News, Sales, TouchPad

Devs see boost to app downloads over the weekend

By: David Baxter, 8/22/2011 12:04 pm | 39 comments

We have been looking for a silver lining to all of the recent news, and this weekend we got one. Due to the umpteen thousand TouchPads that sold this weekend due to the fire sales, developers are seeing a whole new wave of people downloading and buying their apps.

Now you might think this will fall under the heading of “Duh!” but what is interesting is that a lot of the interest comes is even affecting non TouchPad apps. Now these are probably still mainly new TouchPad owners, but it is still exciting to see.

Our own George Salcedo took an informal poll over the weekend to see what devs were seeing. While the numbers are still coming in, most are reporting back with a nice bump and many are saying that they haven’t seen interest like this in a long while…

@jonemo: We’ve had a big spike in our free Touchpad app.
@nguarracino: Yup, my downloads today were more than 4x what they had been in previous days.
@cringer63: Turn the Dial, a free app built for webOS 1.4.5/2.0 had it’s highest download day since May.
Mosaic, my little app, has gotten about 500 new users in the last 3 – 4 days.

We love the fact that webOS is on everyone’s lips today, and it is important to note that all those people who just bought their super cheap tablet will still have it a year from now and they want apps, apps, apps! Keep ‘em coming.

About David Baxter

David is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of webOSroundup. When not toiling away at WOR he is usually with his family, at church, building a website of some kind or another, or playing a video game. @davidbbaxter

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JDM

Sorry be debbie downer: Wouldn’t most things be successful if they were very, very inexpensive? The point I’m agreeing with is that the people who say that selling webOS for cheap and creating a solid user base have a very good point. Case in point: this article. Nobody cares about a great product unless it’s out there in their face. Now it is, and those happy app downloaders will wonder why such a great product died. “It’s not lucrative” – yeah, yeah, I know. I’m happy for the devs, though. I hope people buy lots of apps from you.
JDM

Sorry be debbie downer: Wouldn’t most things be successful if they were very, very inexpensive? The point I’m agreeing with is that the people who say that selling webOS for cheap and creating a solid user base have a very good point. Case in point: this article. Nobody cares about a great product unless it’s out there in their face. Now it is, and those happy app downloaders will wonder why such a great product died. “It’s not lucrative” – yeah, yeah, I know. I’m happy for the devs, though. I hope people buy lots of apps from you.

http://profiles.google.com/windercomputers Matthew Bradley

“Wouldn’t most things be successful if they were very, very inexpensive?”

Good point but thats not the case at all here. Previous $99 tablets have not sold well at all. Return rates are close to 50% for these. You also have a couple intangibles working for the touchpad here in that a) its “HP” and most people still equate that with quality and b) it was originally $500 to $600 so people are wanting to get involved with such a good deal.

The irony is HP just created the webOS ecosystem overnight, 48 hours after completely killing it – something that wouldn’t have reached this type of critical mass for at least another year or 2 had they stayed the course. It’s amazing that a company this big can have a CEO so stupid but thankfully a couple of VP’s that know how to take advantage of a bad situation and turn it into something positive.

JDM

Very ironic, indeed. And sad, in an Alanis Morissette kind of way.
Falconrap

If it wasn’t for Leo “THE Moron” Apotheker (I just love typing his name this way) being a total dumb a** and making the statements he made, they could have just had a fire sale at around $250 and probably would have still sold boat loads and also been able to justify continuing to make them and their successors (i.e. a TouchPad 2, as well as the TouchPad Go’s). But nooooo….Mr. Moron had to shoot his mouth off and cause HP to lose $16B in cap value in 2 days. What an idiot.

At least we now have an instant user base. And when you factor in that most people who ordered on-line haven’t received their devices yet, you can bet there will be continued massive spikes in app downloads. Some of the numbers that @Adora:twitter is putting out from developers are huge increases in apps being downloaded, and, in many cases, purchased.

Maybe we’ll find out the HP was just pulling a New Coke on us and come back out and say that due to popular demand, they are continuing to make TouchPads until the demand is full-filled. Would be nice…but I ain’t holdin’ my breath.
Falconrap

If it wasn’t for Leo “THE Moron” Apotheker (I just love typing his name this way) being a total dumb a** and making the statements he made, they could have just had a fire sale at around $250 and probably would have still sold boat loads and also been able to justify continuing to make them and their successors (i.e. a TouchPad 2, as well as the TouchPad Go’s). But nooooo….Mr. Moron had to shoot his mouth off and cause HP to lose $16B in cap value in 2 days. What an idiot.

