Here near the end of 2013 the comic adventure universe of Calvin & Hobbes has reached the digital realm at last, being presented as a set of ebooks for several platforms. While it’s not entirely clear whether this is the doing of Bill Watterson himself or those that he’d battled for years over the rights […]
Apple has launched a new section on iTunes called “Employees on iTunes”. All the media in that section was created by, or at least influenced by, Apple employees. And it’s all free. And you can’t have any–unless you work at Apple. Apple news source 9to5Mac revealed recently that Eddie Cue, Apple’s Senior Vice President of […]
AllThingsD says Apple won’t announce new Apple TV hardware next week but will introduce new software, like being able to play TV shows or movies you bought on iTunes on a friend’s Apple TV via AirPlay.
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There are a lot of online services out there that allow customers to purchase or rent their favorite TV shows and movies. Some would say that this market is saturated now, while some would find it impossible to break customers from the behemoth that is Apple’s iTunes Store. Target, a well known retailer in the U.S., is reportedly launching its own video service soon which will let customers rent or purchase movies and TV shows. The service is called Target Ticket.
The retailer has reportedly been testing the service since May, it is said to have recently told employees that Target Ticket will be made available to all “soon.” The service apparently has a library of over 15,000 titles which include latest releases, TV shows and classic movies. According to TechCrunch, most new movies will be priced at $14.99 while rentals will cost between $3.99 and $4.99. Apparently the Target Ticket apps for iOS and Android have already been released to beta testers, apps are also reportedly planned for set-top boxes and game consoles. Customers who hold a REDCard are likely to receive a nominal discount on purchases and rentals made from Target Ticket. It is said that Target employees will be able to use their 10 percent discount on the new video service.
Target Ticket Video Service Reportedly Going Live Soon original content from Ubergizmo. 
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It may be hard to believe, but at one point, there was no app store to accompany the iPhone. In fact, a whole year went by when original iPhone owners didn’t have an app store to download the latest apps for their device, but just a day before the iPhone 3G’s launch, the iTunes App Store was officially born.
Here we are five years later, downloading apps like nobody’s business. It didn’t take long for iPhone and iPod touch owners to reach an insane amount of downloads. In just nine months, the iTunes App Store garnered 1 billion app downloads. The number of downloads grew exponentially, thanks to the quick widespread adoption of Apple’s smartphone.
Besides launching alongside the new iPhone 3G, the iTunes App Store also debuted right beside the launch of iPhone OS 2.0 and iTunes 7.7. At the time, there were only 500 apps available to download for the iPhone, but that number quickly shot up to over 7,500 in just a few of months, and the number of app downloads skyrocketed to 10 million in just the first month.
Today, the iTunes App Store has well over a million apps and games to choose from, both free and paid variety. Most recently, Apple announced during WWDC 2013 last month that the App Store reached a total of 50 billion downloads, just five months after announcing the 40 billion download milestone, meaning that Apple is averaging two billion app downloads per month this year so far.
App developers are getting a lot out of the experience as well. Apple also announced at WWDC that they have paid out over $10 billion to developers so far since the App Store’s launch five years ago. The 30% fee that Apple charges to developers in the App Store has been a hard pill to swallow, but it hasn’t been a huge problem for developers, especially since they still receive 70% of the earnings, which is a good split in any circumstance.
However, while the iTunes App Store has made great strides in just five short years, we can’t forget about Android’s app store, Google Play. As of May 2013, Google Play has around 800,000 apps that have been downloaded 48 billion times. It’s just slightly behind the iTunes App Store, but it’ll only be a matter of time before Google Play begins to overtake the iTunes App Store. In fact, it’s predicted that Google Play will overtake iTunes in October if current trends continue.
What will the next five years hold for the iTunes App Store? Will we see 100 billion downloads by that time? Maybe we’ll see that number even sooner. One thing’s for sure, though: the number of apps available in the App Store and the number of downloads will most likely never stop growing — we’ll always see new ideas and reinvented apps arrive in the limelight for as long as the App Store exists.
iTunes App Store turns 5: A look back on 50 billion downloads is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
It’s been five years since Apple first launched the App Store, the company this week celebrating the origins of the iOS-tending software vending environment with a bit of a silent wave. You may have seen the “Apple Celebrates 5 Years of the App Store” that’ve been appearing in tubes to the doors of Apple-friendlies: it’s there that you’ll be getting the same information we’ll be running down here. It begins with the launch of the store back on July 10th of 2008, not long after the iPhone was first launched (in June of 2007) and the first 10 million downloads were reached not long after.
From there the App Store downloads grew right alongside the widespread adoption of the iPhone itself, developers deciding they’d get onboard with what would become a rather lucrative enterprise. Just before 2009 rolled around, 100 million downloads were reached – the 500 million downloads mark appeared just 16 days into the year. Things sped up quite quickly from there.
