While the country has reeled under rising unemployment with corporations slashing jobs and numerous software positions being outsourced to Asia, some software developers have turned to the app store for hope. At a time when a looming deficit, rising health care and education costs, and tightened budgets have become mainstream, Apple’s iTunes App store has provided an outlet of relief for software developers. In fact, the company has done so well with its young app store that it posted a billion-dollar profit for 2009.
Seizing the opportunity ahead, Google has jumped on the bandwagon as well, launching its own mobile Android store. The time for mobile technology on smart phones even though it is in its infancy, has surely arrived. The public is hungry and the producers are eager to supply the need.
Quitting A Six-Figure Job To Build Apps
Forty-seven year old Joe Michel was one of the many hopeful software developers, who decided to embrace the new platform when he saw jobs at his company in Scottsdale being outsourced to Asia. In April of 2009, he began working on an iPhone application called My Eyes Only to save credit card information, passwords, and other personal data in an encrypted format. By July of 2009, sales through the App store had replaced his six-figure income. Michel now operates his own app company Software Ops devoted to building apps full-time.
Competition has tightened up now as more than 100,000 apps are available in the iTunes store and steadily increasing. While app millionaires may seem rare, many developers are still seeing record sales. With more than 1.5 billion apps downloaded since the App store’s launch 28 months ago and more than 45 million iPhones and iPod Touch devices sold, the future is very optimistic.
App Ideas and Breakthroughs
New iPhone App ideas continue to emerge that encourage use of the iPhone in novel and interesting ways. For example, the car-sharing company Zipcar recently launched a Zipcar app that can locate and reserve a vehicle, unlock it, and start the engine. The Zipcar app is the first application that actually allows customers to control the car’s operations. By simply touching the iPhone, a user can get into a car with the Zipcar app. The kind of functionality that the Zipcar app provides dramatically alters the possibilities available to integrating technology with vehicles.
Mainstream Appeal from Software Industry Giants
One of the “Top Free” photography apps, Adobe’s ever popular Photoshop is available for download as a free app in the App store. Its recent update includes numerous features such as filters and effects in addition to cropping, rotation, and flipping techniques for manipulating photographs. The app is also linked to an online Photoshop account where users can store 2GB of photographs for free.
Gaming industry giant Microsoft Xbox is also reaching into the deep pockets of Apple’s apparently endless market appeal. The 360 Live app retailing for $1.99 provides iPhone and iPod Touch owners access to their online accounts for the Xbox 360 videogame console. Currently, players cannot play remotely but can exchange mobile messages, check online status, and accept or reject friend status as well as numerous related features. In the upcoming months, it will be interesting to see what new features the software developer will provide for the app.
The app store has attracted some controversy because of the approval process. However, developers are eager to climb aboard the billion-dollar platform that only promises to keep growing.