IPhone App Store Has Launched

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/10/app-store-launches-upgrade-itunes-now/

by nickb • 18 years ago

22 49 18 years ago

tialys2• 18 years ago

Lots of free apps it looks like. Just what I was hoping to see. 'Flashlight' though? Wow...

jonknee4• 18 years ago

Shout It is just as useful... This is the equivalent of allowing someone to post their first music lessons for sale on iTunes. No one wants to buy (or if it's free, download) your Hello World app. Show your mom, don't try and impress anyone else.

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftwa...

pistoriusp• 18 years ago

Can't anyone just publish a podcast through itunes right now?

Alex3917• 18 years ago

The funny thing is that there are three flashlight apps that cost a dollar, and a fourth one that is free.

tlrobinson3• 18 years ago

The ones that cost $1 are brighter.

But seriously, I don't blame them, it takes almost zero effort and there's probably stupid people out there who will pay.

timae• 18 years ago

There are 27 pages of all iPhone apps in iTunes, including 7 pages of free ones. Looks like most chose to charge a fee.

The most exciting part about flipping through the 27 pages this morning was that there is still A LOT of room for more innovation.

sant0sk1• 18 years ago

Agreed. I just perused all 27 pages and didn't see any application that just blew my mind. A bit disappointing, but like you said there is a lot of room in this space for a hacker with an innovative mind.

Funny, my company had a test iPhone with the 2.0 software on it (to test the Exchange connector) and we gave it back yesterday. The whole time I had it I could click on the "App Store" button but couldn't connect. If we would have kept it one more day I could be one of the first to try these apps out.

matthewking2• 18 years ago

Anyone know if there's going to be a terminal/ssh app that you can use without jail breaking your iphone?

Would be excellent for a spot of emergency server admin when away from the desk :)

jgrahamc• 18 years ago

I can't find one. Which sucks because I had figured there was no point me writing one because someone else was going to. I figured someone would hack http://code.google.com/p/mobileterminal/ and make it an AppStore application.

matthewking2• 18 years ago

I commented on their wiki earlier asking if they were going to do it, no response as of yet though.

I wonder if apple will have any problems with it?

markbao• 18 years ago

Might be an SSH app. Sure as hell will not be a Terminal app (unless if you jailbreak...)

jonknee4• 18 years ago

There is going to be lot of crap to sift through. It would probably have been a better idea to let anyone distribute iPhone apps and then only include decent ones in the store. Stuff like Tom Peck's many novel apps (literally public domain novels made into an "application", one per app) don't make your platform look cutting edge.

Anyone find anything really cool?

Update: not sure why Apple let this through, but Tom got 43 novels posted as separate applications. That's a pretty high percentage of the total store!

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewArtist...

blurry• 18 years ago

I actually think it's great news to have e-books available for the iPhone. It may not be cutting edge technology-wise, but convenience-wise, it's smart to use the iTunes app store as a distribution channel for e-books and to use Apple's payment system instead of one's own. Simple and effective. I like it.

cstejerean2• 18 years ago

it would be nicer if it was only app though, but I'm guessing there would be no way then to pay for each book separately. AppStore doesn't allow you to charge for add-ons to an application, right?

jcl3• 18 years ago

It does strike me as a little silly that there isn't a better way to get e-books to people. What if there was a band that released their new album as 14 separate iPhone applications, each with their own audio player?

jonknee4• 18 years ago

An ebook reader might be a good app, but selling public domain books as individual apps feels like blog spam (actually even worse since there is money involved).

Tichy• 18 years ago

So how exactly does it work - does Apple reserve the right to refuse you into their shop. So it can happen that you invest a lot of money and poof, Apple says no and that's it? Or do they promise to host any kind of app, in which case they can't prevent ebooks from appearing?

This closed store thing really isn'T very beneficial for developers...

tstegart8• 18 years ago

Yeah, they can refuse you. But they said they wouldn't unless it violated their general rules. So you're right, one day everything could go poof, and a lot of people are nervous/annoying that Apple isn't very clear on what exactly you need to do to prevent that. Basically, until Apple publicly comments on why they allow certain apps and why they didn't allow certain apps,and gives some clear cut decisions, developers are going to be in limbo

mechanical_fish2• 18 years ago

I haven't checked out the apps, but it would hardly be surprising if the first ones out the door were kind of crappy.

