First Impressions of the iPhone App Store

July 10, 2008

And they’re off! That’s right folks, the iPhone App Store officially launched today. I don’t even own an iPhone yet; my current phone is 3G so I wanted to wait out my current plan and upgrade to the iPhone as soon as the new, 3G, app-powered version comes out, which incidentally happens to be tomorrow.

10apps2190.jpgWith all the talk and hub bub over the new iPhone, the real story here is the launch of the App Store. As I wait to get my iPhone, I can still daydream and browse through the App Store, which by the way, is really awesome. It’s fast, easy to navigate, and already filled with a lot of rich and powerful apps. There’s an overview of some of these apps here.

An interesting statistic is that the iPhone App store had 552 applications at launch, with 135 (or 25%) of them being free. Details and a graph here.

To me, this App Store and all the available apps is the single biggest reason to own an iPhone. The apps will only continue to get better too as developers and businesses clamor to get out their own. Apple has done a really good job to provide enough incentives to the developers of these apps, giving them back as much as 70% of sales. The market is extremely receptive as well, with venture capital and investment firms creating funds specifically for the creation of iPhone apps, most notably Kliener Perkins’ $100 million “iFund”.

A few of my favorites so far are the apps for Yelp, Whrrl, Pandora and Twitterific. Of course, I’m sure this list will change quickly once I start using them on a daily basis.

Can’t wait to what other cool upcoming apps are in store for us in the weeks and months to come!

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