I absolutely love the “stats” tabs found on my iPod Touch’s Application Store front-end - the opportunities for analysis provided by these is simply insane. Today’s snapshot tells us two extremely interesting things:
Google Earth is #1 - will it move to ROM?
Google’s recently-released Earth application is on the top of the Free Apps list. As some Google stuff already is in ROM, I wonder if/when Apple will move the program to the ROM.
Smartphones traditionally come with a huge bunch of applications in their memory…if Apple wants to position its iPhone as a smartphone, the ROM contents will need to be beefed up to some extent (even if it goes against Apple’s simplistic principles).
As of now. nobody knows how the ROM inclusion process will work in the end. However, I think that Google Earth is a candidate to watch!
Demo version == Lite version
The iTunes store is unique as it doesn’t offer any kind of support for trial versions whatsoever. As Apple has proven unwilling to assist, developers have taken the issue into their own hands.
The last few days have shown a plethora of “Lite” versions of various programs pop up. This means that developers physically maintain two different programs, which leads to extra efforts. On the other hand, Apple IMHO gambles on the benefit for the users: as Lite versions usually do not expire, they always have some sort of opportunity for a free ride…
What do you think?
