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Gadgets Report: Pre App Downloads Doing Well Against iPhone
Shane McGlaun (Blog) - June 25, 2009 1:20 PM

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18 comment(s) - last by INDVote.. on Jun 28 at 1:16 AM

Pre App Download Chart (Source: Medialets)

Average Pre user downloaded two apps on launch day

The Palm Pre was one of the most talked about and hyped smartphones of the year. Since we first got a glimpse of the device at CES in January, the anticipation and rumors about the Pre built until its launch earlier this month.

The Pre garnered some good reviews, but its meager application offerings drew some criticism from some. The Pre has now shipped about 100,000 handsets according to analysts and its app catalog has hit a milestone, reports Medialets.

Medialets reports that the Pre on-device app catalog has now hit one million downloads. The firm also reports that on the first day of availability for the Pre 50,000 devices were sold and the app catalog had 100,000 downloads. That works out to an average of two apps downloaded per device sold and an average of 5,500 downloads per app. Some apps had as few as 600 actual downloads with a high of 20,000 downloads.

After 18 days of Pre availability, the app catalog has had its one millionth download, the big question in many minds is how does that compare to the iPhone App Store. It took the iTunes App Store about 17 days less than the Pre app store to hit the one million downloads mark. However, the iTunes App Store had about 16 times as many apps available and 26x the number of phones in the field.

Looking at the numbers the average Pre user has downloaded 26 times more apps that the average iPhone user. The crux of the report from Medialets is that the Pre app store is doing well compared to the iTunes App Store when you consider the number of devices in use. If the numbers cited by Medialets are accurate, Palm has now sold 150,000 Pre's since it launched.

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Limitiations

By inighthawki on 6/25/2009 1:40:05 PM , Rating: 5

Now maybe we can finally have an app market where Apple doesn't go out and tell people if their app meets their quality standards. I for one would like to see everything and anything make it up on the market, all you need to do is have a rating system and push low rated things to the back of the list. Solves any problem of worthless apps.

RE: Limitiations

By arsmitty86 on 6/25/2009 1:49:24 PM , Rating: 1

They already stopped doing this. They're allowing all the apps through now from my understanding.

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RE: Limitiations

By foolsgambit11 on 6/26/2009 4:29:51 AM , Rating: 2

http://scitech.blogs.cnn.com/2009/06/25/apple-appr...

June 25th. Apple pulls app from store. So obviously not 'all' apps.

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RE: Limitiations

By sprockkets on 6/25/2009 2:21:20 PM , Rating: 2

I wasn't aware that Palm mandated all apps go through their store like Apple does. I'm not saying you are implying that though.

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RE: Limitiations

By Souka on 6/25/2009 2:26:57 PM , Rating: 2

Most apps for the iPhone are worthless...most apps for any phone are worthless.

I recall an article here on DT that something like %80 of iPhone apps aren't used after the 1st day they were downloaded....and less remaining apps after a week.

I'd like to see the numbers regarding apps that are actually used on a daily/weekly basis...

Anyhow..it's just money....

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RE: Limitiations

By MScrip on 6/25/2009 3:26:23 PM , Rating: 3

quote:
Most apps for the iPhone are worthless...most apps for any phone are worthless.

True... but it's nice that there are so many people are creating apps. The more app developers out there... the greater the chance you will find a great app.

It's the same with computer software. We don't need 300 different FTP programs... but if there were only 2, and they both sucked... we'd have nowhere to go!

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RE: Limitiations

By Chaser on 6/25/2009 9:07:45 PM , Rating: 2

You don't a rat's ass of a clue on iPhone apps.

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RE: Limitiations

By INDVote on 6/28/2009 1:16:11 AM , Rating: 2

You have exactly zero idea what you're talking about. I have several apps from Apple's store on my 3G, one of which I use on a daily basis, multiple times a day. The others I use on and off throughout the week. And no, they aren't games, and I'm not even a power user.

Phone apps are very useful, and a few weeks ago when my laptop completely failed me at a critical juncture when I needed to download and access information, it was my iPhone that saved me. Downloaded an app on the fly, located the docs I needed online, and was able to read them while sitting on the plane flying (something my laptop and its bad battery failed to allow me to do). I can't see how the iPhone, the app store, and the app market could be any more useful, and I can't see how you could possibly be more wrong in your assignations of worthlessness to the smartphone app market. But, I hope you find happiness on planet Troglo D19 with your no-camera monochrome LCD contacts-only Nokia.

