Jeff Scott is the founder of 148apps.com, a site that reviews iPhone apps, and provides their opinions on the latest applications to hit the App Store. He was also recently on the jury for the AppsFire contest, so we thought it would be appropriate to get his thoughts no where the iPhone and AppStore are heading in 2010.
Trends in iPhone Apps in 2010
It’s time to pull out the App Store crystal ball, shine it up, and peer into it and see what’s there. What will the App Store look like in 2010? What new trends are we going and what trends are going to continue. Here are some of my thoughts.
Games Continue to Dominate
iPhone games are going to continue to get better and better. Compare what is coming out now to what we had a year ago and you’ll see the amazing increase in quality we’ve seen. Not only will we continue to see the biggest game producers flock to the iPhone, we’ll see them continue to pump out some fantastic games both franchise games and new IP. But don’t expect to see Nintendo on the iPhone anytime soon.
You may wonder from this theory if there is still room for the little guy. Heck yes! The problem we’ve seen from the big guys so far is they have just been pushing their catalog of games to the iPhone. Sometimes it works, usually it doesn’t. There’s plenty of room for the little guy to make a big splash by continuing to make unique, interesting, and compelling games.
Education Apps
Education apps are going to be huge. The iPhone and iPod Touch resonate so well with young kids. If you’ve ever seen a 3-year-old kid grab their parents iPhone, swipe it to unlock, and then navigate to and play their favorite apps, you know what I mean. The touch screen just makes perfect sense to them, and the size is perfect for their small hands.
There are already dozens of really good education apps out there. I think that segment is ready to explode and we’ll see that start next year. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see Apple start to spend some advertising dollars around the iPod Touch as an education device. much the way they have advertised it as a gaming device.
Augmented Reality
So far most of the augmented reality apps we’ve seen have been little more than proof of concept novelties. Next year we’ll really start to see the technology evolve and start to see some apps you will be able to use every day. What form will they take? Heck if I know. All I know is there are a lot of people a lot smarter than me working on it.
Enterprise Business Apps
Large businesses take a long time to change. They have to test, scan for security, test again, and then test some more, then budget, re-test, and then deploy. Well we’re about 70% through that process. Once we get a little further down the line we’ll start to see enterprise quality business apps show up. We’re already starting to see a few, but I expect a whole lot more next year.
All of above are just guesses, it’s true. But I do spend about 12 hours per day looking at apps and the App Store. So I’d like to think they are at the very least well informed guesses.
No matter what we see, one thing we know we’ll see is huge growth. We’ve gone from 500 apps on the App Store launch day to over 100,000 now. If we just continue the growth of nearly 400 new apps per day and not even increase that number we will be at 250,000 apps by the end of next year. That number is staggering.
