As Sarah Perez noted yesterday in her report on the store's launch, the new marketplace for Android apps may be an important step forward for both Android users and developers. The Amazon store will compete directly with the official Google Marketplace, often criticized for poor search and discovery - a drawback for those looking to buy and build Android apps.

Amazon brings its long history of e-commerce experience to bear here, and the Amazon Appstore will utilize many of the popular Amazon store features - personalized recommendations, reviews, and 1-click payments.

One of the most interesting features of the new store is the ability to "Test Drive" an app before you buy it. When you visit the website, you'll be able to control the app through your computer, giving you a chance to see if the app really does what it says or what you want.

The store will also offer a "Free App of the Day" special, which as the name suggests, means making an app that typically costs money available to download for free. This discounting is made possible through Amazon's new pricing agreement with developers. Unlike the Google and Apple App Stores, Amazon sets the price here, not developers. Developers do get to set a list price, and will still get a cut of that price, even if their app is made free as part of Amazon's daily special.

To mark the launch of the store, today's free app is an exclusive - Angry Birds Rio. So here's how you can get that app - and get started with the new Amazon Appstore.

A Walkthrough: Installing the Appstore for Android

1. You'll first need to download the new native app. If you enter your mobile phone number, Amazon will text you a link so you can download it onto your phone.

2. Download and install the new "Amazon_Appstore.apk." This will give you the new Appstore app.

3. Sign in with your Amazon account. This will link your payments to your Amazon account.

4. You can purchase apps either through the Amazon website or via the new app. If you do the former, launching the Appstore on your Android will complete the download and installation. Like the official Android appstore, this will also be how you update your apps to new versions.

Quality Over Quantity

As Sarah Perez pointed out yesterday, the Amazon Appstore will have a more stringent review process than Google's official Android Marketplace. That means, ideally, fewer but better quality apps. My initial reaction: it isn't just the quality of the apps that's better here; it's the whole shopping experience. Amazon will suggest relevant apps and best-selling apps, for example, something that's bound to make this store a boon for Android.

Android users, do you think you'll be using Amazon's new Appstore?

The iPad sold 2 million units in its first 2 months on the market, or 3 iPads a second, as Jobs happily pointed out today at Moscone Center in San Francisco, California. During that same period, apps for the device have been released at a rate of roughly 140 per day. According to our calculations, it took the iPhone and iPod Touch more than twice that time to accrue 8,500 apps, growing at a slower rate of 56 per day.

The faster growth of iPad apps is likely due to the fact that the AppStore is not new, and many developers - having long since recognized the potential of the app market - have been building apps for many months already. It is not likely, however, that iPad app creation numbers will pass those of the iPhone and iPod Touch any time soon. The pair of devices has added 31,500 apps since the iPad launch - a growth rate of 525 per day.

iPhone Apps Still Sell Far Better Than iPad

The fascinating other half of this statistic is that while iPad apps are growing much faster than iPhone/iPod apps did initially, iPhone and iPod apps sold much better during their first few months, and continue to today. In the first 90 days of the AppStore's existence, 100 billion downloads made their way to the handheld devices. If the iPad is going to break that number, it will need to sell 65 million apps this month, nearly double its 2-month sales figure of 35 million apps sold.

App sales and the number of available apps have been increasing exponentially since the launch of the AppStore, and the iPad launch helped the last two months become the fasted period of growth for apps yet. In just two months, 1 billion apps were sold, up to 5 billion from 4 billion back in early April. The total number of apps also increased by 40,000 apps, from 185,000 to 225,000.

Is Price to Blame?

The iPad accounted for 21% of app growth, but just 3% of app sales - a figure that compliments why iPhone and iPod touch users install twice as many apps than iPad users. According to a study by Nielson, users of the handsets average around 37 apps on their device, while today Steve Jobs mentioned iPad users average just 17 per device. A mobile research firm out the Netherlands found that iPad apps run an average price of $4.67, whereas iPhone and iPod touch apps are $.80 less at $3.87 - an obvious deterrent to iPad app sales.

