Once upon a time, it was extremely easy to gift an app to a loved one directly from the iOS App Store. It was a simple case of selecting the Gift App button, and then passing in the relevant details of the recipient. Payment would then be removed from the registered payment method held against the account and everyone would go on their way, happy in the knowledge that the gift of giving had been accomplished satisfactorily. For some reason, Apple changed the giving game with the introduction of iOS 6, and actually removed the facility entirely from the App Store for a while, but thankfully it is now back.
The App Store as grown at incredible rate since its inception, yet while the exponential growth is well-documented within the mobile industry, even the activity of the past twelve months is of incredible interest. There are few more entertaining ways of viewing statistics than the colorful illustration of the infographic, and Appsfire has duly provided with an easy-to-digest round-up of the year's App Store activity. Here, we assess their findings.
With over seven hundred thousand apps in the iOS App Store that have managed to amass over thirty billion downloads, it's no wonder that the iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad are extremely popular with consumers who want to extend the functionality of their mobile devices. The power and versatility of the apps on the store do a great job of promoting Apple devices to prospective customers which could be one of the reasons that Apple are in the first stages of rolling out a new "App Discovery" reward to retail store employees.
The time is fast approaching for Tim Cook and his cohorts to adorn that Moscone Center stage and introduce the world to the sixth-generation iPhone, which in turn will more than likely bring with it an immediate release of iOS 6, the company's next major revision of their mobile operating system. Registered members of the iOS dev program are now regularly using the fourth beta of iOS 6 in an attempt to familiarize themselves with the new features and improvements which Apple has pushed out, as well as trying to find and report any bugs that may exist.
A couple of days ago, we reported of a hacker by the name of Alexey Borodin, who had found a way to exploit the in-app purchasing system of iOS. Apple always responds properly whenever there's a whiff of a security flaw, and as well as promising developers the issue will be completely resolved when iOS 6 arrives around October, the Cupertino outfit has delivered an interim fix.
Apple has always honed a proud reputation for being free of malicious intrusion on all platforms. With regards to OS X, the clean record was once a permanent feature, but that ship sailed earlier this year with the Flashback malware outbreak - leading to the Apple.com claim of Macs not getting "PC viruses" to be removed late last month.
When the iOS App Store was first launched in 2008, not even Apple themselves could have predicted the store’s meteoric rise to become the undisputed heavy-weight champion of the app distribution world. At the beginning of 2011 Apple launched a competition, offering a $10,000 iTunes gift card to the lucky App Store user who downloaded the 10 billionth app from the store. The Cupertino company has since repeated that offering by giving away a gift card of the same value to whoever downloaded the twenty-fifth billionth app.
One of the great things about Apple, and one of the main reasons why so many people love the company the world over, is the service that they provide to their customers. Apple is often praised for the great products which they provide, which is a compliment they are indeed worthy of, but the truth is that a lot of technology companies manufacture exceptional products which are equal in functionality to Apple's. The thing which generally sets Apple apart is the way they go about marketing those products, and the service they provide through after sales channels, designed to breed consumer loyalty.
The debate over whether iOS or Android is the best home for smartphone app developers is one that has been raging for some time, and one that shows no sign of abating.
The official App Store is a wonderful place, full of some truly amazing applications which have been developed to the highest standard, more than worthy of their place on our SpringBoards. However, with over half a million applications currently residing in the Store, law of averages dictate that a good portion of them will be poor purchases due to the fact that they don’t work as advertised or in some instances, just don’t work at all.
