Its July 10th, one day before the official release of iPhone 2.0 software, which includes the iPhone App Store. This allows all the rest of the world to build and sell applications for the iPhone. Anticipation is high for this iPhone junkie.
Big numbers already for games:
6 of the top 10 applications are games, and 10 of the top 20. Keep in mind, the only downloads so far are from application developers who got the early copy of the new iPhone software.
But there must be a lot of them: over 8,000 copies of the number one application, Super Monkey Ball, were downloaded by 4pm PST today. At $10 USD, that is $80,000 in revenue in one day for one game (again, only application developers downloading at this point, and still 8 hours left in the day). That is a great day for Sega (Sega Mobile recently signed on with Movaya to sell off-deck), congrats to them for jumping out of the gate here.
Off-Deck is here for games:
Certainly the iPhone store using iTunes as a distribution channel is unique, and no other OEM of phones (Nokia, Samsung, LG, Moto, Sony, etc…) has this type of connection to consumers. So, on the one hand you could look at this and say that Apple is a de facto carrier and this may not represent true off-deck selling. On the other you could say Apple has now proven unequivocally that there is appetite for content on phones sold thru a third-party, off-deck merchant, which Apple is, and that the carriers have nothing to do with this consumer behavior. Both are true, and we can add that as a case study of off-deck sales, this is not definitive. Throw in the fact that it only covers one carrier, iTunes has an established user base and the actual applications are side-loaded (loaded onto the iPhone only when tethered to the computer), and it truly represents a unique marketplace.
But, for those of us living and breathing on the emergence of an off-deck mobile gaming marketplace soon, there are some great signs of life here. For one, its obvious a segment of consumers WANT (not just need) applications on their hand held device, and not just any application, but GAMES. If Steve Jobs is correct, Apple will have top line revenue of 1 billion in the first year, and based on my loose math, 300-400 million of that will go towards games, if not more. And that is for one phone for one carrier. Those are some good numbers.
Most importantly, though, it perfectly illustrates that if you give the people a kick ass device and an easy way to download well developed games, they will download them. Now, lets see how the OEMs of the other 99.5% of the handheld market respond.
