applications

If you browsed through Apple's new App Store on Friday and didn't see anything of interest you might want to look again. The number of applications listed has increased increased daily, going from Friday's original 535 to just over 800.

In related news, Apple has stated in a press release that they've sold 10 MILLION applications since Friday (or Thursday, for those of us who jumped the gun).

Undoubtedly, many of the applications "sold" were free, but 10 million of anything in three days has to be an impressive number in anyone's book.

First iTunes App Store photo

The new App Store home page, available from iTunes 7.7.