Apple also says it receives 15,000 app submissions a week, and that 95% of apps are accepted through within a week of being submitted. Based on these figures, 114,000 apps or updates to existing apps were pushed into the AppStore in the last two months. Since only 40,000 new apps were added during that time, this means that roughly two-thirds of app submissions are updates to existing applications.

A Lucrative Market

It's no wonder the updates keep rolling in, because developers are making good chunks of change on the AppStore. Steve Jobs says Apple has paid developers over $1 billion in AppStore revenue shares, or over $4,400 per app on average. If Apple has paid out over $1 billion to developers, that means it has pocketed over $428 million from its 30% cut of app sales.

At its current growth rate, the AppStore should pass the 10 billion downloads mark in early April 2011. However, with the continued exponential growth seen in the infographic above, it wouldn't be surprising to see the AppStore break this number as soon as the end of the year.

"Firefox Home for iPhone is part of a broader Mozilla effort to provide a more personal Web experience with more user control," the company said in a blog post Wednesday night. "For devices or platforms where we're unable to provide the 'full' Firefox browser (either technically or due to policy), we aim to provide users with 'on the go' instant access to their personal Firefox history, bookmarks and open tabs on their iPhones, giving them another reason to keep loving Firefox on their desktops."

Fans of Firefox with iPhones may be disappointed they aren't getting a full browser on their device like Android, Windows Mobile and Maemo users, but this app is still pretty useful due to the over-the-air syncing. The inability to browse at will may turn some off, and it remains to be seen how well the Firefox Sync technology works, but this could be an interesting spin on mobile browsing from Mozilla.

Previously, these various content layers have been entirely free to use, but now with the implementation of a content marketplace business can create branded AR experiences and sell them through Layar. The application uses PayPal to process the transactions, and right now the buying of layers is only available in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.

Some of the paid content layers launching with the platform include tour guides, home buying guides and augmented greeting creators. One layer, which sells for $1.95, displays recent criminal activity from SpotCrime.com in over 300 U.S. cities, and another provides an augmented park map for Disneyland and Disney World at a price of $3.45.

One of the more unique layers available on the platform allows music fans to discover the actual geographic locations where some of the most famous album covers were photographed. Perhaps this layer will help fans of the growing "sleeveface" photography meme take their creations to the next level.

Layar is taking a cut of each sale - 40% to be exact, which is actually higher than the 30% Apple takes from purchases made in the AppStore. The company sited "the costs for the platform, legal, administration, banking and others" in Wednesday's press release as the reasons for the 60/40 deal with developers.

The introduction of a marketplace into the mobile AR space could be an enormous boon to the community as it will incentivize companies to create layers. The possible influx of content into the Layar store could work wonders for expanding the AR user base, but the company's 40% cut off the top could also prevent some developers from using the platform.

Either way, Layar's content store is a big leap forward for mobile AR developers who have been searching for better ways to monetize their products. Desktop AR is years ahead of mobile in terms of revenues, but as more computing moves more onto portable devices, stores like Layar's could lead the way toward reversing that trend.

Still, if you are looking for free recipe apps launched or updated in the last month, you would have a hard time finding these in iTunes. In uQuery, however, all it takes is two clicks to filter out older or more expensive apps. While search on uQuery is great, however, the service does not (yet?) provide users with a good way to simply browse the store. You can't, for example, just look at all the new games published in the last week that are available for $0.99 or less.

Earlier this year we wrote about App Engine, another web-based alternative to the App Store. App Engine, however, is currently offline. App Engine basically recreated the App Store on the web - including Apple's layout. App Engine is now offline, making uQuery one of the best web-based alternatives to iTunes, though other alternatives like iphonexe.com are also worth a look.

Tip of the hat to AppScout for bringing uQuery to our attention.

Appsfire is a handy little service that makes it easy to share collections of your favorite apps with other people. There are a variety of ways to use it, but using it on the iPhone is the most pleasing, straightforward and clearly useful. This app indexes all your other apps, makes it easy to share with anyone and shows off the most popular apps shared by all users and users in your geographic region. It's far from perfect, but it's so useful anyway that we recommend you get it.

