I haven't checked out the apps, but it would hardly be surprising if the first ones out the door were kind of crappy.
Suppose you've written an awesome iPhone app with a price tag of $9.99. Would you want to release it the day before anyone was even able to buy a new iPhone in the store? Wouldn't you rather wait until tomorrow, at least, so that on a day when the bulk of new iPhone owners unwrap their 3G Phone and visit the store your app will be near the top of the Hot New Apps Released Today list?
The problem of deciding when to launch a new app is nontrivial, actually. You want to pick a day when the first-day audience has potential to be as large as possible, which means waiting for some 3G phones to sell. But you don't want to be too late!
Even if you could pick the day, testing the above hypothesis would be very hard. IF you could guess when the most iPhones would be bought, you couldn't possibly know when people would first visit the App Store (they might not go on the same day they buy the phone). Moreover, even if you got on the list of top apps for that day, it might not be as useful as having already been selling your app for a few days. To me, having known customers is more useful than waiting for the moment of the most potential customers. It sounds nice to be able to wait to launch on the best day and have a nice launch day, but I'd rather get out there sooner and build up my customer base, even if it's slow. In my view, unless you have an actual promotion planned, any day after your app is ready is too late.
Suppose you've written an awesome iPhone app with a price tag of $9.99. Would you want to release it the day before anyone was even able to buy a new iPhone in the store? Wouldn't you rather wait until tomorrow, at least, so that on a day when the bulk of new iPhone owners unwrap their 3G Phone and visit the store your app will be near the top of the Hot New Apps Released Today list?
The problem of deciding when to launch a new app is nontrivial, actually. You want to pick a day when the first-day audience has potential to be as large as possible, which means waiting for some 3G phones to sell. But you don't want to be too late!