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RE: Limitiations

By icanhascpu on 6/27/09, Rating: 0

By icanhascpu on 6/27/2009 8:49:31 AM , Rating: 0

This is what I find funny about DT. If it were pretty much any other company, there would be very little crying about how a porn app didnt get through, and people pretending to be all mature starting how X company hosts these apps and wants to have a high consistent quality go through and is great for developing a platform for so many coders to come and write these lil programs and host and get 70% of any profits and even if they just want to put it out for free then its all good.

No. When its apple all you hear is OMG they didnt let a porn app through. Repent. Repent. OH NOES it costs money to join up to develops these apps? Greedy bastards! How dare they put millions into R$D and marketing to build a product for themselves so people ao everything in the first paragraph and others using all this (and idiots that dont even have one) can sit and bitch and moan about lack of choice? Fucking get a clue!

Apple could do things a bit better, but you people are as whiney as apple zelots from the 90s. I'll take my -1 with pride knowing where Im posting this.

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Next year

By omnicronx on 6/25/2009 1:39:28 PM , Rating: 3

Is going to be something else.. All five major manufacturers (Apple, Palm, BB, WinMo, Nokia) will have their App Stores up and running. That is when the competition really begins.

RE: Next year

By bplewis24 on 6/25/2009 1:53:45 PM , Rating: 2

Not to mention the Pre will likely be available on Verizon as well as other carries, expanding their user base. Can Apple afford to let BB & Palm that type of advantage for long?

Brandon

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RE: Next year

By Sazar on 6/25/2009 2:21:17 PM , Rating: 2

It depends entirely on their business model.

If they are making a large amount of money per phone (which appears to be the case) and are selling a lot of phones plus getting favorable pricing on the plans (i.e. a cut of monies from services offered), it is worth it. If AT&T throws more money at them for a renewal, who knows, we might see them being AT&T exclusive for a while more.

If they go to multiple carriers, the expected margin per phone will likely drop and who knows what type of control the other carriers are likely to offer the phone. Overall, besides the sheer cost of the plan, AT&T has done just fine by me, including their oft-maligned customer service.

But I do agree that the phone should be available on all compatible networks.

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RE: Next year

By Shadowself on 6/25/2009 3:33:52 PM , Rating: 3

While Apple does appear on the surface to be all about the money and getting as much out of each device as possible, they are also very concerned about their reputation.

I'm fairly sure Apple does not like certain lagging by AT&T:
1. not doing MMS or Tethering for a few months
2. 7.2 Mbps won't be widespread until 2010 (and not universal until 2011) and
3. LTE will not be widely deployed until 2014 (and maybe not until even later than that)

AT&T was openly laughed at multiple times during Apple's World Wide Developers' Conference's keynote. That has to sit badly with Apple execs. Apple does not want partners "tarnishing" its brand. (Hell, Apple does that to itself enough, they don't need others doing it too.)

I'd be surprised if Apple does not extract much more than just money from AT&T if they continue the exclusive deal with them. I'd expect Apple to demand that AT&T get things rolled out more quickly.

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RE: Next year

By foolsgambit11 on 6/26/2009 4:36:13 AM , Rating: 2

Out of curiosity, the original iPhone was launched on June 29, 2007, which means the first iPhones will reach the end of their 2-year contract with AT&T on Monday. Can these users switch carriers and bring their iPhones (unjailbroken) with them? Will all the features still work?

(For that matter, could people have theoretically taken their iPhones to other networks before this, unjailbroken, and just continued paying their contract with AT&T anyway? Not that that would be smart - $100 given away for nothing.)

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So Pre Beats iPhone at downloads per phone so far

By Shadowself on 6/25/2009 3:37:45 PM , Rating: 1

How many of those were free apps?

Has anyone done a comparison of the $$$ in apps downloaded per phone (Pre versus iPhone)? THAT would be a much more interesting number. Saying the (pulled from air numbers here) Pre had 10 apps downloaded while the iPhone had 3 apps downloaded means nothing if the 9 of 10 of those Pre apps were free and 2 of 3 apps on the iPhone were an average of $4.99 each.

RE: So Pre Beats iPhone at downloads per phone so far

By melgross on 6/26/2009 1:31:38 AM , Rating: 2

Palm has said that they don't yet have the payment system for their app store in place.

While I can't say this with surety, that could mean that ALL the apps downloaded were free for now.

If a Pre owner would post here about that, it would be helpful.

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RE: So Pre Beats iPhone at downloads per phone so far

By foolsgambit11 on 6/26/2009 4:39:28 AM , Rating: 2

And I wonder how many apps (for both phones) were downloaded in-store to check out the app download capability, and then deleted so the next curious customer could check the process out and redownload the same app.

Probably not that many, now that I think about it. But who knows.

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