That said, there are some things about the app that could use some improvement. Days after I first synced my phone up with Appsfire, it has still only indexed 37 of the 43 apps I have on my phone. It's a little embarrassing to show off your collection of apps if some of the coolest ones don't show up. ReadWriteWeb's Sarah Perez tested it as well and says that, "It only saw 79 of my 107 apps (and one was wrong). Bummer. Still way cool though."

Since there's no App Store API that can be used, Appsfire has to learn about the apps its users have by brute force pinging the Store's directory. The company told me my apps would be found within hours but it doesn't look like they are going to show up. That's a real shame because several of the missing ones are among my favorites. Some that it's missing are obscure, but others like the NYT app are not.

Several of us tested the service and found that it only captures about 70% of the apps on our phones. That's pretty disappointing, but hopefully it will be fixed in time. For now, being able to share from that 70% is much better than not being able to share at all. Here are my favorites, here are Frederick Lardinois' and here's Sarah Perez's massive collection of apps she loves.

When looking at the app leader boards by region and "VIP Selections" (disclosure: my favorite apps are highlighted on the service) it would be really nice if you could learn more about the apps from inside the Appsfire interface. Instead the app store launches and Appsfire closes. This transition can be quite slow, too.

Those problems notwithstanding, it's pretty awesome to be able to share links to your favorite apps with other people via email in just a few clicks. You'd be silly not to grab this app; you're likely to regret it later in conversations about your favorite other apps if you don't.

We'd love to see links to the Appsfire pages of readers! Please leave yours in the comments below so we can discover what apps you like.

The data about how iPhone users discover apps is quite interesting. It doesn't come as a surprise that most users are looking for a specific type of app, but it is also clear that the Top 25 lists in the store play a major role in most users' purchase decisions. 46% of all iPhone users rely on recommendations from friends, while about 20% find new apps through ads in other applications and about 19% base their download decisions on news articles and blog posts they have read.

Given the size of the store at this point, it only makes sense that users rely on popularity as a measure of quality. Sadly, the App Store doesn't allow users to organize apps by ratings. Judging from this data, any app that becomes a bestseller and reaches the Top 25 can probably look forward to a long life within this list.

How Many Apps Do They Use?

About 40% of all iPhone users use about 4 to 6 apps at least once a week. Only about 5% use more than 20 apps per week. Given how many apps most users download per month, these results validate some other reports we have seen which argue that most iPhone apps are disposable and are discarded after a few days of usage.

The Power of Brands

Being an ad company, AdMob also asked the survey respondents if they would download apps from well-known brands. Over 70% answered that they had already downloaded apps from brands and over 60% said that they would be interested in doing so.

As AdMob is more interested in selling ads than revenue from app sales, it makes sense that the company didn't differentiate between paid and free apps in this survey, though it would have been interesting to see more data about how much users pay for their apps on average and what percentage of the apps they downloaded was free.

Methodology

As always, it is important to note the methodology used for this survey. On August 6, AdMob recruited participants through ads in applications that use AdMob's advertising technology. Overall, AdMob received 190 responses from these ads, which the company feels is a significant sample size and provides a representative sample of the larger iPhone app market.

Android Poised for Growth

Still, Flurry's stats for Android are definitely encouraging, and there can be little doubt that more and more developers are starting to look at Android as an alternative platform - especially since Apple's App Store approval process continues to be a mess.

Flurry doesn't track applications on Windows Mobile phones. Microsoft, however, is also trying to woo disgruntled iPhone developers and is now offering instructions for how to port iPhone apps to Windows Mobile.

EBooks on Mobile Phones

Flurry also took a close look at eBook applications and noticed that the number of active users there is showing tremendous growth. Flurry tracked nearly 3 million active users of eBook apps in July, up from just around half a million in March. While Amazon and Barnes & Noble both offer eBook apps for the iPhone (and B&N also offers one for the Blackberry), Sony remains the only major eBook player without a mobile app. Judging from these numbers, the real battle for dominance in the eBook market might not happen around hardware devices like the Kindle or the Sony Reader. Instead, whichever company can dominate the eBook market on mobile phones might have a serious advantage over its competitors.

