Hasta La Gadget!

Every few months Apple brags about the number of iPhone apps accumulated in its App Store (most recently the count was 100,000), and most of the tech press has been hasty to deflate the hype.

But what if quantity really is what counts?

Numerous observers argue that 100,000 apps isn’t that significant. That’s because a lot of those apps are garbage, ranging from fart apps to really lame games. And the apps that make the iPhone stand out, the ones with stellar quality, are few and far between. The popular Twitter app Tweetie is often hailed as a prime example for a piece of software coded with beautiful design and rich features.

These points are valid, and I don’t disagree that quality is extremely important. But in the short term, quantity is just as big a deal; in fact, I think it matters even more.

The more apps the App Store accumulates, the higher the chance the App Store has to appeal to each of the 40 million iPhone and iPod Touch owners out there.

We can ignore a horde of lousy iPhone apps, but there are also many low-profile apps that average consumers wouldn’t pay attention to or care to use. And their developers aren’t targeting consumers, either. I’m talking about niche apps catering to specific professions, hobbies and interests — those apps that slip past the average consumer’s radar. Some examples include iChart, an app for doctors to view and store patients’ medical charts; Rev, an app for mechanics to perform car-engine diagnostics; and BulletFlight, an app for military snipers to calculate ballistics. Niche apps are what make the iPhone special and, in my opinion, still the best general-purpose device.

“How many applications do you really need?” asked my colleague Philip Elmer De-Witt in an October column for Fortune. That was when the App Store had hit 93,000 apps, and the Android Market, which has the second biggest app store, had reached 11,000. (The Android Market has since climbed to about 19,000 apps.)

That’s a good question. I own about 45 apps. I’ll name a few niche apps I like: MuniApp lets me quickly look up the San Francisco bus schedules. Instapaper saves entire web articles to read offline later. Epiphany easily records in-person interviews with sources and MacTracker double-checks Apple product information. Of course, I have some megapopular apps, too, like Facebook, Tweetie and Amazon, and I own about 12 games.

See what I’m getting at? Personally I don’t need 100,000 apps (and nobody does), but my collection consists of pieces of software tailored for my life as a San Franciscan and tech journalist for Wired.com (and part-time human being with a sliver of a social life). That’s a pretty specific career, and the more apps in the App Store, the higher the chance for the iPhone to become closer to the only gadget I need.

In fact, a number of my downloaded apps are less than stellar. They leave a lot to be desired, but they enable me to perform tasks that other smartphones would not. But I would still rather have a mediocre app that gives me the ability to do something than not have the app at all.

One device that does it all — that’s the dream of the perfect gadget, isn’t it?

Inevitably, I found myself comparing my iPhone with my friend’s brandnew Droid. He didn’t even have enough apps to fit his primary screen — so few that I can remember most of them. Some of his apps were Amazon, Facebook, a Texas Hold ‘Em poker game and Sky Maps for viewing constellations. He isn’t the extremely geeky type, so I doubt even if he had an iPhone he would have more than 25 apps. But he loves games, and he complained that there weren’t many compelling titles available for the Droid.

Is upward of 19,000 apps for Android enough for customers? It wasn’t for my Droid-owning friend, because among those 19,000 apps, not many suited his interests. And he’s not alone.

The quantity of Apple’s App Store is significant not only for Apple’s audience — which includes upward of 40 million iPhone and iPod Touch owners. It’s also a direct reflection of the segment software developers are most interested in. From a developer perspective, it’s been economically advantageous to program for the iPhone, despite Apple’s questionable and inconsistent app-approval policy. There’s an element of risk with either route, but think of it like a game of BlackJack. Developers are essentially placing a stiff bet in a single circle when coding an app for Apple, as opposed to spreading smaller bets over multiple circles for other fragmented platforms such as Windows Mobile or Android.

(Of course, developers of niche applications wouldn’t be coding for the iPhone if they weren’t making decent money. This is where the long-tail principle comes into play: They can charge more for apps that are obviously going to sell less. The aforementioned car-engine diagnostics app Rev, for example, costs $40. When I spoke to Rev, the developer declined to disclose sales numbers but stressed that it was not aiming to sell a huge number of copies — because it could still make good money by selling Rev to a special audience of car enthusiasts and mechanics.)

Also significant about the number of apps is it suggests the App Store has reached a point of market saturation — enough apps to fill almost every need, which forces developers to compete more in terms of quality, said Phillip Ryu, a partner owner of Tap Tap Tap, which developed the popular iPhone app Voices.

“100,000 apps means the market is extremely competitive, and consumer needs have essentially been saturated,” Ryu said. “So what we have left to compete on is quality and value. On Android I imagine those are secondary concerns, after being first to market.”

The App Store opened July 2008 with 500 apps. Now, Apple claims it reviews 8,500 apps a week. Android opened with about 100 apps, and to date there are about 19,000 apps in the Android Market. That’s some healthy growth in the Android Market, and at some point its store could become as compelling as the App Store. It just needs more time to grow and mature the way the App Store has.

For now, quantity is helping the App Store win, and in effect it’s driving higher quality. One hundred thousand is a huge number, and it’s truly a big deal.

