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Posts tagged with "app store"

Angry Birds Maker: “Apple Will Be Number One For A Long Time”

Peter Vesterbacka, the “mighty eagle” at Rovio, thinks Apple is going to sit at the number one spot of mobile platforms for a long time. Angry Birds is, quite possibly, the most successful game that has ever landed in the App Store: more than 50 millions of copies sold, an equally popular iPad version that has been recently updated, a rumored sequel already in the works which will feature a “pig point of view”, Angry Birds cases at Apple Store. If that’s not enough, Rovio is launching its own pig-based mobile payment system.

Yes, true story. Read more

Apple Launches “New Year, New You” App Store Section

iTunes Connect went back online a few hours ago, and app updates started propagating again in iTunes. Together with the end of the “holiday shutdown” for iOS developers, Apple launched a new App Store section called “New Year, New You” to showcase apps “for health and wealth”.

The new section, though, isn’t limited at apps for fitness and health. Apple apparently has a broader view of new year’s resolutions, and decided to included productivity and entertainment apps in the list. For example, you can find apps such as OmniFocus and Things in there, Instapaper and Mortgage Pad, TED and Fitness for iPad. It’s a whole selection of great apps to start 2011 with a perfect app library on your iOS devices.

We think it’s a good idea. Check out the new section here.

App Store Updates Are Back, Camera+ Sells Over 78,000 Copies On Christmas Day

In case you missed it, iTunes Connect is back online. The web interface that allows developers to submit apps, updates and price changes went down on December 23 for the so-called “holiday shutdown” which didn’t freeze the App Store charts as many believed, but still made it impossible for developers to submit apps and users to find updates in iTunes. iTunes Connect went back online a few hours ago, and app updates are now showing up in iTunes and propagating through the App Store. Read more

App Store’s Christmas Brings Millions of Downloads to Developers

All those new iPhone and iPod touch users tracked by the official Facebook app? Yeah, the spike in traffic and new users isn’t limited just to the Facebook app. According to numbers reported by The Next Web and Business Insider, Rovio’s blockbuster iOS game Angry Birds and Tapulous’ Tap Tap Revenge 4 generated over 1 million downloads and twice the level of traffic of last year, respectively. Put simply: this year’s App Store and iOS growth showed its results on December 25th by bringing tons of new customers and downloads to apps that already managed to gain a prominent position in the Store. Or was it because of all those people that got an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad under their Christmas trees?

A little bit of both, in my opinion. Surely lots of people got an iDevice for Christmas and rushed to the App Store to buy apps; we shouldn’t ignore the fact, though, that several developers discounted their apps before the iTunes Connect shutdown (which ends tomorrow, by the way) forcing many users like me to save money for Christmas (or iTunes gift cards) and buy apps altogether right before the family dinner. Either way, those are impressive numbers. Read more

Camera+ Sells 500,000 Copies, Jumps Behind Angry Birds

The highly anticipated new version of taptaptap’s Camera+ was released only two days ago, and while we’re still testing it in real-life situations before our huge review, we do think already it’s a great app update. In fact, Camera+ is one of our Top Camera Apps of 2010.

According to the numbers shared by taptaptap’s John Casasanta, Camera+ 2 has sold 500,000 copies so far. This made the app quickly climb the charts of the App Store, placing it at the #2 spot of overall Top Paid Apps right behind Angry Birds and above all the discounted EA games, which have taken over the iPhone and iPad App Store charts. Casasanta doesn’t know whether Camera+ will manage to get to #1 before the iTunes Connect shutdown (the App Store charts will be “frozen” from today until December 28th, and developers won’t be able to submit new apps, updates or price changes) or not, but releasing Camera+ this week was a clever marketing move nonetheless. They priced the app at $0.99 to celebrate the re-launch, put an additional effect pack in the app sold through in-app purchase and gained visibility thanks to all the blogs and Twitter users who mentioned Camera+ these 2 days. Thus, it got to #2 and it will likely stay there until next week. Very clever indeed.

Just as a reminder: the first version of Camera+ generated $250,000 in revenue in the first month of sales earlier this year. Well deserved.

Shocker! Someone At Apple Killed The Unofficial WikiLeaks App

Three days ago we covered the unofficial WikiLeaks app for iPhone and iPad, a $1.99 piece of software available in the App Store which let you access the latest diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks and check on the organization’s Twitter account. It was also nicely designed and sold as a universal app.

Developer Igor Barinov, though, wasn’t planning on taking all the money from the sales of the app. Instead, he decided to donate half of the proceeds to WikiLeaks, a move that likely pissed off Steve Jobs, or someone else at the App Store team. In fact, for some obscure reason or App Store guideline we’re no aware of, the app is gone. Killed. Kaput. There’s no WikiLeaks app in the App Store anymore. Without an explanation, the developer got an email from Apple about the changed state of his app, which was “removed from sale”.

I’m not sure this app violated any of Apple’s guidelines. It was a wrapper for a website (the CableGate documents) and a Twitter account – both of them publicly available on the internet. We all know there’s worse in the App Store, and – to tell the truth – this was also a good app. Assange and WikiLeaks are controversial and one may or may not agree with his efforts to “reveal the truth”, but there’s no reason to remove an unofficial app.

Unless, well, you’re Apple and you don’t care about your own Guidelines.

First Infinity Blade Update Coming Tomorrow, For Free

According to a tweet from the official Infinity Blade account, the widely anticipated first free update for one of the most successful iOS games ever is coming tomorrow in the App Store, two days ahead of the iTunes Connect shutdown for developers.

Tomorrow’s update will include five new weapons, five new shields, five new helmets and a new armor set. This equipment will allow users to raise the level cap to 45, but there’s more. New areas will be included, namely dungeons. There will be a new enemy to face and more details about the God King will be revealed.

Infinity Blade for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch is available at $5.99 in the App Store. The update that will go live tomorrow won’t include a multiplayer mode (it seems like that’s coming in January), but it’ll be free for all existing users. No in-app purchase to unlock the new stuff.

We can’t wait.

First Unofficial WikiLeaks App

You can think Julian Assange should have been TIME’s person of the year or not – we’re not here to discuss Assange’s (and his team’s) actions. There’s an unofficial WikiLeaks iPhone and iPad app in the App Store, and it was released earlier today. It’s available now at $1.99.

The app sports a nice and clean interface design, and allows you to check on the latest WikiLeaks’ updates from Twitter or the organization’s website. Both the tweets and the website are formatted for the iPhone and iPad. WikiLeaks App can automatically forward to the latest mirror and access the CableGate page.

WikiLeaks App for iPhone and iPad is available here at $1.99.

This Is The Ultimate App Store Infographic

Sure, we have seen infographics about the App Store before. But right ahead of the iTunes Connect holiday shut down and with more than 50,000 iPad apps out in the wild – this is the only one you need to look at now.

Created by the folks over at App of the Day and available in its full-size glory here, the infographic provides a lot of insight into the mechanics of Apple’s App Store for the iPhone and iPad. For instance, out of 300,000+ apps 67% are paid and 33% are free apps. Of all apps, 50% are between $0.99 and $2.99. A stunning 85% is made of iPhone apps (not a surprise, considering the iPhone has been around since 2008) and 8% are universal apps.

There are 62,126 unique developers selling software in the App Store, with apps that carry an average price of $2.43. Oh, and those reviews people seem to love so much? Three-stars is the average rating. The official Facebook app is the only one with more than 1,000,000 ratings.

Again, App of the Day’s infographic is full of numbers and interesting details. It also looks great. Check it out here.