But lack of communication is only one of the issues with today's App Store approval process. O'Reilly Research is reporting today that the incubation period for apps is now trending upward - a figure that seems to speak to Apple's becoming overwhelmed by the number of submissions. And finally, courtesy of Apple's mysterious approval process, they've accidentally let yet another "adult"-themed application into the App Store once again.

For four months, the developer of a third-party Google Voice application known as VoiceCentral hosted his application in the iTunes App Store. Then, one day, it was gone. There was no advanced notice and absolutely no explanation from the company. He contacted Apple for help. After a frustrating conversation with Apple employee "Richard," the developer realized that Apple was simply refusing to discuss the problem. The conversation, a snippet of which is embedded below, is beyond absurd (Note - the developer says the conversation is not verbatim):

Richard: "I'm calling to let you know that VoiceCentral has been removed from the App Store because it duplicates features of the iPhone."

Me: "I don't understand that reasoning. By that logic wouldn't apps like Textfree, Skype, fring, or iCall be considered duplicates?"

Richard: "I can't discuss other apps with you."

Me: "It's not the apps themselves I want to discuss just the lack of consistency in rule enforcement."

Richard: "I can only say that yours duplicates features of the iPhone and was causing confusion in the user community. It's against our policy."

Me: "So what has changed that it is now against policy? It has been in the store for the last 4 months with no problem. There wasn't a problem for the 1.5 months prior to that when you were 'reviewing' it. And this didn't come up with any of the updates we submitted after it was already in the store."

Richard: "I can't say - only that yours is not complying with our policy."

Me: "Can you tell me what portions of the app were duplicate features?"

Richard: "I can't go into granular detail."

Me: "Is there something we can change or alter in order to regain compliance and get back in the Store?"

Richard: "I can't say."

Me: "Well if we can't figure out the issue then how will we know whether to resubmit the app. And how will we know whether to invest in any other development efforts? Future apps could be impacted."

Richard: "I can't help you with that"

Along with the removal of the third-party applications, Apple also gave the boot to the official Google Voice Application at the same time.

Some tech pundits reported it was AT&T who was behind the removal of these apps, since the Google Voice app essentially turns the iPhone into a dumb data device that routes calls over the iPhone's data connection instead of over AT&T's network - you know, the network where they get to charge you big money for long distance phone calls and such. Others weren't so sure that AT&T was to blame, since there are still a number of other VoIP applications available in the App Store now including My Skype, TruPhone, Nimbuzz, and Fring.

Sadly, the real truth may never be known because Apple isn't talking.

For one Apple developer, Steven Frank, watching the Google Voice debacle unfold was enough to put him off developing applications for Apple products altogether. Interestingly enough, Frank is not an iPhone developer - he develops apps for the Mac. But seeing how Apple was treating the mobile developer community left him "frustrated and disappointed," he wrote in a candid blog post.

"I've reached a point where I can no longer just sit back and watch this. The iPhone ecosystem is toxic, and I can't participate any more until it is fixed. As people have told me so many times: It's Apple's ballgame, and Apple gets to make the rules, and if I don't like it, I can leave. So, I don't like it, and I'm leaving."

As for Google themselves, they aren't sharing what (if any) conversation occurred between the two companies about the Voice app's removal. But given the somewhat incestuous relationship between both industry giants (Apple and Google share two board members: Google CEO Eric Schmidt and former Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson), we'll probably never hear from them either.

Delays, Delays, Delays

When it comes to getting an application published, there's no doubt that Apple's queue of apps pending approval is likely the largest in the business. That's probably why the company is unable to offer consistent and reliable lead times for app approval to their developers. Some apps seem to get approved in a reasonable amount of time while others have actually sat in limbo for as much as six months.

And it's not just approvals that are subjected to this process. Application updates - patches that add features and fix major problems - are stalled for weeks on end at times, too. Says one iPhone developer: "I'm not happy with delays involved, and the seemingly arbitrary favoritism that's evident. It's either favoritism or just general chaos."

