Apple's App Store approval process has always been a bit controversial because of the level of control the company holds over what types of applications are allowed in. Initially, there were concerns that Apple rejected apps because they duplicated functionality the company already offered or was planning to build into the iPhone OS -- not because the submitted apps wouldn't run according to the company's specifications.
Research firm IDC says Apple's App Store could stock in excess of a quarter million iPhone and iPod Touch applications, tripling current levels by the end of 2010. That's some number. Contrast with an estimated 10,000 Windows 7-compatible apps, over 700 (released as well as announced) Xbox 360 games, nearly 600 PS3 games, over 1,000 Wii games, over 600 DS games (from September 2008), and over 700 PSP games.
Old friends, family gatherings, homeward-bound travel all go hand-in-hand with the holiday season--and, of course, so does taking photos of these special moments.
Much is being made of supposed improvements to Apple's App Store, but the approval of a music service called Spotify only raises more questions. And the recent approval of Loopt was a major step backward even Phil Schiller may be unable to fix.
TomTom's new GPS navigation application for the iPhone may sound appealing, but it's true cost and capabilities are still a mystery. The app costs $100 and allows the iPhone to function as a real-time navigation device that provides turn-by-turn directions.
The new TomTom app that turns an iPhone into a turn-by-turn GPS navigation system spells the beginning of the end for standalone GPS. Not everywhere, but at least on dashboards, where a smartphone can now do everything a GPS can do and cost less than purchasing both.
It's one of the world's most successful retail launches in recent history: the Apple App Store. In only a year since its debut, the App Store now offers some 65,000 different apps. Apple claims more than 1.5 billion apps have been downloaded from its virtual shelves.
Well, Apple's done it again. The company has censored yet another app from its precious App Store, this time because it contained "objectionable" words. The app in question: a dictionary.
Big Brother is a little late in arriving, having been expected by 1984 at the latest. But he has shown his face twice recently in the world of mobile technology: First, in the mass removal from Amazon Kindles of George Orwell's 1984 (oh, sweet irony) and Animal Farm e-books. Second, when Apple banished all Google Voice-related apps from its App Store--including one excellent app, GV Mobile, which Apple had approved and which had been available in the iTunes store since early May.
Just how lucrative is the iPhone App Store for a business in application development? Is it easy to achieve success or is money on app development better spent elsewhere? The top Australian iPhone app developers speak exclusively to Computerworld about success in the iPhone App store.
It wasn't always obvious that applications would be as important to mobile users as the iPhone has helped them become. Or that they would be even more important for keeping competitors at bay.
Apple Inc. has an interesting pie-slicing problem coming as far as developers of iPhone (and iPod Touch) applications are concerned. All of those first- and second-generation iPhones run the same operating system -- the just-released iPhone OS 3.0 -- as the new 3GS model. But the latter includes new hardware such as a magnetometer, a faster CPU and faster GPU, as well as more memory. If developers build shiny new apps with only those features in mind, they'll limit their market. What to do?
If there is a single message from Apple's Monday announcements, it is a simple one: Software sells hardware. Second message? Apple's iPhone has a lot of software available and the Palm Pre, Android, BlackBerry, et al, don't come close.
Ah, the Apple App Store. Since July 2008, the month when Apple opened its wildly popular library of applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch, the world has been treated to more than 20,000 apps, with some 500 million downloaded as of February 2009.