New finds from the App-mosphere

The App economy is booming.

Apple report over $200m worth of sales a month. According to a presentation I found on SlideShare from Appsfire the average iPhone contains $80 worth of apps. 59p here and there is small change in the grand scheme of the price of a packet of peanuts in the pub but I can see how the totals soon rack up.

I'm already beginning to wonder whether there'll soon be apps that auto-position themselves on screen 1 or the last screen of your apps pages? Prime retail estate turf wars? Premier positions for the apps you use most frequently / are likely to use more regularly?

UPDATE Thurs 10th Sept 09: I was a day ahead of myself there, yesterday Apple announced a raft of improvements to organising your apps easily.

The Android marketplace now has over 10,000 apps available and is growing healthily. T-mobile's PAYG Android Pulse handset due for release in October can only help demand.

Creating a good app, irrespective of the platform it's destined for, doesn't require the brain of Einstein. You need all the usual ingredients of good content: make it useful, or fun as good starting points. If you are a brand looking to enter the app-mosphere then work out how your brand equity /territories can be creatively applied. Nor do you always have to spend hours wracking your brains and start from scratch. There's a HEAP of apps available (some free, some paid for) that can provide inspiration or in some cases white label versions for quick and easy customisation.

Have a search around uQuery for iPhone apps or Androlib for Android apps.

Be inspired. (Or just plain freaked out or appalled depending on what you searched for / find). It's not hard to deliver something valuable with a little bit of research and creativity applied. Failing which, listen to the crowd for insight on what consumers think of iPhone apps over at Appolicious. Social networking meets e-pinions meets appstore meets delicious. It's got a way to go to be really useful / comprehensive but it's a starting point in seeing progression and improvement in the dynamics of the app-economy where volume based Top XX lists have so far been the clearest indicators of success/ signposting.