The marketplace, which sells applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch, has distributed 500 million downloads and boasts more than 15,000 programs since it opened in July.
"I think that one of the big challenges for the App Store will be how to continue to make room for both experimental, simple and shorter lived apps that are free or 99 cents while also making a platform that is viable for developers who are making something like a feature film with a high price point," said Bart Decrem, CEO of Tapulous, which makes the rhythm game Tap Tap Revenge.
"The challenge is discoverability," said John Poisson, founder and CEO of Tiny Pictures, which recently released its Radar mobile picture app on the iPhone.
Currently, App Store visitors can e-mail recommendations from the store.
"It's like an automatic word-of-mouth recommendation.
"Our hope is not to shame Apple but raise awareness so other developers don't waste their time," said Gilbert.
A long-awaited background processing function is expected later this year, and there are rumors that Apple may open up a premium game store to help sell higher-end titles.
Apple might accelerate some changes in response to competing application stores from Android, Windows Mobile, Palm and Research in Motion but they don't pose a large threat yet, he said.
source:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/08/BU8U15ADEB.DTL
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