Mashable’s look at the social media players in Los Angeles.Not surprisingly, it focuses on the entertainment industry…
Apple is about to hit 1 Billion app downloads (we wonder how many Fart apps and the like have been uninstalled though).Here’s a page documenting the countdown to 1,000,000,000.
Mashable recently blogged about an updated version of Justin.tv that completely integrates MySpace, Facebook and Twitter across their website and more importantly, on their video pages. In a previous blog entry, we mentioned that real-time interactive video sites like Justin.tv and Ustream would be the next big thing in terms of integrating video and social media. In fact, Ustream has already taken this a step further with integration of Mobile, Video and Social Media on their recently released iPhone App.
It’s not a news flash that Interactive Video is poised to be the next huge growth area online and with YouTube’s recent move towards Premium content over User Generated Content these real-time social video communitiesshould see even more explosive growth. The new social video sites allow both a one-to-one and one-to-many interaction that happens in real time. Factor in the ability to go mobile with social video and you then have the ability to broadcast anytime, anywhere and to anyone you choose. That is powerful.
The NY Times recently had an article entitled “The iPhone Gold Rush”.In the article they feature the story of developers who have made ‘hundreds of thousands of dollars’ by quitting their day jobs and developing an iPhone App. The way this is written you would think there’s a leprechaun on every corner just waiting to show you how to get your pot of gold. How many times are major news outlets going to cover only one side of this story?Though this article tries to be objective by throwing in a sentence or two about how much of a long shot it is to ‘make millions’ with iPhone App development, it still reeks of irresponsible journalism. Why not feature additional viewpoints on the growing number of developers who have spent thousands creating an iPhone App only to see a few hundred dollars in return? Or the iPhone app developer who is still waiting for a few more sales to get his first $250 check? A quick Google search will pull up legions of disillusioned developers who are finding that there really isn’t a pot ‘o’ gold at the end of the iPhone App rainbow.
The iPhone App store is already overflowing with 30,000 iPhone Apps and battered with an average of 250 submissions a DAY!Making matters worse are the growing number of iPhone Apps that would work just fine as iPhone optimized websites.Maybe I’m in the minority but this whole iPhone App market screams out “Bubble Burst” more than Gold Rush to me.In fact, with the Blackberry App Store now open and Palm Pre App store opening soon, I think the whole App Market itself is in for a much needed “quality before quantity” reality check.Developers seeking to make a quick buck should do their due diligence.Or you can always try to find your lucky Leprechaun.
The iPhone app store is now projected to have over 30,000 apps by the end of March.30,000! That number is sure to double by the end of this year due to the iPhone quickly taking on the role of theGolden Child for the entire Mobile Marketing industry. So, in effect, we could be looking at over 60,000 apps by the end of 2009. If anything, the iPhone App Store is quickly reaching a saturation point and in danger of promotingquantity over quality(if it hasn’t reached that point already which I think it has…)
Unfortunately, stories written about developers making over $500,000 because of one iPhone app, are helping to fuel this virtual Gold Rush to get something on the iPhone at any cost. Apple also seems to be taking a role in this by lowering standards for apps to be on their platform. Do we really need 48 versions of a Fart App? However, from a marketing standpoint, it’s much easier for Apple to promote an iPhone app store with 30,000 apps versus an Android or Blackberry app store with 5,000. Regardless if 29,950 of those 30,000 apps are crap, which message do you think is going to resonate with the consumer more when deciding on a new smartphone?
So far, this pissing contest would clearly belong to Apple. What about the consumer though? Unless you’re 14 and bored in ScandinavianHistory class, I don’t think you’re going to have time to go through and try out all the apps available in the app store. Thankfully, there’s quite a few iPhone App review sites you can visit here, here and here.
Another option is to check the Top 50 apps on your iPhone or through iTunes. This is a good indicator of what apps are currently ‘hot’ and, for the most part, usually are worth the download. Carpe Diem though. What’s good for the goose might not be good for the gander. Though an app might be ‘hot’ it might not be your cup of tea (see Fart app mention above.) Apple also recently enforced a new Ratings rule which only allows consumers who have downloaded and tried the app to review it. This has helped prevent developers from artificially inflating the ratings on their app.
Finally, you can always fall back on asking your friends / co-workers about any interesting apps they might have recently downloaded. I know there’s at least 5 apps that are mainstays on my iPhone deck due to personal recommendations.
Over the course of the next few weeks, I’ll be writing a few more columns detailing our own experiences with creating and promoting our own app as well as one we’re building for a major brand client. This should help provide some great insight into the iPhone app process…
We Are Organized Chaos (WAOC) is Zugara’s (www.zugara.com) interactive marketing and advertising blog where we’ll be featuring some great projects and discussing upcoming trends in the digital world. Work — good and bad — will be critiqued. Hope you’ll enjoy reading our insights and thoughts on interactive.