Today, new findings from O'Reilly Research put hard numbers to these sorts of complaints. They show that Apple's incubation times are now trending upward. The "incubation time" is the period between the release date of an app and the date it first appears in iTunes. The release date of an app refers to the date developers upload their apps to iTunes Connect, the area where apps are managed. In between the release date and when the app appears in iTunes, Apple performs a number of undisclosed QA tests before making the app live in their store. Because a shorter incubation period translates to a more favorable position when users sort apps by release date, developers prefer to see the shortest incubation periods possible.

As more apps are launched each week, the incubation period for these apps is increasing, says O'Reilly. They found that the mean incubation period for all app categories except for Travel is now on the rise.

The findings also reveal some other interesting trends, too. For example, although more games are launched each week, Music apps spend more time in the approval process. (No doubt while Apple verifies whether or not the app competes with iTunes).

Then there is the issue of Apple telling a developer that their app will go live on a particular date but it doesn't happen. The most recent example of this was with the new my6sense application. Because the company's PR department had already briefed a number of bloggers with the information, articles were published anyway, albeit with an update about the delay. Unfortunately for the company, this was not the ideal situation. How awful must it have been to see post after post about the app go live without any download link included in any of them. That's not just disappointing for the blog readers who can't try the app right away, it no doubt affected the company's bottom line, too.

That App Should Not Have Been Approved

Although Apple won't reveal any details of their mysterious approval process, a number of "oopsies" and oversights lead some to wonder if there isn't some sort of automation involved. That's the only explanation as to why some apps, like the horrid "Baby Shaker" game (where you shake the baby until red X's appear over his eyes) could have ever made it through. Such an oversight surely was not made by an actual person - at least not one who wanted to keep their job, that is.

Other questionable applications have also been pulled like BeautyMeter, a "Hot or Not" type of app where user-submitted photos are voted on and rated. Some users went too far with their photos, leaving Apple to finally pull the app when a 15-year-old girl uploaded nude photos of herself. That occurrence made the app go from being risque to downright illegal in an instant. Perhaps Apple just didn't see the potential dangers of that type of application, but their latest mistake again highlights the obvious holes in their approval process.

For a brief period of time yesterday, Apple was hosting an app called theXchange whose sole purpose is to connect people who want to have sex. Clearly, this app should not have made the cut given Apple's policies. So again, one has to wonder: what is going on with the approval process?

Apple Needs to Shape Up

There's no doubt that Apple is struggling with the large number of apps, the high visibility of their platform, and having to balance their goals with those of their carriers like AT&T. However, the problems, the delays, and, most importantly, their refusal to discuss the issues, is starting to give the company a bad reputation. For now, the souring feelings for Apple are probably just occurring in the developer community and among and tech pundits who watch the company closely. Still, it's already been bad enough for some developers to bow out and for some high-profile tech bloggers to announce they're ditching the iPhone for good.

If Apple can't address these issues in a timely fashion, then maybe it's time for them to lift their cone of silence and say - if not why the issues have happened - then at the very least, "We're Sorry."

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Web Trends

Bits Of Destruction Hit the Book Publishing Business: Part 1

"Bits of destruction" is a phrase Fred Wilson uses to describe the destructive part of "creative destruction" brought on by digitization. We hear a lot about the destruction wrought on the newspaper business. A more interesting and nuanced wave is now hitting the book publishing business. Actually, it is three waves: the digitization of back catalogs, e-books, and print on demand.

Breaking News Online: How One 19-Year Old Is Shaking Up Online Media

Michael van Poppel used to be like a lot of young people, trawling the internet for interesting news about the world. Just like many others have considered doing, he created a place where he could post the most interesting news he finds, as fast as he can. Today he's one of the most-watched movers and shakers in online news media - and he's not yet twenty years old.

Are You Over AIR Applications?

When Adobe AIR was first released, we were in love. These glorious rich internet applications let us interact with web services outside our browser. More complex than simple desktop widgets, these programs delivered the web to us in beautiful little packages. But recently, we've begun to question AIR's longevity. There's no reason why these apps couldn't just run in a browser instead...and that might even be a better place for them. 

Cross Reality Will Change Your Life, But at What Cost to Your Privacy?