At least we now have an instant user base. And when you factor in that most people who ordered on-line haven’t received their devices yet, you can bet there will be continued massive spikes in app downloads. Some of the numbers that @Adora:twitter is putting out from developers are huge increases in apps being downloaded, and, in many cases, purchased.

Maybe we’ll find out the HP was just pulling a New Coke on us and come back out and say that due to popular demand, they are continuing to make TouchPads until the demand is full-filled. Would be nice…but I ain’t holdin’ my breath.

http://profiles.google.com/windercomputers Matthew Bradley

“Wouldn’t most things be successful if they were very, very inexpensive?”

Good point but thats not the case at all here. Previous $99 tablets have not sold well at all. Return rates are close to 50% for these. You also have a couple intangibles working for the touchpad here in that a) its “HP” and most people still equate that with quality and b) it was originally $500 to $600 so people are wanting to get involved with such a good deal.

The irony is HP just created the webOS ecosystem overnight, 48 hours after completely killing it – something that wouldn’t have reached this type of critical mass for at least another year or 2 had they stayed the course. It’s amazing that a company this big can have a CEO so stupid but thankfully a couple of VP’s that know how to take advantage of a bad situation and turn it into something positive.

Fango

I just want doc editingggggg. Please! I’ll pay 10 bucs for that.

http://profiles.google.com/windercomputers Matthew Bradley

.. and they know you will. They (quickoffice) also see anywhere from 500k to 2mil touchpads being put into peoples hands so you better believe they’ll get that update out now. This went from “no way in hades” to “you’d have to be crazy not to release it” in a matter of 48 hours. I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.

Falconrap

I believe HP contracted them to release it for the TouchPad, seeing as it’s the only platform that is supposed to get the editing suite for free when released. They need to hurry up and get it out.
Falconrap

I believe HP contracted them to release it for the TouchPad, seeing as it’s the only platform that is supposed to get the editing suite for free when released. They need to hurry up and get it out.

http://profiles.google.com/windercomputers Matthew Bradley

.. and they know you will. They (quickoffice) also see anywhere from 500k to 2mil touchpads being put into peoples hands so you better believe they’ll get that update out now. This went from “no way in hades” to “you’d have to be crazy not to release it” in a matter of 48 hours. I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.

Fango

I just want doc editingggggg. Please! I’ll pay 10 bucs for that.
http://twitter.com/Andolamin Alan Stice

My app has seen a 2-3x boost in sales over the weekend (and continuing to rise). It’s a paid app so I didn’t see any massive adoption, but it’s still pretty nice.

http://profiles.google.com/windercomputers Matthew Bradley

… and it will continue. Remember, a lot of these have been bought up by 3rd party re-sellers (me included!) and folks seizing an opportunity to turn a profit on ebay and craigslist. Not to mention the build quality on these is quite good (dropped mine a few times. kids have stepped on it) so they’ll last for a while and people will continue to purchase apps.

Upset

Re-sellers suck for apps. Money you profit on could have been spent on apps. That gives developers more money and incentive to keep developing. Sure its not full proof but least there’s potential. Greed you have it.

http://profiles.google.com/windercomputers Matthew Bradley

Nothing wrong with making a small profit. People around my little podunk town have no idea what a tablet is, much less webOS. If I can help get it into markets that it normally wouldn’t have gone, isn’t that a good thing?
http://profiles.google.com/windercomputers Matthew Bradley

Nothing wrong with making a small profit. People around my little podunk town have no idea what a tablet is, much less webOS. If I can help get it into markets that it normally wouldn’t have gone, isn’t that a good thing?
http://www.facebook.com/vgmerek Vince Gmerek

I can’t see how re-sellers suck for apps necessarily. Spending $200 on a TouchPad instead of $100 doesn’t mean that that customer would have spent the extra hundred on apps and now won’t. Consumers don’t see $1.50 they same way they see $100. That’s why microtransactions are successful in the first place…

Falconrap

Considering most online orders are just shipping out, and haven’t arrived in the hands of users, you should be prepared for a much larger increase once people get these things up and running.

http://twitter.com/Andolamin Alan Stice

My app has seen a 2-3x boost in sales over the weekend (and continuing to rise). It’s a paid app so I didn’t see any massive adoption, but it’s still pretty nice.
http://twitter.com/Andolamin Alan Stice

My app has seen a 2-3x boost in sales over the weekend (and continuing to rise). It’s a paid app so I didn’t see any massive adoption, but it’s still pretty nice.
http://www.facebook.com/bryan.leasot fxspec06

I’m definitely seeing a boost!

