How the iPad is Already Affecting the Market

By: Hillel Fuld

Most people who are involved in the mobile industry will tell you that the market has become overly app-centric in the past year or two. If “who can make the thinnest phone” was the question on the minds of all mobile manufacturers and consumers just five years ago, today it’s “who has the most apps“? The answer is just as obvious, and Apple, as of now at least, has no real competition. The App Store, depending who you ask, has somewhere between 120,000-150,000 apps, which no matter how you cut it, is a heck of a lotta apps.

Android, which is probably Apple’s closest competitor in terms of apps and market share, at least based on what the experts are saying, has somewhere around 30,000 apps in their App Market, so they have some catching up to do. However, the situation and buzz surrounding Apple’s App Store is not all pink. There is a lot of anger directed at Apple originating from both app developers and consumers.

In terms of the consumers, the people actually using the apps, they have a lot of complaints about Apple’s strict filtering mechanism (or should I say rejection mechanism) for apps allowed into the App Store. Some will say that there should not be any filtering at all, kind of like the Android model, but I think that is a bit extreme. Others, myself among them, claim that Apple has taken it a bit too far when it comes to rejecting apps. For example, I can argue the case that the App Store should not contain highly explicit sexually oriented apps, without a basic age verification tool so kids are not exposed to such apps.

Having said that, I do not see any reason Apple should reject apps like Google Talk or tawkon, an app that helps iPhone users keep the phone’s radiation levels under control, or least provides the ability to monitor it. Apple is notorious for its strict standards when it comes to its phone and how users utilize it, as well as its App Store and what makes the cut.

I do not think I need to explain why this whole policy annoys developers, it should be pretty obvious, but just in case… These are people who spend their hard earned money and valuable time developing an app for the iPhone, just to have it rejected by Apple, sometimes without good reason. In addition, those developers that are lucky enough to make it into the App Store, have to wait weeks and sometimes months after submitting an app until it is approved. Besides the obvious frustration that causes, I cannot imagine that after developing the app for months and sometimes years, that wait is a very pleasant time period in a developer’s professional life.

Putting this debate aside, there is one problem Apple’s strict standards might cause in the near future that Apple itself might not have foreseen. I think it is pretty safe to say that no one, not even Steve Jobs expected the App Store to take off this way. I think the same goes for the future of mobile apps, specifically after the release of the iPad.

Experts are predicting a huge success with the iPad, and even if you are not an expert, the 150,000 pre order units sold in the first day has to impress you. I don’t think there is anyone that truly doubts that the iPad is going to dominate the market and become to tablets what the iPod became to music players. With the ability to use iPhone apps on the iPad, as well as iPad specific apps, I would not be surprised if the App Store doubled its numbers within months of the iPad release. As of now, it seems it will dominate the game market, as 44% of apps tested on the iPad so far have been games, with the runner up being entertainment apps.

March 27th is the deadline to submit apps to the App Store if you want the app to be available on iPad launch day. As of last week, Apple is accepting iPad apps, and not to anyone’s surprise, it is causing quite the scene in the developer community, and even worse, a delay in the already long app approval cycle. This begs the question, what is Apple going to do when iPad apps are being submitted by the thousands and hundreds of thousands? How will this affect the approval process? Are we looking at an even longer waiting period to get your app approved than exists today or is Apple planning on hiring hundreds of new app reviewers to help keep the process at its current speed?

I guess we will have to wait and see, but I would think with all the pressure Apple is facing to approve apps more frequently, as well as the rapidly growing number of submissions, Apple would reconsider this policy. I am no developer and so, I am not particularly convinced that this is at all possible, but with today’s technology, is there no way to make the app approval policy more automated? I mean they can have a system in place that when an app or its description includes certain keywords, it is deemed inappropriate for the App Store, or something similar based on the apps provided functionality.

I do not know what Apple will pull out of their sleeve, but one thing is for sure, they better have a plan in place, unless they want to piss off their entire community by making an already annoying process a whole lot longer and more frustrating.

What do you think Apple should do to speed up this process? Are you for or against the censoring of apps for the App Store? Please let us know in the comments.

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Hillel Fuld

Hillel is a tech blogger at TechNmarketing.com as well as an active Twitter personality @hilzfuld. He writes for many other sites including Mashable.com, Bitrebels.com, and works as the Content Manager of Dailyforex.com.