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Top 5 Free Apps

Release Date: August 05, 2009
Genre: Games
Release Date: May 22, 2009
Genre: Games
Release Date: August 29, 2009
Genre: Games
Release Date: March 27, 2009
Release Date: August 07, 2009

iTunes New Music Releases

Release Date: September 29, 2009
Genre: Rock
Release Date: September 20, 2009
Release Date: September 15, 2009
Release Date: August 25, 2009
Genre: Rock
Release Date: August 25, 2009

Top 5 Paid Apps

Release Date: April 22, 2009
StickWars $0.99
Release Date: March 31, 2009
Genre: Games
Bloons $0.99
Release Date: April 05, 2009
Genre: Games

Discover New Music

  • Machine Gun Etiquette

    • 8 out of 10
    • The Damned
    • Punk rock is mostly associated with three chords and a bad attitude, but the Damned were one of the few bands of the era bent on bringing musicianship and a good sense of humor to the scene. And while
  • Abnormal Anonymous

    • 8 out of 10
    • Congo Norvell
    • Very few albums manage to capture snapshots of a quality of life in the manner that Congo Norvell's sophomore record, "Abnormals Anonymous," does.

      Comparisons to the Velvet Underground are

  • The Life Pursuit

    • 8 out of 10
    • Belle & Sebastian
    • The Life Pursuit is a sort of Reeses Peanut Butter Cup. You get Belle & Sebastian's peanut butter (its wistful, often irresistible pop) dipped in a 'Have A Nice Day!' and glam 70s chocol

  • Wolfmother

    • 8 out of 10
    • Wolfmother
    • Black Sabbath, The White Stripes, The Stooges. There aren't many bands worth their salt that want to be compared to other bands, but when I listen to Wolfmother's self-titled American debut, I can

  • King James Version

    • 4 out of 10
    • Harvey Danger
    • The sophomore effort from Harvey Danger, I was really looking forward to this followup to "Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone?" Unfortunately, "King James Version" failed to deliver any of the bri

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iPhone

AdMob Metrics Detail iPhone App Usage Pyramid

Mobile phone advertising network AdMob revealed metrics for the month of May Friday that offer a detailed look at the pyramid-like distribution of actual app usage. In AdMob's network of 2,309 free, app-supported iPhone apps, only the top 5% (119) had 100,000 or more active users during May, while the majority, some 54% had fewer than 1,000 active users.

In the middle of the pack, 14% of the network's apps saw 10,000-100,000 active users, while 27% fell into the 1,000-10,000 range. All told, the firm said that there were 15.1 million unique users on iPhone and iPod touch devices in May 2009 in the AdMob Network.

Admob Total Usage Chart for May, 2009

Digging more deeply into the top 5% of apps, we see a microcosm of the broader trend, with approximately half of the top 119 apps getting approximately 100,000-250,000 or fewer active users. The graph curves up sharply towards the end with the top 10 apps in the network getting 1,000,000 or more users.

AdMob Usage Chart for Top Apps in May, 2009
Chart courtesy of AdMob

Such distribution curves are common in many industries. For instance, broadband providers have long grappled with how to manage that 90% of their throughput comes from roughly just 10% of their user base. For iPhone apps, that distribution curve isn't so much a burden, but rather a goal of developers to get into the steeper end of the curve.

AdMob's data only represents less than 5% of the total iPhone app base of more than 50,000 apps, and doesn't include any paid apps at all. As a statistical sample, however, the firm's data is good benchmark for the broader free app market.

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