Suppose you've written an awesome iPhone app with a price tag of $9.99. Would you want to release it the day before anyone was even able to buy a new iPhone in the store? Wouldn't you rather wait until tomorrow, at least, so that on a day when the bulk of new iPhone owners unwrap their 3G Phone and visit the store your app will be near the top of the Hot New Apps Released Today list?

The problem of deciding when to launch a new app is nontrivial, actually. You want to pick a day when the first-day audience has potential to be as large as possible, which means waiting for some 3G phones to sell. But you don't want to be too late!

tstegart8• 18 years ago

I don't think they got to pick the day its released. It was either get included for the launch, or wait until we accept your app.

mechanical_fish2• 18 years ago

Thanks. If you're right, so much for that hypothesis. I'll have to fall back to my Sturgeon's Law position.

DenisM2• 18 years ago

Actually, you can pick availability date when registering the app. I don't think anyone would, though.

tialys2• 18 years ago

Yes, but if you release on opening day, your app is likely to get bought up in the 'buy everything' frenzy created by the new store/phone.

wallflower• 18 years ago

As an ex-Palm/Handango user, I was hoping for more quality. iPhone games will rock. Time will tell...

TweedHeads• 18 years ago

The iPhone will kill the PSP and all handheld gaming devices

They will never know what hit them

jcl3• 18 years ago

I wouldn't bet on it. The majority of the 70 million Nintendo DSs out there are likely owned by persons who cannot afford an iPhone (although the situation may be different for the PSP).

tstegart8• 18 years ago

Anyone here have an iPhone app they're releasing? I'd love to hear about it.

damon2• 18 years ago

I'm releasing one at some point. If I can ever get the MLS data. Yikes what a mess. http://codemorphic.com/products

tstegart8• 18 years ago

What about the timeline for your other apps?

DenisM2• 18 years ago

I got one. It's a password manager with built-in online backup. It's not in the store yet - Apple is taking their time approving it. :-(

In the mean time you can try our Windows Mobile or Android versions - these are free for now at our web site http://www.memengo.com

The online backup feature is my pride - you can actually view and edit your backup online (decryption happens in the browser, not on the server), and you don't need a phone to try that out. So in essesne, it can be used as online password manager.

jws3• 18 years ago

I will likely cancel mine, after thinking about it for a few days. There are three competitors in the store today. By the time Apple allows me into the market there will be a defacto standard and in this application's market "good enough" is good enough so I won't be able to unseat the standard.

tstegart8• 18 years ago

jws - Who are your competitors? Is yours done, or does it still need work?

auston2• 18 years ago

I'm personally very disappointed that I did not find any mobile video streaming apps on their... like qik or flixwagon... hopefully JTV will move into this space soon so I dont have to create yet another account.

darragjm• 18 years ago

From the NYT:

{Still, Apple could end up at odds with some developers - particularly creators or distributors of content and media - who offer applications that compete directly with iTunes. Rajeev Raman, chief executive of Mywaves, an ad-sponsored free mobile video service available on millions of handsets, including Nokia and BlackBerry smartphones, said he would like to offer Mywaves in the App Store.

But he has made little headway in his discussions with Apple, he said: "We have a reverse conflict because they are not providing video for free, but we are. We are interested, but we don’t want to jump into anything that will have our hands tied behind our backs."

When asked about it, Mr. Jobs said: "He’s right. We will compete." He added, "That’s a discussion to have."}

Looks like you may be waiting for a while...

auston2• 18 years ago

I dont want to watch video in that sense.

I want to stream live video from an iphone to the net.

tlrobinson3• 18 years ago

I imagine AT&T might have a problem with the bandwidth required for video streaming.

Though there is an AOL Radio application, which is pretty cool.

damon2• 18 years ago

Downloading/sync to iPhone is trivial and slick, very easy to trial/error free programs, apple did distribution right.

tlrobinson3• 18 years ago

So, what apps have people installed? Any recommendations?

My favorite app so far: "LifeGame" ... it's Conway's Game of Life

Other apps I've installed:

- Loopt (cool integration with Twitter, Facebook, Yelp... just need more friends on it)

- AOL Radio (very nice, except you can't leave it running in the background while you're doing other things, but that's Apple's fault)

- Facebook (quicker than the web iPhone app, which is also very nice)

- Apple's iTunes Remote app

IPhone App Store Has Launched

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