Pre Store Numbers?

[no1smartphone]

Has anyone got some reliable numbers on the number of

1)applications
2) downloads
3) developers

It made think - Apple touted it has had 1.5bn downloads, 65k apps and over 100k developers and 40m devices. Notice they did not split out how much revenue the App Store is brining in.

So some figures

Avg no of downloads per device = 37.5
Avg no of apps per developer = 0.65 apps per developer
Avg no of downloads per app = 23,076
Avg no of devices per Developer = 400

The ratio of free apps to paid apps downloaded is ranging from 1:10 to 1:40
News Providers are Embracing the iPhone - O'Reilly Radar

If the number of free apps is roughly 22% then there are about 0.78x65k = 50,700 paid apps with an average price of $2.65
Waiting for the Billionth Download - O'Reilly Radar

So

If we say 1.5bn apps have been downloaded then if the ratio is 1:10 then users have bought 136.36m apps at $2.65 = $361.35m

If the ratio is more like 1:40 then they have bought 36.56m apps for a total revenue of around $97m

So the total revenue from all apps ranges from $97m - $361m

Apple takes a 30% cut so that would leave for the developers between

$67.9m - $252.7m

Lets take the average of that $160.3m total market for apps downloaded for the first year.

You have 100k developers chasing on average $1600 each.

Now lets assume your opportunity cost is $25 p/h - that would mean it would be worth you while to write an app as long as it took 64 hours or less to write.

To me it seems the app store economics are not really in favour of the developers?

[devsdj]

Thats alot of money from apps

[donm527]

The app store has given a lot of small 'developers' an easier way to get their product seen into mainstream than any other method and some have made mint on it. it's not 100k developers chasing $1600... it's opened a new market opportunity (like ebay) where whoever has the better app at the time makes the most money.

iPhone Developers Go From Rags to Riches | Gadget Lab | Wired.com