Apple App Store best by a wide margin
A new report on mobile applications stores has confirmed that, at least as it stands now, the Apple App Stores are far and away the cream of the current crop.
A new study by Global Intelligence Alliance Group (GIA) finds that the Apple App stores easily lead the pack when it comes to mobile applications sales operations. GIA also considered a number of other application stores in their study, including Google’s existing Android Marketplace, plus other competing app stores being readied for deployment later this year according to an Apple Insider story.
These upcoming application stores include Nokia’s Ovi Apps Store for Symbian, RIM’s BlackBerry Apps Storefront, Microsoft SkyMarket for Windows Mobile, and Palm’s webOS Software Store for its upcoming Pre smartphone. The numerous third-party stores were not included in the study, nor were any of the large cell phone service provider stores.
Basically, the GIA report ranked Apple’s iPhone App Store “miles ahead of the competition” based on their timeliness to market, the ability to attract professional developers, and the “number, variety and appeal of applications available.” The Apple App Store tied for the win in all of the categories considered by the study, so the results were judged by GIA to be not even close.
Apple tied with the Android Marketplace for being first to market, and currently operating. Apple was tied for the lead in attracting quality software developers with Android, RIM, and Nokia, all because they released and maintained quality tools for use by developers in writing for their platforms. Specifically, the report said that “clarity and transparency of software developer kits, approval processes, ease of programming language, reimbursement share and overall control/censorship” were responsible for attracting developers.
Apple tied with Android, Nokia, and the planned webOS for user appeal and application availability. This category included areas like user interface, user store experience, number of available apps, and the appeal and variety of those apps. Specifically, the report says “Apple emerges strong here, while also dominant in integrating user popularity ratings and top downloads lists. Nokia’s smart approach of tailoring the offering/suggesting applications based on user history, preferences, peers and location will put Ovi in a strong starting position. Palm has received good reviews on its new webOS interface and now needs to show actual proof once device shipments start.”
Despite all of these “ties”, the report names Apple as the clear winner in this marketplace. The areas covered were all subjective, but one would think that a participant would have had to have actually won a category before being named the runaway leader. Nevertheless, despite the lack of granularity in the study, it is clear that Apple has opened a wide lead in the application store marketplace, and equally clear that the competition has a long road ahead of them to catch up.
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