Just how much is 2 billion?

Let’s put things into perspective. If you sat down and counted from 1 to 1 billion, you would take about 95 years to complete. And if you were to find a fishbowl big enough to fit 1 billion goldfishes, you would need a stadium to fit them all. Now double that.

Apple announced last Monday that the app store has surpassed 2 billion downloads from 50 million iPhone and iPod Touch users worldwide. That’s an average of 40 apps per device and according to Steve Jobs, half a billion was downloaded in this quarter alone. The calculators here in iHeartApple don’t have enough room to display enough zeros, so while we buy new ones, AppleInsider has kindly done all the maths for us. In the last 80 days alone, 6.3 million apps were downloaded per day, up from 4.1 million per day in the first 365 days of the app store launch.

iphone-appsThat’s a staggering amount considering Singapore’s population barely tipped 4.99 million, as of June 2009.

What does this all mean for us? Well, I think a mobile device is only as useful as what it can do for you. With 85,000 apps to choose from, your iPhone and iPod Touch will give you far better mileage than other mobile devices currently in the market, all packed in a sleek and intuitive user interface Apple is famous for.

This 2 billion downloads is only the beginning. With numbers like this, Apple’s app store is by far the best solution for developers who are looking for a robust distribution infrastructure and this only means we will soon see more and more apps come through as software makers choose this app store over others.

So if you already own an iPhone or iPod Touch, I think we’re on the right boat with this one. If not, you can pick up a new iPod Touch from Apple SG Store and an iPhone from SingTel.

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NewsBits – record earnings, Trojans and pirates, flying with the iPod

Apple reports recording earnings and profits, Trojans found in pirated iWorks and using iPods and iPhones while in Singapore Airline new A330.

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Apple In-Ear Headphones finally available in Singapore

These new In-Ear Headphones are available from the Singapore Apple’s Online Store for a nice price of S$128 and will be delivered between 7-10 days.

These new headphones gives better audio quality and improved sound isolation. It also comes with a remote volume control, music and video control and also has a built-in mic. However, as noted by iLounge, although they can be used with the iPhone, volume control is yet to be supported.

I didn’t like the original In-Ear Headphones from Apple as they didn’t fit my ear canals properly and I had to replaced the silicon ear tips with those from an old Sony headphones for a better fit. If you have these new earbuds from Apple, do let us know how it sounds.

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Pricing decisions for iPhone apps

Andy Finnell’s post about pricing of iPhone apps available now in the iTunes Store brings up quite a few issues not just about pricing, but also on known shortcomings of the iTunes Store that Apple should look into.

The problem that you’re likely to have, like most developers, is setting a price that you can live on. The temptation will be to price your app too low, such that developing the application isn’t sustainable. You might have the best of intentions, but in the end you’ll cause the premature death of your business before it even gets a chance. So why might you be tempted to price your iPhone application so low?

To be honest, as consumers, we will definitely prefer to see the continuity of the current pricing situations, aka more $0.99 apps. But as pointed out in Andy’s article, we’ll end up with many apps that stayed at version 1.0 with not much improvements or with developers dropping out of the market with the unsustainable pricing situation now.

Also with regards to the iTunes Store, with only two ways to sort through the apps in their respective categories, it will be difficult for developers to help push their apps to the top of the pile unless they price it attractively (either $0.99 or FREE) or they get the boost from advertising and marketing, which most of them won’t.

So which do you prefer? Should developers price their apps based on their value or keep as it is now and risk going into oblivion?

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