Apple's App Store this week crossed a major milestone when the number of approved applications available for download passed the 100,000 mark.
In only 16 months, the App Store has far surpassed any and all competitors for the number, breadth and depth of consumer and professional-based applications for smartphones. And many of them are free. So far more than 2 billion applications have been downloaded from the App Store.
Don't look now. The 100,000 mark is only the beginning. Here are three reasons why Apple's App Store is destined to hit the 200,000 mark in 2010.
1. The Apple App Store Makes It Easy To Download Apps: There is nothing else like the Apple App Store out there. Apple has made it simple and easy for iPhone users to navigate the store and quickly download an application.
Apple is not only the best at product design. It is the best at Web design. It's a pure pleasure to browse the Apple App Store. It's the same type of experience Apple brought to consumers with its retail store. You can feel Apple CEO Steve Jobs' hand at work in every wonderfully elegant user experience detail of the App Store.
2. The Apple App Store Has Big Brand-Name Applications: From banking applications from the likes of Bank of America, Chase and Citibank to boomer favorite games from the likes of Scrabble and Etch a Sketch to business applications like Citrix's Receiver Lite that gives users access to Windows applications, the App Store has it all.
Apple has gotten the biggest brand names in the world into the App Store. Jobs did the same thing with music from the biggest names in the music business.
3. Apple Is Making It Easy For Developers: Who would have ever believed that Apple would do a better job courting developers than Microsoft? Just like Apple has made it simple for users to navigate the App Store, it has made it easy for developers to quickly develop iPhone apps.
Apple touts its developer program as the "fastest path from code to consumer." And that's no exaggeration.
Apple has a great iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) with a wealth of technical resources to back it up. And Apple has invested heavily in automated tools that developers can access to test and debug their code.
Finally, the big bang. Apple has made it easy for developers to distribute their applications in the App Store.
Apple's App Store momentum is growing every day. It's going to be hard for anyone to catch up. The 200,000 mark is going to come a lot quicker than the 100,000 milestone. It looks to me like it's just around the corner.