See Also:

• Apple’s App Store Hits Six Digits; How Many Apps Do You Need …
• Droid Weekend Sales Top 100000, Says Analyst
• Android Army Pumped for All-Out Attack on iPhone
• Gameloft Says It, Others Reining In Android Plans

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Layar’s approach to bringing augmented reality to the masses is unique. Instead of writing isolated AR apps, Layar provides a very real augmented reality platform onto which content owners can layer (or layar) their data resulting in a richer experience when viewing the world through your Android or iPhone 3GS camera lens. There are already 294 layers and counting ranging from Google’s ubiquitous local search results to homegrown content listing apartments for rent or tourist hot spots. Today sees the launch of Layar 3.0 with new 3D capabilities, authentication, and plenty more to entice anyone “with basic web development skills” to join the fun. To show the platform’s new capabilities Layar presents a handful of use cases that include the ability to add authenticated social media layars (like Twitter and Foursquare), see incomplete construction sites in their final form, interactive public-space art projects, and a guided Beatles discovery tour that takes you to destinations made famous by the fab foursome — you can even pose with the band for pictures as they cross Abbey Road. Sure, the jury’s still out on the usefulness of 3D content presented in this manner and the ability to geolocate Twitter users and Hollywood stars in this manner continues to creep us out. But man is this stuff interesting.

Layar 3.0 reunites the Beatles in 3D augmented reality originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Dec 2009 04:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Acer loves it some Google. And unless Google’s trying to stamp out your revenue stream, who doesn’t? Now Acer chairman, JT Wang, says that he expects to be first to market with an official Chrome OS netbook — sometime in the second half of 2010 according to DigiTimes‘ sources. In fact, JT says that Acer’s been working on a Chrome OS device since mid-2009. This despite admittedly weaker than expected demand for its dual-boot Android netbook, the Aspire One AOD250. Guess even the Google halo isn’t enough to shoehorn its smartphone OS into a market dominating position on cheap ultra-portables. It’s worth pointing out that DigiTimes‘ moles aren’t saying anything new with the launch time-frame since Google’s target for its gold Chrome OS build has been 2H of 2010 ever since the lightweight OS was announced. Not that the timing matters too much since we’ll likely be seeing plenty of Chromium OS netbooks flooding the grey market long before the second half of 2010.

Acer to launch first Chrome OS netbook, Android-based Aspire One sales disappoint originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 04:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Drawing a simple picture on your phone might seem like an easy task. But try drawing a picture in under 2 minutes with enough detail that other people can guess that it’s a tarantula.

If you’re a Pictionary fan, you’re in luck. A modern rendition of the classic group game is available in the Android Market. What The Doodle?! is the first touch-screen drawing app that utilizes mobile internet connectivity and social gaming.

When you play, you have the option of going up against players around the world.  There are plenty of options for game styles and skill levels: easy, medium and hard; team modes; freestyle; and “private rooms” to play games with your invited friends. There’s also a “simulate strokes” feature that makes up for a lapse in a stroke caused by slower data connections.

The social side of the app is even more extensive; emphasizing the multi-player fun of Pictionary. There are friend lists, chatrooms, data connectivity stats for each user, an overall ranking score, the option to accuse someone of cheating and even a mini-democracy to boot someone out of a game by a majority ruling.

There are a few minor issues. The database of words seem to be limited in some of the game modes. I was doled the same topic twice in 10 minutes. Watch out for avid players who remember these frequent topics because they can (and will) correctly guess “watering can” from a desolate square, just 3 seconds into a round. If you’re a myTouch or Hero owner, you might have trouble with the soft keyboard covering the picture-in-progress as you type in your guess, but there’s an integrated voice recognition alternative to help you out.

While games on the Android haven’t exactly created the same aesthetic experience on the iPhone, What The Doodle?! encompasses the very essence of Android — functionality — in gaming form. It’s challenging, it’s fun and you might make a couple of new friends.

There are currently 233 people playing live games compared to the 17 people when I first downloaded the game during the second round of judging for the Android Developer Challenge 2.

What The Doodle?! is the 2nd overall winner of this year’s Android Developer Challenge and winner of the casual/puzzle games category.  Check it out for free in the Android Market.

By the way, can you guess the right answer for the picture above? The user “Sexyredhead” seemed to be having some trouble.

See Also:

• Android Version of Foursquare Combines Function and Fun
• 12 Phones Strong, Android Army Mobilizes for Explosive Growth …
• Taste Android 2.0 ‘Eclair’ From Your Own Computer
• Spotify’s Android App Should Frighten Apple

TmoNews seems to have it on good authority that T-Mobile will be rolling out a firmware update over the air to the Motorola CLIQ today — the device’s first since launch — and we’ve got good news and bad news. First, the bad: by all accounts, it appears that this’ll still be an Android 1.5-based firmware, adding fuel to the fire suggesting that UI skins like BLUR are a huge barrier to keeping devices up to speed with Google’s breakneck release pace. The good news, though, is that the update seems to be lined up to fix a plethora of issues involving Bluetooth, touchscreen accuracy (we can attest to this one), connectivity, accelerometer functionality, and — wait for it — battery life! Looks like the build number is 1.1.31, so let us know if and when you get hooked up, owners.

Update: We’ve gotten tips from several users now that they’ve already been able to nab the update, so it looks like the CLIQ is definitely getting a little better today. Well, hopefully, anyhow.

T-Mobile pushing CLIQ firmware update today? (update: yes!) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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