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tptacek

* A redesign of touch-based text input.

* A music player with a unique interface.

* control Youtube on your computer from across the room

* A fork of the stock Android home screen

* Automatically do anything in response to anything.

* The best todo list.

* Get notifications for Gmail labels

* Get notifications for Craigslist search terms

* Easily track packages

This list would appear to prove Gruber's (subtextual) point. Most of these don't seem interesting enough to break into "Featured", "Top Free", or "Top 25" (for utilities) on the app store.

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> Most of these don't seem interesting enough to break into "Featured", "Top Free", or "Top 25" (for utilities) on the app store.

Why not? These are high-quality, well-designed apps based on excellent ideas.

Yeah, you might be right. I don't know. My gut is, no. But, for what it's worth, here's the current app store lists:

Featured, New:

* Apple Remote - control iTunes & such from phone.

* Path - the social network.

* Airbnb - the iPhone interface to the rental service.

* ComicStrip CS - a comic strip creation app.

* Edmunds - car ratings.

* Pushpin - grocery coupons on your phone (incidentally: what a great idea! Wish I'd thought of this.)

Featured, Hot:

* Pageonce Bills - track your bills (Comcast, etc) on your phone.

* Cinch - an A/V microblogging app.

* Steinway Metronome - a metronome.

* MotionX GPS Drive - turn-by-turn GPS

* Instagram - the very famous photo sharing app

Top, Paid

* TuneIn Radio - AM/FM from 40,000 stations

* Food Network In The Kitchen - iPhone FoodTV recipes

* Perfect Photo - photo touchup

* Color Splash - another photo manipulation app

Top, Free

* Google Voice

* Doodle Buddy Premium - a drawing app

* Facebook

* The Find - price comparisons

(Top free is just dominated by games).

Utilities, Top Paid

* Perfect Photo

* Skyfire - Flash video browser

* Barcode Scanner

* Alarm Clock Pro

* Splashtop Remote Desktop

* Flashlight

* Battery Management (BTW, the closest thing I see here to one of those maintenance apps that seems to top the Android list)

* Craigslist Pro (our version of that Craigslist notification app)

* 5-0 Pro - Police scanner

This is today's snapshot. These are not the killer iPhone apps (with the possible exception of Instagram). This is just the noise you'd have to beat with one of those Android apps to have a shot at being an iPhone killer app.

The only point I really care to make with my list is that Android's app offerings do not lack superb content, no matter how much other catalogs may have. Does Android appear to suffer in comparison to iTunes? Maybe, but that doesn't stop me in any meaningful fashion from finding apps I love on my Droid.

Then the only point you care to make is orthogonal to Gruber's question. He's asking, where are the apps that:

* Are standouts,

* Are exclusive to the Android platform,

* Have high production values, and

* Aren't system enhancements.

You're entitled to say "that's a dumb question", but you can't claim to answer the question by rejecting it.

That's a great point, and it really gets at the heart of the difference in design goals between iOS and Android.

'Course, I would argue that all of the listed apps fit all four of those criteria (even if some of their features exist in other apps on iOS), but I'll admit there's some room for disagreement there. ;)

It's not a dumb question, it's a fairly clever attempt at framing.

Why should we dignify such a frame by accepting it? The only sensible answer is "I don't care if my apps are platform exclusives" or similar.

> Why not? These are high-quality, well-designed apps based on excellent ideas.

Well for starters 4 of them are excluded by the original conditions of being acceptable in the appstore. Second, of the remaining 6 some already have better counterparts in the appstore (there are complete top lists devoted to iOS todo apps and the good tends to be really very good) and "well-designed"... well I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but from the screenshots on their respective sites the Craigslist notification app doesn't look very good.

As to parcels... http://itunes.apple.com/app/delivery-status-touch/id29098601...

copycat much?

> Why not?

Because so many of them are centered around meta tasks (input, controls, notifications). Appealing to nerds, sure, but the power of the App Store is how it provides compelling app experiences for everyone.

This is my dilemma, I have an app, some say killer app, 'Math Keyboad' but im sure a very little market. I doubt I will ever make a belp, and of course now with the Wolfram App.... sigh.

Some of these apps imply an Emacs like ability for customization. Considering that touch screens have only recently stopped sucking, I think that's very important. As sexy as the iPhone is, it doesn't have swipe or 8pen. We don't really know what all the optimal touch interfaces look like yet.

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