50,000 Apps

One of our companies, iCloseBy, has a popular iPhone application called iWallFlower, which as of last week is showcased on the front of the iTunes App store as a “Staff Favorite.”iWallFlower is an application that recquires a bit of participation – you can view other people’s art but it is really an App which is best when used: it encourages people to create artwork and communicate with each other. And it is a good App, and as such is getting recognized and becoming popular. However it has a long ways to go:   iWallFlower is currently #25 most popular in the free social networking App list.

But if you go to the front of the app store you can click and see the top 100 free apps combined from all categories.

Google earth is on the list.  This is an amazing combination of programing, UI and access to more data than the all the kings and rulers of all the countries have ever had access to before. It is currently ranked #29 in the list of top apps.

Then  there is Flashlight. This app does nothing, other than turn the iPhone screen a solid color, including white, red blue and green. It provides users the intellectual stimulus equivalent of staring at a TV test pattern. Flashlight beats out Google Earth by five position points. Flashlight is the 24th most popular free app in iTunes.

But Flashlight is a far way from the coveted #1 spot. The number one spot of most popular free applications which are available to be downloaded onto what is arguably the most sophisticated computer device – a hand held processor with a color touch screen, gps capability, motion sensing accelerometers, full high-Fidelity sound capability, and  connected to a world wide wireless network of supper cloud computers — in short, a miracle of intellect, engineering and user interface brought together in a simple, elegant package – the number one most popular software item for this device? (drum roll)… it is…  Urinal Test!  which is self described as, “The ultimate for any man: an app to determine how well you pick the “right” urinal.”

I think looking at the list of most popular apps goes a long way to understanding how people who make $35,000 a year (the US mean income) go and get mortgages on houses costing more than $400,000…..

Cynical and Jaded? And you ask why?