GigaOM » Apple

Mac App Store Nets Evernote 40,000 New Users

Darrell Etherington — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 22:31:55 +0000

The Mac App Store saw over 1 million downloads in its first day of availability. That’s a terrific number, but pinning down the effect it’s had for individual developers is a little trickier. Virtual notebook and productivity software Evernote ‘s experience sheds a little light on what that success has meant for some apps.

A graph of new Evernote users since New Year’s Day tells a much better story than words ever could. In the chart below (from Evernote’s blog), each column represents the number of new users per hour, beginning at midnight on Jan. 1. The red portion shows new users coming from the Evernote Mac client. The massive spike is where the Mac App Store launched.

Since the App Store launch, more than half of new users are coming from the Mac client. And that’s only new users. Evernote says it’s seen 90,000 client downloads between store launch and midnight Jan. 7, but many of those users already had an existing Evernote registration. Evernote CEO Phil Libin had this to say about his product’s success in the Mac App Store:

“It’s a very big deal [...] We initially thought that since so much of our user base was coming from mobile, that was the key distribution platform. But maybe it isn’t mobile that’s important, maybe it’s the well-designed app store.”

In the future, as adoption increases and the App Store trickles out beyond early adopters to the general public, Libin sees the Mac App Store as easily becoming the default way to get software onto the Mac. He predicts that we could eventually see 95 percent of all Mac software distributed this way in near future, and that eventually there might be no longer be any reason to offer direct downloads via the web at all. Overall, this is very promising news for developers eager to reach broader audiences.

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Mac App Store Sees More Than 1M Downloads in First Day

Darrell Etherington — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 14:35:51 +0000

The just-launched Mac App Store experienced more than 1 million downloads in its first active day, according to Apple. No word on how many of those were paid or how many were free. TUAW’s breakdown of apps available yesterday reveals that the vast majority are paid, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what users were downloading most.

Apple did not respond to an inquiry about the breakdown of paid vs. free downloads as of this writing. It’s worth noting that at this time, 7 of the 12 top grossing apps available on the Mac App Store are Apple’s own offerings, including the iWork and iLife suites, Aperture and Apple Remote Desktop. No wonder, then, that CEO Steve Jobs had this to say about the store’s initial success:

We’re amazed at the incredible response the Mac App Store is getting. Developers have done a great job bringing apps to the store and users are loving how easy and fun the Mac App Store is.

Apple also took the opportunity to talk up its developer terms for offering software in the Mac App Store, wherein developers keep 70 percent of the revenue, and 30 percent goes to Apple, but Apple covers hosting, marketing and payment processing fees. That it foregrounded this information suggests the press release might be intended more to attract further developer interest than to impress the general public.

Whatever the reasoning behind the announcement, 1 million downloads in one day is a solid start for any software distribution platform. Let’s see if the Mac App Store can keep the momentum going.

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Infographic: The Apple App Store by the Numbers

Darrell Etherington — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 17:30:12 +0000

iPhone and iPad app discovery website App of the Day spent some time analyzing App Store data and came up with some interesting findings, which they compiled in the infographic you see below. The average price of apps per category is particularly illuminating, revealing a considerable price discrepancy among different types of apps. Also, check out the unique distinction earned by the Facebook app at the bottom of the graphic.

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Nielsen: iPad Owners Younger, More Receptive of Ads

Darrell Etherington — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 22:00:31 +0000

A new study by Nielsen about mobile device users revealed some interesting statistics about Apple iPad owners. First, they tend to be younger men, and second, they tend to be more susceptible to advertising than most (which may be how they ended up with an iPad to begin with).

To complete the study, Nielsen surveyed over 5,000 owners of portable devices, including the Kindle, smartphones, netbooks and more in addition to the iPad. Of those polled, 400 owned an iPad, and the majority of those 400 were young males: 65 percent were male, and 63 percent aged 35 or younger.

Surprisingly, they weren’t among the most wealthy respondents, despite having enough disposable income to drop on Apple’s fairly pricey tablet. That honor went to Kindle users, 44 percent of whom made $80,000 or more. Only 39 percent of iPad owners fell into that bracket, and 37 percent of iPhone owners.

Despite being slightly less well-off, iPad owners were more likely to interact with an ad. 39 percent of iPad users said the found ads on the device “new and interesting.” They’re also more likely to buy something based on advertising found on-device. That’s great news for newspaper and magazine publishers, who are hoping that iPad versions of their publications (and subscriptions for those) will revitalize their ailing industry.

