Ticking the Boxes

The Apple App Store has launched. With midnight having passed in New Zealand and customers in the southern hemisphere now able to purchase their second generation iPhones, Apple have pushed the necessary iTunes upgrade. This gives us a preview of the applications that we are going to be able to buy here in Ireland from midnight onwards.

My initial thoughts are how important the usage-generated lists of Top Apps and Top Free Apps are going to prove to be in helping users to decide which applications to install. At least in the iTunes Music Store the design of the album covers afford more visual cues about the nature of what you are buying. Browsing the Productivity section, it looks like this may not be the case with some categories of icons in the AppStore. Good luck with deciding between ‘To Do’ and ‘Todo’.


Disclaimer: Before anyone comes back to me on it, I do need to acknowledge my role in overseeing the rebranding of the Topline chain of hardware stores last year. Said rebranding giving them a new check-mark symbol on a purple octagon. Perhaps I ought to sell them on the idea of their own custom iPhone application...