iPhone Apps: One Month, 60 Million Downloads

Steve Jobs shared some stats on how the iPhone App store is doing one month after launch with the WSJ’s Nick Wingfield. There have already been 60 million downloads, the majority of them free. But paid downloads are doing just fine, pulling in $30 million in revenues in the first 30 days. The article does not reveal the total number of paid downloads, but given that apps range in price (mostly gravitating either to 99 cents or $9.99, but one briefly going as high as $999, before it was pulled down), it is safe to say that fewer than 30 million paid apps have been sold. One game alone, Sega’s $9.99 Super Monkey Ball, sold 300,000 copies (or $3 million worth). That one game alone accounted for 10 percent of all iPhone app sales.

Here are some stats culled from the WSJ article:

First Thirty Days: iPhone App Stats

Total Downloads: 60 Million
Total Revenues: $30 Million
Sales Going To App Developers: $21 Million
Sales Going To Top Ten Apps: $9 Million
Sales of Sega’s Super Monkey Ball: $3 Million

At the current rate, the App Store is on track to bring in annual sales of $360 million. Apple keeps about 30 percent to cover its costs (as it does with iTunes song sales), and the rest go to the developers who create the apps.

The question is how many apps can one person really manage before becoming overwhelmed. While the initial impulse is to download as many apps as possible to try them out, there is a limit to how many apps you can juggle on your iPhone. It is not much different than a PC. You have tons of apps, but how many do you actually use on a regular basis? For most people, that number is probably no more than ten apps, and on a daily basis, maybe 3 or 4 tops.

For instance, of the 30 apps on my iPhone, I’ve used only about six more than once, and nearly all of those come with the device. By far, the app I use the most is Gmail, followed by Web browsing. Those two built-in apps account for about 90 percent of my usage and are the only apps I use on a daily basis. Those are followed by the camera (if you can call that an app), the calculator, and Maps. Of all the apps I’ve downloaded from the App store, only two of them are seeing regular usage, and both are games: Tap Tap Revenge and BeeCells (which my four-year-old plays more than I do—in fact, he think that’s what the iPhone is for).

And I’m not the only one who thinks that these apps are going to hit a saturation point real soon. And then it will become clear that the killer apps on the iPhone are the same as on your computer: email and the browser.

Original post

Comments

[best.deception:]

I use the MLB app daily, play the suduko, use loopt once a week, and play monkey ball probably once a week. Once football season comes along, you can bet all football fans will use that app at least every weekend, if not during the week to see news.

2008 Aug 11 12:40 PM

[BigPetey:]

I downloaded ForeFlight, a flight planning tool (frequencies, airfield diagrams etc.) for about $64.00. It has real time weather rader (from 24 mile to 120 miles radius) that is amazing! I was able to dodge thunderstorms this weekend with that data.

2008 Aug 11 12:44 PM

[Tantrum:]

300,000/30 million = 1%.

2008 Aug 11 02:15 PM

[Tantrum:]

Sorry Eric,
You're mixing up units sold (i.e. number of games) and revenues from apps sold $30 Million in the same thought stream. I'm happy that the top selling paid app is 1% of application downloads even though it's 10% of revenue.

2008 Aug 11 02:18 PM

[Tantrum:]

...and only 0.5% of all downloads.

2008 Aug 11 02:19 PM

[zoooomer:]

another d-weed trying to mask a negative story with frill. to think that the apps store is going "hit a saturation point REAL SOON" is beyond stupid. How can it reach that point if phone sales are off the chart and show no signs of ever slowing down especially with new countries coming on line, how? exactly does that statement make sense? That's like saying right after the first computer programs came out that computer programs would reach a saturation point real soon, duh, I guess this idiot writer is saying there will be no more greats apps written, no more cool GAMES, no more sports programs, no more wall street programs, no more programs that people will want combined with nomore people buying iphones, yeah I guess the writer is correct its all down hill from here. douchebag.