Advertisers targeting the platform really couldn’t ask for a better audience than relatively wealthy, young men who are receptive to your message. With stats like these, the iPad could be the key to finally unlocking the massive potential of online advertising. Make no mistake, in terms of mobile advertising endeavors, iAd is the one to watch.

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Apple Ranks a Lackluster Fourth in Notebook Reliability Study

Darrell Etherington — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:03:43 +0000

Apple is fairly reliable, but not the most reliable company of all when it comes to notebooks, according to a new study by research firm SquareTrade. The top honor goes to Asus, which surprised me, but I suppose shouldn’t have when I consider the build quality of my fairly inexpensive Eee PC. Toshiba and Sony rank next most reliable, with Apple coming in a close fourth.

I remember a time not too long ago when IBM and Apple would top the list every time, with other manufacturers coming in a fair distance behind them. IBM sold its hardware business to Lenovo, which seems to be having some effect on quality, but is Apple also slipping as it grows? I don’t think there’s enough data to identify a trend, but it is a little worrying.

Still, at least Apple is still under the 20 percent mark for three-year laptop malfunction rates, which is the measure that indicates reliability in the study. Dell is the only company below it, also under 20 percent, with 18.3. After that, things take a significant turn for the worse, with HP coming in ninth place at 25.6 percent. That means Apple is still showing better-than-average performance overall.

Electronista suggests that the reason for the divide between top-tier manufacturers and those that fall below the average is that the companies with greater than 20 percent malfunction rates tend to do much of their business in the budget laptop and notebook categories, which see higher failure rates overall than premium-priced laptops, where Apple exclusively does its business. It’s possible NVIDIA-gate accounted for some of those failures, although SquareTrade doesn’t go into detail about malfunction causes in this report.

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Orange Launch Day iPhone Sales Set a Record

Darrell Etherington — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:08:18 +0000

Today is the day the iPhone stopped being an exclusive in the UK. Officially, as of 7 a.m., the device went on sale at Orange retailers across the UK, and the carrier is already claiming that the iPhone has gone over exceedingly well with consumers, despite already having been available to O2 customers since its initial launch.

By the end of business today, the newest UK iPhone carrier on the block will have sold well more than 30,000 iPhones, according to gadget web site T3. Not bad for what’s technically a relaunch of an already available device. Compare that with Motorola’s claim of 100,000 Droid units moved in three days in the U.S. Properly framed and in context, the iPhone figures Orange is claiming are much more impressive, and show that hype aside, any competitor still has a long way to go to contend with Apple.

Orange also claims that the impressive sales numbers represent a new record for first day handset device sales in the UK, at least regarding published results. The launch sales of the device have also helped Orange’s own Wednesdays app climb to the top of the Entertainment category charts, and achieve the No. 2 ranking overall in the free section of the App Store.

Vodafone, which has yet to launch the iPhone, but intends to in early 2010, didn’t want to just sit back and let Orange have its day in the sun uncontested. The UK cell service provider is hoping to convince some would-be iPhone buyers to step back and wait until its own launch, by reporting that in tests (which I’m sure were completely unbiased), the Vodafone network is the fastest using the iPhone:

“We’ve been out and about testing our network across the UK. Whilst our guys were watching the latest YouTube clips on the iPhone they found that Vodafone delivered the fastest download time for a 10-minute video.”

Vodafone provided not a single scrap of statistical evidence to back up its claim, which is only fair since Orange didn’t provide any to support its claim regarding sales numbers, either.

Orange recently came under scrutiny for its reported 750MB cap on data usage under its “Unlimited” plan, and for imposing bizarre restrictions on how network data may be used, restrictions that seemed, if taken at face value, to basically prohibit 90 percent of iPhone usage. Obviously, the company isn’t actually preventing its iPhone customers from doing things like using IM applications, and since no one’s had a chance to hit that 750MB limit as of yet, things appear to be going more than smoothly for the big launch.

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85% of Mac Owners Also Have a PC: Report

Darrell Etherington — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:39:07 +0000

Mac users may be getting soft on Windows machines as time moves on, according to a recent report by consumer research firm NPD Group. It found that of those polled, a whopping 85 percent admitted to owning both Mac and Windows PC computers.

