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Comment by maxklein | Hacker News Reader

It seems a month ago there were 4000 iPad apps made and now there are 5000?

iPad is not the same gold-rush for app developers as the iPhone was, that's for sure.

I think this is because the ipad has a larger screen and thus you need to have more features (and longer dev cycle) on it or it will look empty. There is also the expectation of higher quality apps. Fart and other junk apps probably don't work very well because of this and thus the total app number is much lower.

Yeah, absolutely. Fart apps make sense on the iPhone - it's something you always have with you and you can whip it out when you're with your friends and do some cute little gimmick that's deleted 2 minutes later after the $0.99 of value has been drained from it. iPad uses are for the most part much closer to a 'traditional computing' model.

Fart apps for the iPhone: Big red button in the center of the screen that says "fart." Cost: $0.99.

Fart apps for the iPad: An array of buttons labeled things like "squeeker" and "poot" and "low rumble" and "Shock and and Awe." Plus controls for volume, stereo center, and a time line editor for layering multi-channel, multi-event sequences. Cost: $4.99.

I haven't seen an iPad yet, but I expect the design obligation to be much bigger; you can't slap something together with five default elements which already covers up 60% of the screen on an iPhone.

iPad is a canvas to the user and the designer---and the letter is a big commitment.

I don't think that there are any standard designs to iPad apps like with the iPhone.

No, it's different.

When the iPhone came out, it was a gold rush for a totally new field of development with almost no experienced devs (just a few companies who wrote programs for Mac knew anything about Obj C). The iPad is instead a windfall for the now existing devs. iPad growth has been very explosive though, and I think I speak for most iPhone devs in saying the platform continues to excite and delight us.

I don't understand. The number of apps seems small. The number may be wrong, or the perception may be incorrect, but the existence of a base of developers with the requisite skills should make this number higher, not lower compared with the early days of the iPhone.

Consider how many iPhone apps work essentially perfectly on the iPad, though — it's an awful cliche, but imagine if you're the maker of a 'fart app': do you do that much better by scaling your UI [still just supporting the exact same set of features... it's not like an iPad runs such apps better than an iPhone does] to fit the iPad a tiny bit better, or by adding more and better fart noises to your existing iPhone app?

How many apps did the iPhone have, 2 months in?

I guess also that because today the iPhone is a bigger market, and its apps also run on the iPad, it makes more sense to target the iPhone. Plus, the uncertainty of whether the iPad would really take off.

Now that the iPad does seem to be successful, the apps may follow.

First and foremost, getting an app for the iPad on Day 1 has been the priority for a lot of developers---presumably some of the best, too.

Second, as a developer, from a design perspective, the iPad is much harder to design for. See this as a bonus to the iPad: a sh#t deterrent. Security by obscurity if you will.

Third, the kind of applications, games aside perhaps, that feel apt may not feel as tangible as with the iPhone which was an all-portable device, meaning you could bring it with you everywhere: cities, restaurants, vacations, beaches, ski resorts, running, in a cocktail bar mixing drinks, partying, going to the theatre, for use with (acute) pocket reference, etc., etc., etc. Add to this the microphone.

I also think we are overestimating how many genuinely great apps there are in the App Store. Everyone's BS detector goes off when they hear Steve Jobs touting the number of apps in the App Store. A lot of these apps extend already existing services on behalf of companies who also develop the apps for their services, usually as a web client for an already existing internet service.

Take away the apps on my iPhone that are pocket references, out-and-about-based and extensions of services already existing in another form, and the number dwindles precipitously. And that is counting the oh-so fantastic catalogue that Jobs love to rave about.

There are a lot of challenges facing iPad developers that iPhone developers did not face. We should also accept the fact that comparing the two devices will usually be counterproductive.

It could also be that because the device is more capable, creating the applications take more work - because they are bigger, require more UI development, and because people will expect more out of them.

Give it another quarter.

We had an iPhone before the app store was created. This let us have some experience and see what worked and what didn't. Almost all developers didn't have an iPad before release. The simulator and videos from Apple are poor substitutes. So, a lot of developers are doing a lot of experimenting with real hardware and seeing what the best way to build things is. Plus, iPad apps have more features and that requires some time.

I think its mostly because there are not many NEW users. I would guess that more than 75% of iPad users own an iPhone or an iPod Touch.

This is why I found distasteful for Apple to predict a gold-rush for iPad apps at their keynote. It was wishful thinking actually.

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