Andre Yoskowitz
16 Jul 2009 21:52
Yesterday, Apple announced that in one year the company had 65,000 applications available via the App Store, with a total download count of 1.5 billion.
Critics today have come out swinging however, asking whether the number is inflated because some of the apps are built on templates. Known as "bulk apps," the collection of apps are offered "at the same price point and have the same look and feel, but swap out the content," says the Washington Post.
Skyhook Wireless, a company which provides location-based info to app developers, said that there are thousands of "Bulk Apps" including one developer who sells 850 travel applications all based on the same template but changing the content for different locations.
Om Malik of GigaOm is calling the trick Apple's "Dirty Little Secret" and believes that all the template-based apps should only count as one.