That’s a far cry from the polarized days of yore, when even joking that you had a Windows PC, even if you actually did, would get you banned from the local Mac user group. But is the reason less die-hard Mac heads, or more PC users flirting with and even giving comfort to the enemy?

The stat was one of the headliners of NPD Group’s dubiously named “2009 Household Penetration Study,” which was released yesterday. PC World lists the details of the report, which includes statistics regarding the presence of PCs and Macs in U.S. households.

Mac ownership is up to 12 percent from only 8 percent in 2008, a 4 percent increase over the course of only one year. A lot of those new Mac owners probably aren’t in the habit of throwing away perfectly good computers, even if they are Windows machines, which could account for some of that 85 percent.

The study also found that Mac owners are unusually covetous of gadgetry. Two-thirds of Mac-owning households have three or more computers, and they also generally own at least twice as many electronic devices as the average PC owner. Specifically, Apple fans generally own 48 gadgets vs. the average of 24. Finally, I can tell my friends and family that what they think is a tech addiction is actually par for the course among people with Mac love.

Apple owners are also much more likely to go mobile, with 72 percent going with a notebook, vs. only 60 percent in Windows households. Sort of explains why the Starbucks window always looks like a Macbook showroom.

By comparison, the number of Windows PC households that have more than three computers stands at only 36 percent, which is almost three times less than their Mac counterparts. If I was in Windows marketing, I’d probably ask why Mac users feel that they need more than three computers to do the same work as just one or two of their PC equivalents. I suspect the real reason has more to do with Mac users loving their computers as objects, independent of what they can do with them.

So I feel pretty pigeonholed following this report. I own five computers, one of which is a PC, and at least 48 gadgets are scattered around my apartment. I also own three notebooks. Anyone else feel like the nail being hit on the head after reading this?

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Ego: Web Statistics on Your iPhone

David Appleyard — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 20:00:33 +0000

As someone who manages a few different web sites and Twitter accounts, I do find that it’s easy to waste a decent chunk of time checking all their various statistics. I often browse to the different websites from my iPhone, logging into each account sequentially to view the latest number of visitors or news feed subscribers.

Enter Ego, a new statistics tracking application for the iPhone. It provides one central location to check web statistics that matter to you, supporting Feedburner, Mint, and Twitter. Authentication is handled automatically once you’ve set the accounts up, and a decent range of statistics are offered through a minimal and simple user interface.

Adding and Managing Accounts

The whole point of Ego is to eliminate needlessly logging in and out of several different web sites and accounts. Therefore, there’s inevitably going to be a reasonable amount of setting up required to add all these accounts in the first place. Clicking the settings icon after opening the application allows you to add and edit accounts.

Ego supports as many widgets of each type as you want, color coding them to make it easy to see which widgets represent which service you’re tracking. Three services are currently supported, and I’ll go into further detail about each shortly. After adding an account you’re able to drag to re-order it in the dashboard screen, ensuring the important stats are displayed and loaded first.

Mint

Mint is a simple statistics tracking tool for websites which you can install on your own server. Unlike Google Analytics, it’s a commercial stats package which costs $30 per site. If you’re already running Mint, you need to install the ‘Ego Helper Pepper‘ to allow the iPhone application to connect to the stats system. Unfortunately, you’re also out of luck if you’re running an older version of Mint — version 2.0 or higher is required.

Manage your Mint stats

By default, the Mint widget displays the number of page views and unique visitors your site has received today. Tapping on a widget will cause it to cycle through the number of visits so far this hour, this week, this month, and a total count of all visitors received to date.

This system of displaying information saves valuable space on your iPhone screen, and doesn’t require drilling down into, and back up from, additional views.

Twitter

The second service supported is Twitter, which requires your Twitter ID and password to set up.

Twitter followers and following stats

The default widget displays (arguably) the most important statistic — the total number of followers you have. Tapping it will alter the view to show the number of people you’re following, and the number of updates which you’ve sent to the service. Also shown is the most recent tweet that has been posted to your account.

FeedBurner

The final service that can be tracked is FeedBurner, a tool for managing and reporting RSS feed information. Setting up FeedBurner requires you to enable the ‘Awareness API’ found in your account settings — without this, Ego won’t be able to retrieve any data.

FeedBurner reader count and trend

This is the simplest widget, displaying only the current number of subscribers to your feed and (when tapped) the number of subscribers you’ve gained or lost since yesterday.

