Ah, the iFart question. There are lots of Apple-hating Windows fans questioning the value of the iPhone OS app store who, separately, argue Windows superiority over OS X on PCs based on the huge catalog of Windows applications.
It's an argument, but you can ask similar questions about Windows to the ones that you ask about iPhone OS. How many of these have atrocious interfaces? How many are clones of each other? How many are freeware? Just because a platform has more apps, does that necessarily mean that it makes the user more productive? Are there enough apps in Linux and OS X that allow the same functionality, even if there are only half the number of text editors or calculator apps? How many of all of those Windows apps are really worth installing?
That's a question for the iPhone App Store, no doubt. Still, considering that one bash of the iPhone is that Apple carefully and seemingly capriciously allows or rejects app submissions, the fact that there are over 100,000 discrete approved apps in less than 18 months is an amazing story. I wonder how many more that there would have been without Apple's draconian approval process?
And, the real question is: whatever the number of apps are, are the apps that people need to allow productive use of their mobile devices beyond the stock apps available? Are there applications or categories of applications that are missing? And, if there are, is it likely that they will exist in a short period of time for the platform?
(Take note, iPhone fans, if you try to defend the iPhone [missing the obvious question - does the iPhone need to be defended?] by bashing Android devices based on the number of applications, that it isn't the number - the question to ask is will there be a viable application development process, will there be apps to give users the functionality that they need?)
All Comments
It's an argument, but you can ask similar questions about Windows to the ones that you ask about iPhone OS. How many of these have atrocious interfaces? How many are clones of each other? How many are freeware? Just because a platform has more apps, does that necessarily mean that it makes the user more productive? Are there enough apps in Linux and OS X that allow the same functionality, even if there are only half the number of text editors or calculator apps? How many of all of those Windows apps are really worth installing?
That's a question for the iPhone App Store, no doubt. Still, considering that one bash of the iPhone is that Apple carefully and seemingly capriciously allows or rejects app submissions, the fact that there are over 100,000 discrete approved apps in less than 18 months is an amazing story. I wonder how many more that there would have been without Apple's draconian approval process?
And, the real question is: whatever the number of apps are, are the apps that people need to allow productive use of their mobile devices beyond the stock apps available? Are there applications or categories of applications that are missing? And, if there are, is it likely that they will exist in a short period of time for the platform?
(Take note, iPhone fans, if you try to defend the iPhone [missing the obvious question - does the iPhone need to be defended?] by bashing Android devices based on the number of applications, that it isn't the number - the question to ask is will there be a viable application development process, will there be apps to give users the functionality that they need?)