Go to download.com and look for software to buy for your computer. What’s the average price point? Probably around $30 to $50 for low-end software. Now go to the iPhone App Store — what’s the average price point there? Much lower, probably less than $10.
Why the difference?
The App Store demonstrates what happens when you simplify technology. Buying software for the desktop is a pain — you have to know which websites to visit, you have to know how to install the software, and you have to know what you’re getting into so you don’t end up with spyware. It’s not simple, it’s a huge time vacuum, and not many people do it.
For the iPhone, software is a consumer good. I mean consumers in the broadest sense — people who buy stuff from grocery stores, who shop at malls, who watch regular TV. You know, people who buy music on iTunes — those consumers.
How did Apple bridge the gap from power user to average consumer? Prominent access point, clean browsing, simplified and uniform installation, integrated billing, and quality control. And clean developer APIs that simplify development. The end-to-end cost of launching apps for iPhone is lower, so the price of apps is lower, and thus the risk of trying out new software is lower. The pool of software buyers expands, the pool of developers expands, and the ecosystem shifts. All this, and there’s not even a try-before-you-buy option.
It all seems obvious in retrospect. The question I ask now is: why doesn’t an “App Store” exist for desktop applications? Someone could make a killing.
Steam has a pretty nice system for distributing and managing games over the Internet – it would be nice to see a similar system made available for non-gaming apps as well.
great points neil. not trying to sell microsoft here but your points got me thinking that XBox probably holds the most potential for this sort of model in the console gaming area… it’s essentially the same model, but i’m not sure what the development, deploy to game marketplace is like on the xbox. i know you build games in XNA studio, submit them to XNA creators website… and then what? how/when do they show up on the xbox, and can i charge for them? i don’t expect you to answer these questions
well i digress… really apple is king at creating a great end to end consumer product from software to hardware, and obviously the 3rd party development piece.
so neil, you got me pumped up about iPhone development… i now own a macbook and i’ve just finished my first objective C book. up next, my first iPhone app. I’m looking forward to any additional posts you have regarding your experience developing for the iPhone
keep up the good work
-marco
I believe the closest thing to what you’re talking about here is often referred to as software “packages”. Linux has had them for years, but only in the last few has the interface become simple enough that really anyone can do it. If you haven’t already, install Ubuntu sometime and check out the “add software” menu item. It will blow your mind.
Now, as for why nobody has made a mint off of this idea yet… if I had to guess, I’d say there are several factors, not the least of which is that big software companies are used to doing things their way, and (AFAIK) there really isn’t the content-creator/distributor model that we see in other media for software. Marc is right that Steam is a good start. I think M$ is trying to do some similar things, in that they’ve recently been taking more of a “distributor” role (all those “Games for Windows” boxes at Target), but I don’t know if they’re headed in that direction or not.
Personally, I think we’ll all have linux on our desktops in 10 or 15 years. Even if we end up buying that copy of linux from a company that customized it for us. Of course, I also think we’ll carry around those desktops in our pockets, but who knows.
The iPhone is has one OS and one set of hardware. If you develop an app and it works on your iPhone, it’ll work on any iPhone.
Not so on the desktop.
That doesn’t make desktop-App-Store impossible, but it certainly makes it harder.