Developers Race to Meet iPad Debut

The Washington Post

Developer Todd Moore of Sterling is working on new versions of
applications, already out for the iPhone and iPod Touch, for the iPad.

Last week was an intense one for some of the Washington area software developers who make and sell software for Apple's App Store. 

After all, Apple's latest and much-hyped product -- the slate-shaped iPad -- is almost here, and many are hoping that the device's release April 3 will bring a fresh wave of customers and purchases. To help encourage those download dollars, many have been working overtime to create and polish new versions of their wares. 

"I feel like I'm back in college, preparing for a big test and working around the clock," said Todd Moore, a Sterling-based programmer who was nearing the end of a Red Bull- and soda-fueled work crunch as he designed a new version of his popular sleep aid application, White Noise. 

Same for Keith Shepherd, of the D.C.-based game company Imangi Studios, who was finishing up a new iPad release of his firm's popular game Harbor Master. Shepherd submitted the new version to Apple on Friday, just beating the tech company's Saturday deadline for apps that will be available for sale when the device launches. "It's been a really busy week for us," he said. 

Many such developers consider a prompt appearance in the new iPad section of Apple's online store to be crucial for building loyalty and name recognition. 

"You've got to be there in front of the early users," said Chris Sloop, chief technology officer of Germantown-based Weatherbug, which makes weather forecasting software and has submitted an iPad version of its product to Apple for approval. "If you get your app out a few months later, there's not going to be as much buzz." 

There has long been a "gold rush" mentality in the app market, said Rana Sobhany, a marketing analyst and the author of a coming book about selling products on the App Store. But most products don't end up being terribly lucrative for their creators, she said. About 75 percent of downloads from the App Store's library of 150,000 items are for free content. 

"It's not realistic to think every app is going to sell," she said. If you're an independent developer without a marketing budget, "there's a 99 percent chance you're not going to sell that many copies." 

Certainly, not everyone making the plunge into this new market is seeing a return on their investment. Inspired by App Store success stories, Charlottesville resident Nate Macpherson assembled a team of programmers and artists to build a game, released in November, called Shot Bar. His total investment: $30,000. Total return, to date: "Under a thousand dollars." Macpherson has no plans for a revamped iPad version of the title. 

Apple has said that all of the software applications available for the iPhone and iPod Touch will also work on the iPad, which costs from $499 to $829, not including a wireless access fee for an optional connection, available on some models, to AT&T's network. 

But the new device's larger screen size will give developers a fresh set of options for what their products can do. Weatherbug's iPad app, for example, will feature more icons on the screen for users who want a deeper look at upcoming forecasts. Moore's new software, called White Noise Pro, will give users new ways to mix the program's collection of soothing sound effects. 

Some products still just make more sense on a pocket-size smartphone, however, and so not every App Store entrepreneur is rushing to get a new version of his software onto the iPad. 

"I am sort of taking a wait-and-see approach," said John Bednarz, the programmer behind an application called Find a Metro DC that is designed to help local mass-transit users. RideCharge, the Alexandria-based creator of an online taxi-hailing app for the iPhone, also said that it hadn't settled on how it would take advantage of the iPad's larger screen in future versions of its software. 

For a device that nobody owns yet, the iPad has been the source of an unusual amount of speculation, even for an Apple product. While some analysts have derided the thing as little more than a super-sized iPhone, elsewhere it's hailed as a savior of the publishing industry. 

However the iPad's fortunes play out, the iPhone and iPod Touch will still have the numbers advantage for some time to come, observed Barg Upender, founder of the Washington-based app firm Mobomo. According to Apple, there are almost 80 million of those devices in use. 

Relatively speaking, in other words, even if Mobomo's new iPad version of its puzzle game HexOut is a hit, he said, "at the end of the day, revenue-wise, it's going to be a little blip." 

Sex Trumps Jobs, as in Steve, in Apps Flap

Business Week

Is the iPhone bigger than sex? Not likely, but we may be about to find out.

Last week, Apple Inc., whose iTunes App Store is the sole official source of programs for the iPhone and iPod Touch, removed access to thousands of sexually suggestive apps. Among the casualties: Wobble iBoobs, which allows users to, er, animate specific portions of photographs, and Private Dancer, which promises, “Our girls have some serious moves guaranteed to put you in that special mood.”

