Tag: Sales »

Apple has launched its new Apple Store app for iPhone and iPod touch that allows users to browse Apple’s online store via their portable devices. Aimed to launch at the same time as iPhone 4 pre-orders, most users have had to put up with the Apple’s customary “We’ll be back soon” sticky note for much of the day with high demand for the next generation of iPhone bringing servers to a standstill.

The free app offers customers (in the US only for the time being) a convenient way to browse the Apple Store and even access Genius Bar support from within the app. Apple Store is sure to benefit those who take advantage of Apple’s in-store training and Personal Shopping services and, as you would expect, looks the part too. Oddly enough Apple hasn’t seen fit to provide an iPad version of the app presumably assuming that users would rather use the large screen to visit the Apple Store via Safari than through a dedicated application. For all you developers stung by the iPad's dimensions, take heart from the fact that Apple's own apps look awful at 2x zoom too.

Coming way in third place, Android has 1/3 the market share of the iPhone in spite of the possibility that it outsold the iPhone last quarter. In spite of having a good quarter, Android failed to gain on Apple if these numbers from Neilsen are to be believed.

The numbers put Apple in second place (29%) behind BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, which has a 35 percent share. In third place is Microsoft Windows Mobile with 19 percent, followed by Google (9 percent), Palm (4 percent), Linux (3 percent), and Symbian (2 percent).

Apple and Google both moved up by 2 percent in the first quarter of 2010. In the same period, RIM and Microsoft both lost 2 percent market share.

We had heard that Android outsold the iPhone last quarter, but these number make me believe that isn't the case. While we don't know the total numbers, just percentages, math tells us that 2% of the 29% market share of iPhone is a greater number than 2% of the 9% market share Android has. That means that Android failed to gain any ground on the iPhone last quarter.

Math is hard. Let's go shopping for a new iPhone!

Following our report that international iPad App Stores began switching on yesterday, international iBookstores are also now available. Apple initially claimed that iBooks would be a US-only service, likely due to ongoing discussions with international book publishers, but has since announced international launches in countries that begin selling the iPad on May 28th. At present, only free books are available to download on international iBookstores however this is likely to change over the next few days. So far, live iBookstores have been reported in Germany, Italy and the UK with the remaining supported countries likely to follow.

At the time of writing there are 10,023 free books available on the UK iBookstore with new additions apparently stopped for the time being after almost minute-by-minute changes earlier.

We’ll keep you updated as things progress.

Jim Dalrymple over at The Loop has a piece out today about how the iPad outsold the Mac last quarter. While we've known that the iPad is the first generation of what Steve Jobs sees as the future of computing, it's interesting to see it take such an early lead.

There of course are some interesting factors to consider on this. For one, the iPad is a new product. And as usual, Apple marketing has lots of people in a frenzy to get one. My guess is we'll see sales die off over the next couple months as the focus turns to the new iPhone. And then we'll see them pick up again, in a huge way, leading up to Christmas. While Mac sales will pick up, as they usually do, in the early fall as students get ready to go back to school.

What’s interesting to note is that Piper Jaffray Senior Research analyst Gene Munster said on Monday that he sees no signs of the iPad cannibalizing Mac sales. That could still be the case, assuming that iPad sales are coming as a result of pent-up demand from consumers that were going to buy something else.

Read more over at [ The Loop ]

Apple has announced that the one millionth iPad has been sold, just 28 days after launch.

“One million iPads in 28 days—that’s less than half of the 74 days it took to achieve this milestone with iPhone,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Demand continues to exceed supply and we’re working hard to get this magical product into the hands of even more customers.”

Also of note, as of this writing there were nearly 5,500 apps released for the iPad in the same timeframe. It's on a similar growth curve to the device sales when compared to the iPhone App Store -- with it taking about 50% of the time to reach 5,000 apps for the iPad as it did for the iPhone.

What this doesn't take into account are the number of iPads returned. When I was at the Apple store picking up the iPad 3G on launch day, there were a good number of people in line that were returning the Wifi version for the 3G version. But overall, I expect that number to be small.

Even with the returns, the amazing growth of the iPad is a testament to Apples ability to create an amazing device and an amazing buzz around a device. Now that this milestone has been reached, all eyes turn toward the next generation iPhone!

Random Musings of the App Store

More stupidity from Sony

An interesting article over at PocketGamer this week reveals some measures Sony has been taking to combat Apple's wildly successful (but far from perfect) App Store and to make their virtual download service, the PSN, more appealing for both consumers and developers. Sony might be doing fine with consumers, as the reported top limit of 5 euros is less than the App Store imaginary limit of $9.99, so if consumers managed to stomach the outrageous price of $250 for the PSPgo, they should be pleasantly surprised with the game pricing. The question is, however, will there be any games worth buying. The upper limit of 5 euros is simply awful for developers. For any quality games that are worth buying to a consumer, the volume of sales just needed to break even is immense. This is one of the biggest problems of the App Store, but it has managed to get away with it - for now - because of the huge reach of the store - there are simply a massive amount of consumers who are willing to buy a lot of games. I can't imagine the PSPgo will sell as many units as the iPhone and iPod Touch combined, so I can't imagine how hard it will be for developers to turn a worthwhile profit. Just ask the Google Android - the entire Android store probably has seen less downloads than any of about 500 iPhone apps. To make matters worse though, Sony is taking huge control over the games, requiring a two week QA test and regulating release dates, further discouraging indie development. Sure, most people don't see the iPhone in the same light for gaming as the PSP (though I could recommend you a couple of titles that might change your mind), but with the new insanely powerful iPhone 3GS and help like this from Sony, Apple might just eat away at Sony's share of the portable gaming world.