Yesterday we explored an emerging trend called "Cross Reality", one term for when sensor networks meet online virtual worlds. As this trend becomes more common over the next few years (and it will, as both Web-connected sensors and virtual reality ramp up), what are the implications on how people use the Web? How will it change our interactions in both real and virtual life?

Facebook at 250 Million Users: Could it Be Too Big?

Facebook announced this week that it now has 250 million users, having added 50 million new users in just the past three months. If Facebook was a country it would now be the 4th most populous place on earth. But could Facebook be too big? It has centralized an incredible amount of power over a huge number of peoples' lives; the texture of Facebook now shapes the pattern of a substantial portion of human communication around the world.

Teens Not Into Twitter, TV, Radio, or Newspapers, Reports Young Morgan Stanley Intern

Matthew Robson, a 15-year-old intern at analyst firm Morgan Stanley recently helped compile a report about teenage media habits. Robson's report isn't even based on any sort of statistical analysis, just good ol' fashioned teenage honesty. He noted that teens aren't into traditional media (think TV, radio, newspapers) and yet they're eschewing some new media, too, including sites like Twitter.

SEE MORE WEB TRENDS COVERAGE IN OUR TRENDS CATEGORY

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The Four Essential Apps for Distributed Teams

Distributed teams. Virtual work. Placeless offices. Whatever you want to call them, groups who work from geographically separate locations are more common than ever. Despite how widespread this mode of coordinating work has become, there are those still wondering just what tools are absolutely crucial to making a distributed team work. Here's a list of the four types of applications you'll need, and some examples of the popular places to get them.

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A Startup Movie: Never Mind the Valley, Here's Boulder

It's no secret that we at ReadWriteWeb have a lot of love for startups that make their homes outside Silicon Valley and the Bay Area. We've decided to make a few videos spotlighting some unique, unexpected locations where startups thrive, where tech scenes are vibrant, where cooperation outstrips competition, and where creativity runs rampant. One of the first cities we'd like to introduce you to is home to between 150 and 170 startups as well as a thriving entrepreneurial and creative community. Welcome to Boulder, Colorado.

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Web Products

How Did it Get so Popular? Apple's App Store Hits 1.5 Billion Downloads and 65,000 Apps

This week, Apple announced that iPhone and iPod touch users have now downloaded over 1.5 billion applications. According to Apple, there are now also over 100,000 developers in the iPhone Developer Program and over 65,000 apps in the store. Given this huge success of the App Store, it is worth thinking about the factors that contributed to the App Store's success and what Apple could do to make the store even better.

See also: Using an Unlocked iPhone? Forget About Push-Enabled Apps

Siri: Virtual Personal Assistant Prepares For Debut

Siri, a "Virtual Personal Assistant" (VPA), has been getting a lot of hype over the past year. The product will launch end of summer U.S. time - starting out as an iPhone app, but later other platforms will be supported. The iPhone app will go into private beta July/August time period, then launch in Q4 2009 or Q1 2010. While Siri is still more promise than substance, we at least get to look at some real-life iPhone demos now.

Microsoft Launches Office Web Apps and Office 2010 in Limited Beta

This week at its Wordwide Partner Conference in New Orleans, Microsoft announced that the Microsoft Office suite has reached the 'technical preview' milestone. The interesting part of the announcement is that Microsoft is also releasing more details about the Office Web applications - which are lightweight, browser-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote (Microsoft's note-taking tool).

Eighteen Streaming Music Resources

According to The Leading Question's recent research report, as many as 65% of UK teens are streaming music on a monthly basis. Meanwhile, file-sharing has decreased significantly since the Digital Britain Report consultation to address illicit P2P file sharing. While music sharing sites have come and gone, here are some of the streaming sites that continue to thrive.

One Time in Bandcamp: Challenging MySpace Music

Hitwise recently reported that MySpace has declined as a traffic generator for entertainment and music sites. MySpace was previously the most significant contributor of traffic to entertainment - multimedia sites, at an estimated 35% of traffic to that category. However that percentage now hovers below 10%, thanks in part to new storefront-style tools like Bandcamp.