Future Versions

Many would agree that support for Google Analytics — fast becoming the most popular statistic tracking tool — is a big requirement. Fortunately, the developers note that:

We built Ego with a very flexible framework for adding support for other services. Coming in version 1.1: Google Analytics support!

I’m sure that this won’t satisfy everyone, and it’ll be interesting to see whether the developers choose to cater for every request they receive, or keep the application focused on a narrow selection of services. They’re taking requests, so if there is a particular stat you’d like to be able to track, you can email the developers via the Ego site.

Conclusion

For me, this simple app will save a huge amount of time and annoyance. Having all my statistics in once place means I’m likely to check them more often, but it’ll be far quicker to do so. Support for additional services is necessary, and I’m sure future upgrades will add greater flexibility.

I’m particularly fond of the user interface, and the way that tapping to change the information displayed makes the app even easier to use. Not being required to drill down to see further information saves time, but consequently limits the actual data which can be displayed.

It would be useful to see trend information (as displayed in FeedBurner) for the other widgets. I’m aware that data depends upon what is available from the service API, but I expect this would be feasible with Mint. Trend data is always useful — more so than a single figure.

If you manage a web site and are a statistic junkie, spending $1.99 on this app will be a fantastic investment.

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Upgrades, Darn Upgrades and Statistics

Bob Rudis — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:00:22 +0000

Hopefully Benjamin Disraeli will posthumously forgive me for the major abuse of his quote (made famous by Mark Twain), but the fine folks over at the Omni Group gave us all a sneak peek into some very interesting data they’ve been allowed by users to collect on various details of the operating system their applications run on.

Even though this is a very rough snapshot of the Apple landscape — OS X users who have at least one installed Omni Group application that has checked for updates and allowed data to be collected — it does provide some fodder for discussion and analysis.

Which Cat Rules?

The Omni folks seem to have an even spread of Tiger and Leopard users. While we do not have hard numbers to go with the data, it would seem that any developer who makes a calculated decision to develop a Leopard-only application needs to realize they are targeting a fraction of those who upgrade or just those who have purchased new systems.

The most reliable and recent official information I could find (quickly) noted that Apple’s Leopard update penetration was at 19% by end of March 2008. Since the chart does not distinguish between upgraded systems and newly purchased ones with OS X Leopard pre-installed, it is interesting to see that there is a convergence, which would lead me to believe that we are seeing a slowdown in Leopard migration and an small, steady increase in new systems with Leopard.

This next chart was very encouraging (as I tend to care more about security than anything else) since it shows that Mac users are pretty good at updating their systems within a small delta of minor versions being published by Apple (at least when it comes to Leopard).

What’s Inside?

If there is any indication of whether the Omni data is more skewed to a certain part of the Mac user-base, it was this next chart. I am not ready to believe that 50% or more of all Macs are now Intel-based, however Apple has had great sales data to report quarter-after-quarter. Even if we take the 50% at face value, I think it shows that the Universal Binary is not going away any time soon and that makers of Intel-only software have to fully understand their market or have legitimate constraints for such a decision (e.g. VMware or Parallels). It also stresses the need for developers to test their creations on as diverse of a platform spread as possible.

I was surprised to learn that the majority of users in this subset of Omni customers also works with only one display and this makes me wonder if the data takes into account the built-in display on Apple’s mobile systems when collecting the statistics.

There Has To Be A Better Way

Atomic Bird, makers of (among other utilities) Macaroni – a handy system maintenance utility — has also published some other statistics compiled from their use of the data collected via the Sparkle auto-update framework. There is some correlation and some divergence in the data as their information shows a clear migration from Tiger to Leopard. It may be that their user-base is just more likely to have updated, especially since they are likely to care about things like that given the types of products Atomic Bird makes.

Because both examples are skewed to a particular software vendor, it would be very interesting to see more aggregated statistics from Sparkle or even the new Google Update Engine (once use of it takes off in the OS X developer community). Either project could allow for application-specific information to be stripped and system/component information to be forwarded to a central collector. Either service could then give some information away for free and possibly monetize their service by providing more thorough data to developers who want to make serious decisions as to how to proceed with development choices.

There would definitely be security and privacy concerns with an aggregated service, but with proper code review/auditing it should be easy to verifiably allay consumer and developer fears. Ultimately, the availability of such information would mean the creation of better software and be a significant help to many independent Apple developers.

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