If you want to help in my boost, feel free to check out my forum in the developer section ; )
http://www.facebook.com/bryan.leasot fxspec06

I’m definitely seeing a boost!

If you want to help in my boost, feel free to check out my forum in the developer section ; )
Anonymous

THIS is what I was expecting to read. The nasty tablet – app triangle appears to have its skin broken finally!
http://www.pamelahazelton.com Pamela Hazelton

Good. Devs should also consider the potential if webOS thrives…
PalmOn

How many of those apps were paid for apps, and how many were free apps?
chris

Well I bought mine in July, and will take the refund down to $149 and keep my touchpad. I’ve got $50 dollars in HP credit to spend on apps til 01 JAN and I’m gonna spend every penny. If HP were smart they’d sell off every Pre 3 they’ve made as well….

Anonymous

My gut tells me that the Pre3 was never in the pipeline. I bet Leo put them on hold to see how well the TouchPads moved.

BUT, it would be awesome if there were truckloads of Pre3s waiting to be unloaded for $50.

Anonymous

Let me preface by saying that I have been developing apps for Palm platforms for over 10 years.

As a developer, the issue I see is that after this weekend, there will be no more new WebOS users to buy my apps. So sales will go back to normal levels in a week and will eventually go to 0 since there will be no new devices sold. So to make any more money from WebOS I will have to develop entirely new apps to sell to the existing user base.

Just not worth the time and effort right now.

Allan
Brother Al

Bonus, but how long can this last?
I don’t wanna rain on good news, but at some point, users will become like everyone before them who clutched onto other products/OS’s that lost all primary support…
We all pray for a miracle, but all I’m hearing is echoes in the massive chasm left behind in HPs wake of destruction.
Brother Al

Bonus, but how long can this last?
I don’t wanna rain on good news, but at some point, users will become like everyone before them who clutched onto other products/OS’s that lost all primary support…
We all pray for a miracle, but all I’m hearing is echoes in the massive chasm left behind in HPs wake of destruction.
Brother Al

Bonus, but how long can this last?
I don’t wanna rain on good news, but at some point, users will become like everyone before them who clutched onto other products/OS’s that lost all primary support…
We all pray for a miracle, but all I’m hearing is echoes in the massive chasm left behind in HPs wake of destruction.
mpachis

I have a couple people in the office who picked one up and want me to show them that Preware thing and are asking which apps to look at it. HP may have finally expanded the mind share unintentionally.
mpachis

I have a couple people in the office who picked one up and want me to show them that Preware thing and are asking which apps to look at it. HP may have finally expanded the mind share unintentionally.
mpachis

I have a couple people in the office who picked one up and want me to show them that Preware thing and are asking which apps to look at it. HP may have finally expanded the mind share unintentionally.
mpachis

I have a couple people in the office who picked one up and want me to show them that Preware thing and are asking which apps to look at it. HP may have finally expanded the mind share unintentionally.
Scotland

If HP can find a licensee/buyer of webOS, this could be good news. By doing the firesale, HP device sales are ahead of where they would have been if they hadn’t applied the discounts (it probably would have taken several months at least to reach this level of sales volume). However, this only really helps if another manufacturer quickly picks up the baton and begins selling devices (or at least quickly announces the intention to do so). Such an announcement would give developers the incentive to keep developing applications.

I’m hoping a deal with Samsung is quickly inked. WebOS on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 would be industry leading. webOS would need to be ported to the Nvidia or Samsung graphics chips though (Qualcomm chips are not used in Samsung’s devices). Also, I’m not aware of any popular existing tablets that use the 1024×768 resolution that the Touchpad does (other than iPad). webOS would need to be reoptimized for another resolution if existing HW (say, from an existing Android tablet) was repurposed by a licensee for webOS.
Malette

My hope is other companies see this boost and decide webOS is worth investing in and HP is willing to sell or at least license it so momentum keeps up. Of course we have to always keep hope. Though many may download now and then app download comes to a halt, there is still some hope for webOS, just not with HP obviously.

Devs see boost to app downloads over the weekend

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