According to the Apptism.com tracking / monitoring site for iPhone applications, there are now more than 15,000 apps in the App Store. It seems like just a short while ago we were at 10,000, and seems like the pace of new apps being added is increasing.
That might be due to just sheer numbers of developers / publishers wanting to get on board the App Store gravy train; but is also at least partly due to the ridiculous and horrible recent trend towards the ‘I Call One Name’ type application that we’ve ranted about recently – here and here for example – which litters the App Store with 26 apps that all do exactly the same thing, but with one small difference, like calling a person with a different first name. Or, as MG Siegler at VentureBeat calls them, Single-serving apps …
Developers attempting to milk their apps for revenue by releasing multiple variations of a single application.
This week we’ve seen maybe the most severe abuser of this current loophole in the store’s vetting system – a series of ‘iFan’ apps for sports fans to follow their favorite teams. Last I looked, these apps monopolized nearly the entire first and second pages of the Sports section. It’s just so stupid that this can happen.
At this rate, I’d be glad to see a headline telling us the App Store had reduced its total number of apps to 7,500, and farmed the other 7,500 or so off to a new and separate ‘Novelty’ section. I’m guessing they wouldn’t go for the more fitting tittle – the ‘Utter Bollocks’ section.
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