Apple's App Store Is a Winner

With a host of third-party applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch, the company has unshackled the high-end mobile device

by Cliff Edwards

Editor's Rating:

The Good: No-hassle installation; array of games, productivity tools, and other features; easy to search

The Bad: Early apps need frequent updates; computer preference changes can cause temporary erasures

The Bottom Line: A hot new approach to delivering software quickly and efficiently to mobile devices

Reader Reviews

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I was once an App Store skeptic. When Apple (AAPL) said it would use the iTunes online store to host a range of applications from third-party developers for its iPhone and iPod Touch mobile devices, I doubted that this newcomer to wireless would get things right in the first go. Surely major cellular carriers would block outsiders' data-hogging features. And would Apple really let indie coders tinker with its vaunted iPhone?

As I write this, I'm eating crow. After trying out Apple's App Store for the past few weeks, I can say categorically that Apple has hit another home run. The App Store has truly unshackled the high-end cell phone.

Apple has embraced the developer community with gusto as it looks to third parties to help round out an already feature-packed iPhone and iPhone 3G. App Store launched with more than 500 free and paid applications in July and in little more than a month has grown to more than 3,000 (of which about 600 are free).

Best of all, Apple has made it easy to sift through that astronomical (and growing) tally of games, productivity features, and other downloadable tools. On the computer screen, you can browse top-10 tabs for both paid and free programs, scroll through newly added applications, and sample either What's Hot or Staff Picks.

Update Signals

From the iPhone or Touch, icons at the bottom let you check out applications four ways: Featured, Categories, Top 25, and Search. Most are self-explanatory. With categories, you can narrow your search by looking for business, lifestyle, entertainment, and 16 other interests.

Be warned: Developers have complained that Apple's process for approving applications and updates isn't as refined as it could be. On one hand, Apple is laissez-faire in vetting applications, letting through some buggy or questionable apps (remember the "I Am Rich" tool that cost $1,000 and did nothing but display a jewel?). On the other hand, updates aimed at fixing bugs and making other improvements go through the same vetting procedure as the original application, which can delay needed fixes.

The good news for users is that the store uses handy tabs to indicate when downloaded software has been updated with new versions to address bugs or other issues. There's also a helpful a customer review section that lets users do their own diligence before buying. While unscrupulous developers could game the system by writing fictitious reviews, the theory is that a more balanced, accurate picture will emerge over time.

Many of the applications are simply silly fun. One free piece of software simulates a coin toss, while a paid application called iVoodoo lets users stick pins in digital dolls. Some of the best apps are games that take advantage of the devices' large screens, graphics capability, and accelerometer, the tool that can tell whether the device is being held on its side or in another direction. I've spent hours playing Trism, a Bejeweled-like game that makes good use of the touchscreen and the accelerometer.

Another Robust Ecosystem

Then there are the navigation tools that come with the iPhone 3G and work well with Google's (GOOG) map tool. Applications like the TripAdvisor restaurant search offer neat integration into Google Maps as well.

The iPhone supports up to nine pages of applications, but I wouldn't recommend loading that many on your device. After four pages I had to constantly keep rearranging mine in order of importance, and even then, I kept forgetting which was where. My recommendation is to manage applications in a tab in iTunes and load only those used most often.

My one quibble with the App Store is technical. When I changed the settings on my Mac from automatically managing the iPhone 3G to manually managing it, all the applications were erased and had to be reinstalled. I doubt many other users will encounter this problem because most won't change the settings, but it caused enough of a headache for me that I thought it worth a mention.

With App Store, Apple has taken take myriad software tools and features and created a well-organized method for making them accessible to users of its iPod Touch and iPhone devices. Apple took the same approach with iTunes, using the online music and video store to goose sales of its digital music players. It's what we in tech circles call creating an ecosystem, and Apple appears to have done it again. There are not many products out there that keep me occupied for hours with a wealth of entertainment, information, and productivity features. For that, you've got to give the company credit.

Edwards is a correspondent in BusinessWeek's Silicon Valley bureau.