SEE MORE WEB PRODUCTS COVERAGE IN OUR PRODUCTS CATEGORY

That's a wrap for another week! Enjoy your weekend everyone.

Here are a few of the them:

• pump was primed: with the iPod, Apple had already familiarized millions of people with iTunes and the idea of buying music and videos content for their devices on iTunes - moving to applications was a natural next step
• it's not just the iPhone: by creating an ecosystem that both iPhone and iPod touch users can tap into, Apple greatly expanded the reach of its app store. Apple says it has shipped over 40 million devices with the iPhone OS on it. This means that, on average, iPhone and iPod touch owners have downloaded an average of around 38 apps per person, which is not an outrageously high number.
• pricing: allowing free apps into the store and distributing them for free was a very smart move by Apple. This allows new users to become comfortable with the App Store concept and gives developers a chance to showcase free versions of their paid applications and games. Also, by allowing developers to charge as little as $0.99 for an app, developers can reach a lot of users while still getting paid for their work.
• international reach: there are App Stores in 77 countries and very little content is restricted to specific countries
• games: almost every application in the list of top paid and free apps (iTunes link) is a game. The iPhone (and the iPhone 3GS even more so) is a great mobile gaming machine and given that most games are quite cheap, who can really say no to the Moron Test or Real Soccer 2009 (which at $0.99 is quite a bargain)?
• low barrier of entry for developers: you don't have to pay to start developing (assuming you have access to a modern Mac), and if you are already a Mac developer, developing for the iPhone OS is relatively easy, as you use the same tools as before.
• a chance to make money: of course, it also helps that Apple provides a central hub for all the apps and at least gives developers the impression that even small development houses or a guy in his parents' basement is playing on the same level as Electronic Arts or Gameloft.

Some things we would like Apple to change/add:

• improve the approval process: it's no secret that the process to get an application into the store is rather arcane and that Apple regularly refuses to let apps into the store for seemingly random reasons.
• "remember this iPhone app" - our own Marshall Kirkpatrick would really like to see Apple add a way to mark apps in the store so that he could buy them later. This could look something like wish lists on Amazon or Newegg
• recommendations: with 65,000 apps, it's very hard to keep an eye on what's new in the store. As of now, Apple hasn't introduced a 'Genius' feature for the App Store and there isn't even an Amazon-like function "others who bought this app also liked these apps" feature
• mark apps you already bought

Can you think of other reasons why the App Store became such a success? And what would you like Apple to add to it or improve? Let us know in the comments.

But now, Renolds has returned and this time he's expanded on the original concept to create what appears to be a full-on App Store replacement application.

It's that last one, "Store," where all the shopping will take place. And unlike the official App Store, nothing is rejected. That's right - there's no approval process whatsoever and all apps will be added to the store within one week. The only exception to this rule will be releases not made free by their developers, says Alec. That means that appDowner isn't about to become a resource for sharing cracked copies of games that you would otherwise have to pay for.

But even without the illegal goods (a rule we're happy to support), appDowner has a lot of potential to compete with the other popular repositories/stores for jailbroken apps like Cydia and Icy. Because it uses BitTorrent technology, apps will always be available for download with no need for developers to worry about hosting issues. In addition, the technology will be able to be used for more than downloading just apps alone, if you're so inclined.

To kick start the launch, appDowner will include several popular apps like Steven Troughton-Smith's killer Stack application and Lights Off game. They'll even have some exclusive content from Nullriver, Inc., promises designer Miles Lorry, who teamed up with Renolds to work on the app.

No word yet on an exact release date, only that it will be arriving "very, very soon."

Stack for iPhone

So what's the reason for the delay? One iPhone application developer has his suspicions. He's discovered what appears to be an issue with Apple's Feedback service and is now questioning if this, and not the backlog of new app approvals, is what's causing the holdup.

Reports Dominik Balogh, developer of the soon to be push-enabled app NotifyMe, there might be problems in the Feedback service provided by Apple's APNS (aka "Push") servers. In a posting on the Macrumors forum, he wrote,

Until now, we have noticed only minor glitches in Feedback service running on APNS servers. These servers deliver Push messages to user's iPhone or iPod touch.

