Technology Toolkit

As of today, more then 10,000 applications have been released at Apple Store. Most of these applications are developed by budding entrepreneurs. This article aims to provide holistic overview of application trends at Apple store and then describe few selected applications.

IPhone applications are categorized into 19 categories at Apple store, including Games, entertainment, Utilities, Education, Finance, Weather etc. Amongst 10,000 applications submitted at store, 23.10 % are Games. This was expected as IPhone was initially positioned as “fun & cool” device. Hence, we see a lower number of business applications, accounting only 2.69 % of total applications.

However analysts predict the proportion will change significantly in 2009. Finally, there are still 51 Applications submitted in Weather category despite the fact that IPhone has a built-in weather application.

To substantiate IPhone Applications trends, we can also review number of applications submitted at App store each month. Alone, during the month of September, 2008; a total of 2912 applications were submitted at Apple store. No wonder this was right after 4 months of App. Store launch.

Following September 08, each month had more than 2000 Applications released as App Store. Considering trends, Analysts divide the era in 3 stages of technological innovation:

1.Testing Waters:- From May,08 to September, 08
During this era, developers submitted applications to evaluate IPhone SDK capabilities and understanding market dynamics. During this stage simple fun applications were submitted by developers. On consumer side, IPhone users tried each application and were willing to spend 4-5 US $ on each application as trial.

2. Complex Applications:- October, 08 to January, 09
During this stage, entrepreneurs are using their experience of stage 1, to build more complex applications. During this stage analysts expect to see more complex applications being submitted at apple store and expect a major surge in application submission before Christmas and at New Year.

Consumers have become matured, and are not willing to try paid applications without reading reviews. However, consumers are still trying every free application but the usage of free applications is limited to trial only.

3.Business Strategies:- Feb, 09 to May,09
Analysts expect that the third phase will focus on building marketing and revenue strategies for IPhone applications. The “Open Marketplace”, App Store, will require sophisticated marketing campaigns to differentiate product from others. During this phase the major investment would go into marketing and customer acquisition, while investments on product development will be lower.

To substantiate the arguments presented above we selected following applications for review naming “iThrown” and “Starvin Sharks”.

1.iThrown:-
iThrown is developed by Magnatron Kinetics, in cooperation with GenITeam. This fun application allows users to check how far they can throw their beloved IPhone, without really throwing it. The application was rated as top-free download during first week of October. The application was released at end of phase 1, “Testing Waters”. The application became extremely popular amongst young IPhone owners, who used the application to demonstrate cool-gadget to their peers and friends.

The application used accelerometer technology to identify IPhone movement to evaluate force and strength. The application got rave reviews. However, in order to retain the user base, Magnatron Kinetics needs to enhance the application and keep adding new features.

Starvin Sharks:-
This is a simple competitive game with very attractive graphics. The application is worth noticing for its emotional marketing tactics i.e. 10 % donation of revenues to Share10percent organization. The application is built by Scribium in partnership with GenITeam. The application got a slow start and needs to employ strong marketing tactics for high promotions.