Friday, December 10, 2010

Entertainment Dominates iPhone/iPad Apps In 2010

Apple broke down this year's lists into two segments: those for the iPhone/iPod Touch, and those for the iPad. Each segment has three lists in it, rating the top 10 paid apps, the top 10 free apps, and the top 10 grossing apps.

All 10 of the top paid apps for the iPhone are games or entertainment related. Two of the year's most popular games, Plants vs. Zombies and Angry Birds, are included in that list. Switching to the top ten free apps, we start to see more social networking and utilitarian apps. For example, Facebook, Skype, The Weather Channel and Bing make it to the top 10 free apps. Google's Mobile Search App, Twitter apps, and others like them are conspicuously missing.

Even the top grossing iPhone apps fail to include any productivity apps. The closest it gets is the TomTom navigation app, and that's not really a productivity app (unless you work in a moving vehicle).

Moving on to the iPad, we see a slightly different picture. Productivity apps show up in the top 10 paid apps for the iPad, including Apple's Pages software and its Numbers and Keynote programs. Each of those apps costs $10, and are substitutes for Microsoft's Office productivity suite. GoodReader and WolframAlpha round out the top paid apps when it comes to productivity apps.

The top free apps for the iPad are all about info-gathering and entertainment. Google Earth, Amazon's Kindle App, Pandora Radio, and Netflix are just a few in that category. Apple's software still leads the top grossing category for the iPad, with Pages, Numbers and Keynote leading the way. The full lists are included below.

Top 10 paid apps (iPhone/iPod touch)
1. Angry Birds 2. Doodle Jump 3. Skee-Ball 4. Bejeweled 2 + Blitz 5. Fruit Ninja 6. Cut the Rope 7. ALL-IN-1 GAMEBOX 8. The Moron Test 9. Plants vs. Zombies 10. Pocket God

Top 10 free apps (iPhone/iPod touch)
1. Facebook 2. Angry Birds Lite 3. Words With Friends Free 4. Skype 5. Tap Tap Revenge 3 6. The Weather Channel 7. Paper Toss 8. Bing 9. ROCK BAND FREE 10. Talking Tom Cat

Top 10 grossing apps (iPhone/iPod touch)
1. MLB.com At Bat 2010 2. Angry Birds 3. Call of Duty: Zombies 4. Bejeweled 2 + Blitz 5. FriendCaller 3 Pro 6. Zombie Farm 7. TomTom U.S.A. 8. TETRIS 9. Plants vs. Zombies 10. Doodle Jump

Top 10 paid apps (iPad)
1. Pages 2. GoodReader for iPad 3. Numbers 4. Angry Birds HD 5. Keynote 6. Glee Karaoke 7. WolframAlpha 8. Pinball HD 9. Friendly for Facebook 10. Star Walk for iPad

Top 10 free apps (iPad)
1. iBooks 2. Pandora Radio 3. Netflix 4. Google Mobile App 5. Solitaire 6. Movies by Flixster 7. IMDb Movies & TV 8. Kindle 9. Google Earth 10. Virtuoso Piano Free 2 HD

Top 10 grossing apps (iPad)
1. Pages 2. Numbers 3. Keynote 4. LogMeIn Ignition 5. SCRABBLE for iPad 6. Documents To Go Premium 7. Angry Birds HD 8. Real Racing HD 9. Plants vs. Zombies HD 10. Proloquo2Go