
Apple's App Store becoming a billion-dollar marketplace  - peter123
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_12037710
======
TweedHeads
The iPhone is, without any doubt, a market on its own.

Apple did what nokia, motorola and others couldn´t, or didn´t know it was
possible to do.

~~~
arrrg
And yet the whole App-Store part always seemed oddly tacked on. There were
times when web apps were all the rage on the iPhone.

Only shows that either Apple are just making stuff up as they go along (which
seems implausible as the results more often than not are pretty successful and
look pretty polished) or they perfected the art of misleading everyone that
follows them.

A strange creature, this Apple company.

~~~
allenbrunson
it has been claimed many times that apple at one time said web apps were
enough, and that no native app sdk was needed. i have yet to read any credible
evidence supporting that claim.

i think apple was simply holding off until they could make it good. a decent
sdk for a whole new platform is no mean feat.

~~~
Timothee
In the following press release, they don't literally say that "a native SDK is
not needed" but I remember the keynote (WWDC 2007) and that's exactly the idea
that Steve Jobs was trying to convey:
<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/06/11iphone.html>

I remember him being very excited about their great idea that "Web 2.0
applications" was the way to go.

But yes it was clearly to keep developers happy (or to have an answer for
developers at least) and create some activity around the phone until they
could announce the SDK officially. The reaction at the time was pretty much
"web apps? are you serious?!"

~~~
allenbrunson
as a matter of fact, i attended wwdc07. i waited in line many hours and was in
the audience when steve announced iphone web apps. i didn't get the impression
then that steve was saying there'd never be a native sdk, and i don't get that
now, reading the press release. in fact, i got the feeling that it was
inevitable, from the vibe at the conference.

apple doesn't talk about things that aren't available yet. some people
interpret that as "secrecy." i'd call it "savvy marketing." why get people all
riled up over something they can't have yet? and expose yourself to negative
sentiment if it turns out you have to cancel the project for some reason?

when steve lifts the veil on a new product, it's available for sale right
there and then. all that early excitement he is so good at building translates
into sales, rather than frustrated longing.