It was April 24th, 2009 when Apple announced its first 1 Billion downloads. It was 9 months after the initial launch of the store, and Apple was so proud of the milestone that they decided to send out a prize: $10,000 in iTunes cash to the 1 billionth downloader. This became a tradition with Apple and has been ever since.
Fast forward to 2013 and we’ve seen a 40 billion download mark as well as a 50 billion download mark the company was so happy about, they announced it at WWDC 2013. The first few minutes of any major keynote address has held such numbers and high water marks with Apple – and they’ve begun counting side-stores as well.
You’ll find Apple’s iTunes U to have reached 1 billion downloads for schools and learning institutions, that system having been in play for approximately a year at the time (February of 2013.)
Inside 2013, the App Store is watched by the ravenous fans of the ecosystem with extreme scrutiny. Items like Vanity URLs and Age Recommendations have become newsworthy in and of themselves.
The download marks were joined by such milestones as the first 1 million approved apps – this having been met on November 19th of 2012. While Apple has generally focused on the number of live apps – not just an app total – in the app store, the dichotomy of actual living apps and the downloads they’ve spurred brings some instant perspective on a single apps’ reach.
Next we’ll see the next big milestone in devices – it was back in 2010 when the first iPad-optimized apps were introduced. Stick around as Apple reaches the next 50 billion downloads as well – any guesses on how long it’ll take for them to hit it?
Apple celebrates App Stores’ 5th Anniversary is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
When you’ve got a child that knows how to use a touchscreen and a mess of web-connected machines around the house, it’s only a matter of time before you have a massive bill for in-app purchases from all angles. At least that’s what the reality of the situation was before a few well-placed fixes were
Starting tomorrow, Apple will be part of a trial in which federal and state authorities have suggested the latter company was part of ebook price-fixing. This trial will work with allegations that Apple has conspired with publishers to artificially raise the price of ebooks for sale in the iTunes Store for devices like the iPad and the iPhone. This trial was originally set to include five of the six largest book publishers in the US and was originally filed in April of 2012.
Since this case was filed, the five publishers in question exited the situation by agreeing to eliminate prohibitions on wholesale discounts – and to pay $164 million USD as a penalty, this cash going to benefit consumers. Instead of seeking damages against Apple, this case would have Apple blocked from “engaging in similar conduct”, according to Rueters, though future damages could be charged against Apple if they’re found liable. These charges would be filed by either state attorneys general or class action suits pushed by consumer groups.
“I believe that the government will be able to show at trial direct evidence that Apple knowingly participated in and facilitated a conspiracy to raise prices of e-books, and that the circumstantial evidence in this case, including the terms of the agreements, will confirm that.” – U.S. District Judge Denise Cote
It would appear that Apple is not going in to this battle with as much confidence from the judge hearing the trial as they’d like – Judge Denise Cote will be hearing the case without a Jury starting June 3rd. This comment was made by the judge on May 23rd at a pretrial hearing.
Each of the five publishers that’ve settled, Hachette Book Group Inc, Pearson Plc’s Penguin Group, CBS Corp’s Simon & Schuster Inc, News Corp’s HarperCollins Publishers Inc, and MacMillan, have appeared to be relatively silent on the matter since they exited the proceedings before they began.
Again according to Rueters, Apple has said that they acted independently when they entered the e-book marketplace with iBooks, and that they were unaware of any efforts by publishers to conspire beforehand. The Justice Department, on the other hand, says that Apple “provided assurances” to each publisher that their rivals would join iBooks with the deal they offered.
Apple ebook trial set to begin Monday is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
While iTunes is available for Windows 8, it only works in desktop mode, meaning that there’s no “metro” style app for Apple’s popular music player and media store. Of course, Microsoft really wants Apple to create said app, but according to Windows CFO Tami Reller, that’s not going to happen “any time soon.”
In an interview with CNN, Reller says that Microsoft has attempted to convince Apple to build a Windows 8 app for iTunes, but the Cupertino-based company doesn’t seem to want to budge, even though such an app “is in high demand” for Windows 8 users, according to Reller. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with having just a desktop version of iTunes, but Windows 8 tablet users are out of luck.
Since Surface tablets running Windows RT don’t have a desktop mode, iTunes users won’t be able to access the music player and media store on their tablet, and will have find a computer in order to manage their music, movies, and iOS apps. Surface Pro users have access to desktop mode, however, but the experience isn’t as good as on a full-size computer.
Apple has made much of their software available for Windows, but as the world is shifting more towards tablets, it seems the competitiveness has increased along with the rise in tablets, and Apple may be thinking twice about bringing their software over to Windows tablets, simply because the company wants to keep the exclusivity with iTunes.
Currently, the Windows app store has over 60,000 apps available for download, and there’s been around 250 million downloads total so far. Reller says that it’s a “realistic achievement” to have all the most popular apps in the iTunes App Store available in the Windows app store by the time the holiday season rolls around.
[Source: CNN]
Windows 8 iTunes app not coming “any time soon” is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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