Feedback service alone is periodically checking whether target iPhone application(s) are still reachable. If the Feedback service finds out that the target Push application (special unique token used) is already uninstalled or the Push messages are not possible to deliver repeatedly for whichever reason, it automatically lists the token of that unique user as "invalid". Developer's servers has to disable that user's account temporarily to prevent unwanted resource hogging and wasted traffic on both sides. The token is marked as "valid" back again if the same user is interacting with affected Push application some time later (or new clean token is generated).

The main purpose is clear. 1) No trash 2) saved resources 3) saved processing power 4) saved traffic -- in case users are not reachable. Could be as many as hundreds of thousands.

This Feedback service is currently not responding to our servers in about 4% of cases according to our own logs. Everything else's running fine.

Quote:

2009-06-20 17:32:08 - Feedback check...
2009-06-20 18:32:10 - Feedback check...
2009-06-20 19:32:15 - Feedback check...
2009-06-20 20:32:16 - Authentication failed because the remote party has closed the transport stream.
2009-06-20 20:32:16 - Feedback check...
2009-06-20 21:32:18 - Feedback check...

If, indeed, there was an issue with the Feedback service, it makes sense that Apple would hold back on approving what will surely be some of the most-used applications taking advantage of the new OS's push capabilities. These apps will generate a huge load of traffic and processing power, so it's critical that Apple's service is working without a glitch before the updates are released.

Apple to Developers: Sorry for the Delay

Incidentally, Balogh recently received an email from Apple's iPhone Developer Program, apologizing for the delay. It reads:

Your application, NotifyMe 1.0, is requiring unexpected additional time for review. We apologize for the delay, and will update you with further status as soon as we are able.

Thank you for your patience.
Regards,
iPhone Developer Program
****************************

A couple of other developers are reporting receiving the same email. 

A Second Opinion: 50,000 Apps to Approve = Major Backlog

Of course, suspicions aside, it's also just as possible that Apple is simply dealing with an extremely large backlog of apps in need of approval. With 50,000 applications now in their ecosystem and a new OS to support, the number of app updates waiting for the green light is probably bigger than ever before. And Apple's never been too speedy when it comes to their mysterious approval process.

While this theory makes sense, we have to wonder: if Apple was experiencing glitches with their Push Service - glitches we've seen in the past with MobileMe, for example - would they ever admit it? It's doubtful. Unless someone from Apple HQ itself decided to leak what's really going on with the approval delays, we would probably never know...we could only suspect.

In any case, Flurry reports that free games are downloaded 26% more times on a weekend day versus a weekday, while paid games are downloaded almost 50% more times. Other non-game applications show similar trends with 27% increases for free apps and 36% for paid.

Given these findings, Flurry suggests that developers consider timing their launches to take advantage of these apparent trends. For example, app developers could launch their apps early in the week to encourage free-to-paid conversion sales over the weekend.

These numbers came from the latest Flurry Industry Pulse, an ongoing status check report for the mobile industry. This past month's report is conducted from a sample size of 200 applications, 25 million consumers and four platforms: Apple (iPhone and iPod Touch), Blackberry, JavaME, and Google Android.

AppLogic, as we wrote in 2006, "allows Web companies to manage - and scale - all their applications, servers and storage with just a browser." The AppStore offers software stacks for AppLogic deployments, and its catalog spans all kinds of elements and applications, from networking and server components to storage solutions, as well as management and monitoring tools.

AppStore users will find pre-configured, ready-to-use elements from software vendors, many free or offered as trial versions with other appliances offered on a pay-per-use basis. Data center architects and consultants can package and publish ready-to-run app infrastructures, complete with capabilities such as clustered solutions, high availability, disaster recovery, on-demand scalability, and automated backups and security.

Initial AppStore vendors include CohesiveFT, Layer 7 Technologies, SOASTA, Tap In Systems, and Zeus Technology. 3Tera is also seeking additional infrastructure and software vendors to round out AppStore offerings in time for its beta release in Q3 2009.