2008 Aug 11 03:27 PM

[reagan:]

No doubt. This guy is just another Apple hating clown!

2008 Aug 11 04:13 PM

[Mayor Quimby:]

Since when did financial reporting become about spouting one's opinion? You don't use any apps so no one else will? Hello?! Anyone home???

2008 Aug 11 07:13 PM

[Bastion:]

Sorry, Tantrum, but your math is off, too - the key is to follow the units:

$3M/$30M = 0.1 or 10% (of revenues, or sales)

300,000 dlds / 60,000,000 dlds = 0.005 or 0.5% (of downloads)

I don't know where you found "app" downloads vs. "all" downloads - the App Store only has "app" downloads, therefore there is no 1% of anything...

2008 Aug 11 10:27 PM

[JosephKr:]

I do agree that stating that Apps will become saturated is more or less like saying that if the oceans evaporate the air will become saturated with water vapor. There's about as much chance of that happening in either case as snowball in....well, you know.
Anyway, back to the important point here: Your intrepid blog contributor here went out on a collective limb and predicted that the stock would trade between $180 and $185 by the close Monday (today). We almost made it. The high was $176.50 towards the 2/3 mark of today's session. The stock settled up $4 and change, whcih still isn;t bad, but I admit that I missed the mark by sizable margin.
See? Someone who takes responsibility for being wrong.
However, if you take a closer look at the App store numbers and extrapolate the significance of 22 extra countries by August 22, one of them being Singapore with Southeast Asia's largest carrier being the provider, you'll find that aside from the incredibly huge number of dollars the phone sales will bring, it's probably a safe bet that the App store will be closer to the $1 billion mark for Apple within 2 quarters, much more quickly than a full year.
Meantime, let's reserve Tuesday and Wednesday for another "kick" at the $180-$185 cat. I think the stock will make it with room to spare.

2008 Aug 11 11:47 PM

[JosephKr:]

Just an interesting note: One of the fellows on today's edition of Fast Money on CNBC quipped that Apple has "already sold 3,000,000" 3G iPhones. That's since July 11, exactly one month. That works out to at least 9,000,000 phones for the quarter NOT COUNTING the pending 22 extra countries coming on line on August 22! That would be a minimum of 36,000,000 phones per year if the rate holds, again without those 22 other countries. See where this is going? Get your stock TODAY, because $174 is gonna look like a huge BARGAIN in a few weeks! You read it here first!

2008 Aug 12 12:05 AM

[tabasco001:]

who cares how many apps people use. the fact is if people are purchasing the apps. that translates to a nice little revenue stream for apple. you only use 4 apps so that means everyone else will do the same. DUH!!

2008 Aug 12 06:39 AM

[brewer:]

This is in it's infancy. The chance that it will not grow far beyond this initial stage is quite small.

It's quite easy to 'manage' VERY MANY iPhone apps. Just hold them, they jiggle on screen, you put them where you want, you can have page after page, organized any way that makes sense to you. What could possibly be easier???

People are going to quit downloading free stuff and great games, etc... dirt cheap? (Compare prices on this software to what companies charge for Mac/PC software.) I don't think so.

2008 Aug 12 11:35 AM

[brewer:]

Maybe yours really is for BeeCells.

2008 Aug 12 11:36 AM

[Tony615:]

I disagree with the conclusion that apps will reach saturation shortly. I have added 15 apps (no games) and find that as time passes I am more comfortable accessing the newer apps. I constantly use Mobile News, Investment sites(3), Mapping (this is a fantastic APP for finding stores, restaurants, etc.). The next phase will be more complex, more expensive apps.

2008 Aug 12 12:45 PM

[squawk:]

Having read your recent "articles," it's clear you have a negative bent on AAPL. How about writing something positive to demonstrate your objectivity? Until then, you have little if any credibility.

2008 Aug 12 02:35 PM