Many do not even know that earlier in App Store the number of downloads of applications and games was displayed. Unfortunately, this useful feature for users was removed at the request of the developers.
Appearance App Store
The Wall Street Journal and The Information have jointly published the full version of Steve Jobs' 2008 conversation with reporter Nick Wingfield.
The founder Apple invited a reporter to the company's headquarters in Cupertino for an interview immediately after opening App Store, which is already 10 years old this year.
The reporter recorded their conversation on a dictaphone, and for the first time its transcript became available to us. It's about the opening App Store.
Download counter App Store
At some point in the interview, Steve begins to explain that the game and app download counter was visible in App Store with iPhone, but only on the first day. After that, the counter was removed, and it never appeared in the application again. The company had to remove it at the request of the developers.
“Initially, you could see the number of downloads for each application, but the developers asked us to remove this feature,” says Jobs.
Development App Store
Jobs also says that in the first 30 days after launch, App Store Apple paid developers $ 21 million.
“Who knows, maybe someday the app’s turnover will be in the billions, even though it doesn’t happen often,” Jobs answers the question about potential App Store.
He did not even dare to assume that in the future the turnover will reach at least a billion dollars: “I have never seen anything like this in my entire career.”
Reality beat all expectations. At the 2018 Worldwide Developers Conference, we were told that developers have earned over $ 100 billion in App Store.
Sales Engine iPhone
Here's an interesting excerpt on the business model App Store:
App Store for iPhone – like iTunes for iPod. We added an internet connection to the iPod so that you can download content to it, and now we've done the same with iPhone.
An internet service has been added so that you can download content directly to your smartphone. Since the device already supports music from iTunes, we decided to add applications as well.
The strategy is the same as with the iPod: improve the device with content downloaded from the Internet without using a PC. We can also update apps automatically. The new application is built on top of iTunes.