Snood arrives in the App Store

Last night, Snood, a classic PC/Mac Bust-a-Move clone, was released by EA into the App Store. Despite some strange Facebook requirements, a quirky landscape interface (the game is played entirely in portrait view), and the fact that it's an EA port, Snood has made it to the iPhone in all its highly addictive goodness... with online multiplayer nonetheless! Best of all, there's not even a stupid cross-over promotional Pocket God pygmy in sight! A friendly warning: I lost many hours of productivity on this game back in the day. I've not spent enough time with the game (ok, basically none) to give it a recommendation, but we'll try to have an official 148apps patent-pending review up soon (or not...I didn't get that checked out with our editor, Chris. He might have some sort of strange anti-Snood bias).

App Store Fire Sale

It seems that in the App Store lately, everything must go! Developers have been slashing their prices to new lows, some even making their games free for a limited time. Rather than typing more, I thought I'd let our fancy boxes do the talking, so here are some notable price drops:

(Full disclaimer: I really don't like NFL 2010)

This week's sign of the apocalypse
[caption id="attachment_15880" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Hmm, why does this look so familiar?"]

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The game Ricky is currently sitting at the number 33 spot in the App Store. The description tells me that if I like Super Mario Bros, then "surely I will like Ricky." Well Ricky, the only thing I'm surly about is your game. Ricky is a blatant Mario rip-off (ported horribly I might add). The hills have eyes, the main character is an italian plumber, and oh yeah, the icon is the 1up mushroom. Really Apple, you saw no possible copyright infringement going on. It just makes you wonder how apps like this get through while quality games like iMech and A.D.D. are held up in the approval purgatory for months.

Apps of the Week

This week was a great game week, and while I was hoping Duke Nukem 3D would hold a spot on this list, unfortunately the controls are among the worst I've seen for a big title on the iPhone. Nevertheless, a duo of great games, one new, one old, made my list for the apps of the week.

Spider: the Secret of Bryce Manor
[caption id="attachment_15881" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Spider, a beautiful, elegant game"]

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Spider is simply a work of art. The main gameplay, spinning webs to catch and eat bugs, is very compelling, especially with fantastic touch controls, but what makes Spider truly great is the multi-faceted story. The story is a human one that rivals many novels, but it is told through subtle clues found throughout levels. Items of seemingly little consequence can fill in a crucial missing piece. To top things off, Spider comes with many secret area to levels plus a secret room that it will take a true adventurer to unlock.

Civilization Revolution
Earlier in this article, I mentioned the addictive nature of Snood, but that is nowhere as addictive as the classic turn-based empire building game Civilization. Once I start a game of Civilization, I literally am not capable of doing anything else until I've finished the game. The iPhone version is slightly watered down, making it more accessible to newcomers, and it does have some interface/control issues (no performance issues over here on my iPhone 3G), but it's still Civilization, and it's still awesome.

That's it for this edition of MMAHQ. Next week, I hope to have some super secret exclusive content for you all that I've been working (or should I say waiting) on. Enjoy your week!

Firemint Games, the developers of the 148Apps five star rated game Flight Control, have just released their sales figures for the app while it held the #1 spot in the iTunes App Store. The period covered stretches from March 24th to April 25th 2009, which is a sizable amount of time for an app to hold that position.

Here's some of the information from the report:

Correction: the app Chopper was on sale during the holidays, and continues to be on sale. The app is regularly priced at $4.99 but is on sale for $0.99. Sales figures updated below.

Many developers are seeing their iTunes sales reports for the first time after iTunes Connect opened back up after Apple closed it for the Christmas rush, and those sales numbers are amazing. With many apps showing 2-4x normal sales of their paid apps on Christmas day and increased sales continuing in the days following. Free app download number showing up to 5x normal rate as well. Could this be all the new iPhone and iPod Touch owners looking for apps to fill up their devices or most likely people with newly gifted iTunes gift cards to burn.

David Frampton of Majic Software, the developer of Chopper (iTunes Link), the number 2 paid game and number 3 paid app overall, reported sales 3x normal on 12/25 with sales in the days following still much higher than normal, but dropping off by about 30% on the 26th and another 10%/day on the 27th. The Chopper developer pulled in sales of over 50,000 copies of his $4.99 app (on sale for $0.99 during the holidays) for the 4 day period of 12/24 - 12/27 with around half of those sales coming on Christmas day. That's nearly $25,000 in sales in one day, 12/25, alone.

Another developer we talked with, Mark Johnson, reported sales of over four times normal on Christmas day. Hit Tennis (iTunes Link) the $1.99 tennis game, currently number 55 in the top 100 paid iPhone Sports games, had sales of nearly 200 on 12/25 with normal daily sales in the 40s.

Gabriel Pasqualini from Portengo, developers of Cartoonize Me (iTunes Link), the top 15 app on the Entertainment paid app list showed sales 3x normal on the 25th with sales on the 26th being about 90% of what they were on the 25th.

Other stories are similar in nature with most developers of apps on iTunes top 100 lists showing sales 2-4 times normal. Other developers of apps not in any of the top 100 lists also reported much higher than normal sales, though not 4x.

Tim Haines, developer of Burn Ball (iTunes Link) which is not currently in the top 100 paid games reported a similar 3x normal sales on 12/25. He also reported that the free version of his game, Burn Ball Lite (iTunes Link), had download numbers 5x normal on 12/25.

No one knows how long the increased sales will continue, but this is a much deserved present for these independent developers.

Apple today reported their quarterly results -- you can see the full PR here. The important thing to see is that they shipped 6.9 million iPhones in 1 quarter! Wow, that's huge for a cell phone. This also means they shipped more phones with a single model and carrier than RIM did with multiple models and carriers for it's Blackberry devices.

Very impressive.