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Tue, 02 Dec 2008 Apple reveals top iTunes App Store downloads for 2008

Top 10 list ranks both paid and free software from iTunes App Store

Macworld staff

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Apple has announced the top downloads from the iTunes App Store in 2008, revealing the Top 10 paid and free Apps.

The two biggest applications were both slightly whimsical fripperies, rather than serious games or business productivity tools. The most successful paid-for application was the serene Koi Pond, which turns your iPhone into a virtual fish pond. The biggest free app was iPint, an application that turns the iPhone screen into a pint of beer that can be virtually drunk by tilting the iPhone.

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Games dominated the paid applications, with eight of the ten paid applications offering a gaming experience (lending credence to Apple's claim that the iPod touch is the "funnest iPod ever"). The only non gaming app other than Koi Pond to make the top ten was allRadio, an app that enables you to stream radio stations on your iPhone.


The top 10 free application list contained a wider variety of apps: with games, social networking and apps such as Google Earth and Apple Remote making it into the top 10 list.

The top 10 paid apps were:

Koi Pond (The Blimp Pilots)
Super Monkey Ball (SEGA)
Pocket Guitar (Shinya Kasatani)
allRadio (Jeremie Engel Engel)
iChalky (Eric Metois)
Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D (Vivendi)
Moto Chaser (Freeverse)
Texas Hold’em (Apple)
Cro-Mag Rally (Pangea)
Air Hockey (Acceleroto)

The top 10 free apps were:

iPint (Beattie McGuiness Bungay)
Google Earth (Google)
Labyrinth Lite Edition (Codify AB)
Tap Tap Revenge (Tapulous)
Flashlight (John Haney Software)
Facebook (Facebook)
Lightsaber Unleashed (TheMacBox)
Remote (Apple)
Touch Hockey: FS5 (FlipSide5)
Shazam (Shazam Entertainment)

Other Top 10 listings including Top Games, paid and free, Top Entertainment, paid and free, Top Utilities, paid and free, Top Music, paid and free and Top Social Networking, paid and free.

The full listings are available to view in iTunes.

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Comments received


Adam said on Tue, 02 Dec 2008

The second list should be entitled "The Top 10 free Apps are:"

dijonaise said on Tue, 02 Dec 2008

The fact that "Koi Pond" is number 1 speaks volumes for the groundbreaking markets AAPL is opening up with this device.

Russ said on Tue, 02 Dec 2008

Ipint is not an app but a viral marketing campaign, BMB are an agency not a software company. I'm interested to see how that got past Apple?

nom said on Tue, 02 Dec 2008

@dijonaise
Koi Pond is cheap and fun
my fave apps are - in no partic order;

•Londoncam - traffic cameras quickly accessible for route planning
•MyRailLite - Free live train info + locates nearest station very well then shows all upcoming trains with expected arrival and all stations train serves
•Shazam - music track recognition app - nice that it's free on iPhone (due to iTunes store link)
•Virtual Pool - the swipe shot input is very intuitive!
•Caissa Chess - very nice implementation
•Stanza - Free book reader - print is so adjustable it's close to a real book
•Joost - Free catalogue of feature films & shows (eg. Peep Show)
•Truphone - Free VOIP app - proved useful on recent trip abroad where I - saved money on roaming calls
•iFooty - I use this when photographing football matches as it has a live match view where up to the minute reports are shown (helps me ident scorers at a match where it was unclear / PA announcer wrong)
etc..etc..

bebe said on Tue, 02 Dec 2008

nom - do you mean London JamCams btw?

The problem with the App Store is that the success of an app is very much based on whether Apple decide to "market" if for you. By one of their sections. Not all new Apps appear in What's New and I'm not 100% convinced by the validity of the "What's Hot" section - how does Apple derive these apps...number of sales, total revenue generate, highest average review?

Apple have a way to go to really make the App store a free market. Be interesting to see what the top 10s are in a years time.

nom said on Tue, 02 Dec 2008

bebe,

the app I use is just called LondonCam


Think London jam cams came out subsequently

I agree that the new apps section on apps store is barely worth a look

I keep check on various web sites like Apptism and AppShopper. Touch Arcade is also very good re games with a healthy forum where game devs take feedback and try and incorporate into updates.

Even so, I agree Apple need to find a better way to locate what you need on the Apps store. (Meta data - keywords seems the best way in the long run)

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