In an interview with the New York Times this week, Apple executive Phil Schiller explained, “It came to the point where we were getting customer complaints from women who found the content getting too degrading and objectionable, as well as parents who were upset with what their kids were able to see.”

A noble sentiment, to be sure. But at the same time Apple was saying buh-bye to some racy apps, it left untouched others from the likes of Playboy Enterprises Inc. and Time Warner Inc., which offers an app built around Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue -- you can upgrade it to get “Soccer Stars’ Wives & Girlfriends in Bodypaint” -- and another called the SI Swimsuit Challenge Game.

When asked about the apparent contradiction, Schiller, who’s head of worldwide product marketing, said of SI: “The difference is this is a well-known company with previously published material available broadly in a well-accepted format.”

In other words: Double standard? There’s an app for that.

Whiff of Hypocrisy

One doesn’t have to take a position pro or con on the merits of sexy apps to get a whiff of hypocrisy here. Apple, after all, is about to launch its much-touted iPad media device, and Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs needs big publishers like Time Warner to produce compelling content for his new baby. This would be a particularly inconvenient time to pick a fight with them.

All this wouldn’t matter so much if it weren’t for the near-iron-clad control Jobs and Apple exercise over software for the iPhone and iPod touch.

It’s possible -- in fact, fairly easy -- to “jailbreak” the devices, which allows users to download apps from sources other than Apple’s iTunes App Store. (Jailbroken iPhones and iPods are also a major factor in the growing problem of app piracy.) For the vast majority of users, though, the App Store is the only source of software.

Developers must submit their applications to Apple, which has the sole power to decide whether they gain access to users of the 75 million or so iPhone OS devices out there. It’s a power Apple has on occasion shown itself willing to use selectively for corporate purposes.

No App for You

For instance, at the behest of its U.S. telecommunications partner AT&T Inc., Apple last year refused to allow EchoStar Corp. to release an app letting users of its SlingBox device access video content from their home televisions over the AT&T 3G data network. Apple accepted the app only after Sling Media agreed to disable the 3G aspect and make it usable only over a Wi-Fi connection. (Earlier this month, AT&T and Sling Media settled their differences, and the app has finally been cleared for 3G use.)

If another company -- say, Microsoft Corp. -- had similarly flexed its muscle, the cries of “antitrust violation” would have been deafening. Apple gets away with it because … now why does Apple get away with it again?

When it comes to sex and the iPhone, though, Jobs just might have met his match. Technology and porn go together like, well, let’s just say it’s no accident that the annual Adult Entertainment Expo trade show runs in Las Vegas at the same time as, and virtually alongside, the Consumer Electronics Show.

Sex-Driven Innovation

In fact, it’s hard to think of a video-related consumer technology whose rise wasn’t accompanied by, indeed fueled by, sexual content. Cable television, the video cassette recorder -- you name it. The New York musical “Avenue Q” includes a ditty entitled, “The Internet Is for Porn.”

There’s no reason to think smartphones will be any different. So maybe, rather than trying to ban such content, it would be better to regulate it. Segregate adult apps in their own section of the App Store, strengthen parental controls, perhaps require a user to re-enter the account’s credit-card information before downloading anything naughty.

Whatever the approach, at least apply it evenly.

Apple Announces Over 3 Billion App Store Downloads In 18 Months

Apple Insider

Apple on Tuesday revealed that more than 3 billion applications have been downloaded worldwide from its App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch.

"Three billion applications downloaded in less than 18 months -- this is like nothing we've ever seen before," said Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs. "The revolutionary App Store offers iPhone and iPod touch users an experience unlike anything else available on other mobile devices, and we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon."

The iPhone and iPod touch are currently available to customers in 77 countries. Apps are available in 20 different categories, including games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel.

The 3 billion milestone represents a billion since the end of September, or a span of just over three months. It was in late September that Apple revealed that over 2 billion apps were downloaded from the App Store.

That means in the last 99 days, software from the App Store has been downloaded at a rate of more than 10.1 million per day. That's well up from the rate of 6.9 million downloads per day Apple achieved from April to July.

Tuesday's announcement shows that the rapid pace of growth of the App Store continues to accelerate. In July, just as the App Store turned one year old, Apple announced that more than 1.5 billion downloads were offered through its online application download destination.

The staggering totals are thanks in part to the sheer number of applications available. In early November, Apple revealed that more than 100,000 applications were available on the App Store.