appshopper
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Daily Update for April 22, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
AppShopper returns to the App Store with new social discovery focus
AppShopper, a popular app-recommendation tool, disappeared from the App Store this past December when Apple ruled it didn't meet the company's updated store guidelines. The guideline that AppShopper specifically violated states, "Apps that display Apps other than your own for purchase or promotion in a manner similar to or confusing with the App Store will be rejected." Given that was the entire thrust behind AppShopper, it seemed the app was doomed. Today, however, AppShopper relaunched as App Shopper Social, a new approach to the old idea that got them in trouble in the first place. Rather than the app specifically making recommendations to you like the old model, the new app makes social recommendations based on your friends who use the app. And who is the first friend recommended to you upon booting up the program? Why, it's App Shopper themselves. These recommendations show up in your "Stream." You can find new friends via a built-in Twitter search function or by manually adding user names. By focusing on social recommendations, the company has been able to work around the Apple Store guideline regarding market place confusion. Version 1.0 of the new app is still lacking some of the features users may remember from its original incarnation, including the "What's New" and "Top 200" lists. In addition, the iPad app hasn't been updated yet. The company has promised these issues will be fixed in future updates.
AppShopper app runs afoul of new guidelines, pulled from App Store
AppShopper's iOS app -- a popular app-finding tool and pint-sized version of the full AppShopper website -- has been pulled from the App Store today after Apple ruled that it doesn't comply with a new guideline put forth by the company. TNW reports that the rule in question states "Apps that display Apps other than your own for purchase or promotion in a manner similar to or confusing with the App Store will be rejected." Well, that's certainly what the AppShopper app does. And given that the tool is built for a singular purpose, and that purpose is now explicitly outlawed in the App Store rules, it's hard to imagine a way that AppShopper could modify its app to meet Apple's new guidelines. Of course, AppShopper isn't the only app-finding offering on the virtual marketplace, so we imagine that the rest are already waiting for the axe to fall as we speak.
3,266 iPad apps and counting
AppShopper is listing 3,266 iPad apps available at the time of this writing. That's slightly more than 100 apps added since this morning. As of the morning of April 4th there were a total of 3,122 iPad apps available in the App Store according to Mobclix, a mobile ad exchange. At launch yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported 2300 iPad apps available in the App Store. Of the 3,100+ apps Mobclix counted, 2,523 -- or roughly 80% of them -- were paid apps with the average price being $4.99. 942 of the iPad apps are games (804 paid, 138 free) and of the 154 book apps virtually all of them are paid. To put all the apps on your iPad would cost you a whopping $12,572.78. TechCrunch contrasts the iPad app numbers with the iPhone apps. Of the 180,000 iPhone apps, 75% are paid. TechCrunch also theorizes that the prices of most iPad apps should go down as developers seek a median level where they can achieve the highest profit possible. After all, selling a hundred thousand copies of your app for $1.99 is much better than selling five copies for $49.99.
Apple leads the App Store race with 170,000 apps
Silicon Alley Insider has posted an interesting chart that shows the total number of apps available across various mobile platforms. As you can see from the chart, Apple's iPhone leads the pack by a longshot with 170,000 apps according to AppShopper.com. AppShopper typically lists more apps than Apple publicly states it has because AppShopper updates its numbers on a daily basis. As of today's count, AppShopper says Apple has approved 198,924 apps with 171,722 available to download. The discrepancy between the numbers accounts for apps that either the developers or Apple have removed from the App Store. Apple officially states that it currently has 150,000 apps. A distant second after Apple's App Store is Google's Android Marketplace with 30,000 apps. RIM's Blackberry trails with only 5,000 apps, while Palm has a paltry 2,000. Windows Phone 7 Series Applications were announce a few days ago with a limited number of developers signed on. Of course, these numbers don't take app quality into account at all (100,000 fart apps is still just a bunch of junk), but clearly in terms of available downloads, Apple has a huge lead.
