Where we stand now: Ups and downs of Apple’s App Store

Ever since its release, the App Store has brought both good and bad PR to Apple and the iPhone. However, as a much anticipated update to the iPhone software, one would expect a lot of complaints if it wasn’t perfect the first go around. And it wasn’t. Despite that, Apple has managed to pull some magic and turn the App Store into the great piece of software that we know it as today. It can still be argued, though, that this store has both helped and hurt Apple in a few different ways. This article will discuss those up and downs.

High Points

• The usefulness of the iPhone – Obviously, the App Store has done tremendous things to improve upon the iPhone and its usefulness. With thousands of apps to choose from, iPhone (and iPod Touch) users can turn their devices into anything they want, from a portable game console to almost anything imaginable. Before this, the iPhone was whatever Apple made it with their apps, but now it’s open to the imagination of hundreds to thousands of developers.
• Money – The App Store was a huge success, even when it was first announced with hundreds of apps already in it. With apps ranging from free to upwards of $40, Apple has been making quite a bit of money off of the works of other developers. With this money, Apple can further invest into improving the App Store as well as creating new application of their own.

Low Points

• Negative PR for Apple – When the App Store first came out, it had a few, shall I say, bugs. As usual, these bugs were made out to be much worse than they were in the eyes of the press, even though they were fixed by Apple over time through various updates. For people just reading headlines, this may have brought them a negative view of Apple as a company. Furthermore, Apple has a fondness of taking apps down with no real reason from their store. This, again, has brought some negative PR towards the company.
• Safari market share probably down – With Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and eBay apps on the App Store, I’ll admit my use of Safari Mobile has gone way down. In fact, I rarely use it at all anymore as the apps provide smoother interfaces with faster load times. This obviously is taking a toll on Mobile Safari’s market share. However, I believe the benefits outweigh the costs in this situation, as I would rather have an App Store than a widely used Mobile Safari.

This is only a short list of the possible topics that could be discussed. Feel free to add your opinion in the comments.