Apple's "iPad" and 300,000 apps in App Store

Research firm IDC predicts the future of Apple in 2010. Obvious?

Some of the predictions don't surprise me, especially the guess that mobile devices are on a path to eclipse PCs.  Research firm, IDC on Thursday released its top 10 predictions titled, "Recovery and Transformation in 2010," and based on the trends we've seen in technology this year, these are very likely to come true, with Apple leading the way.

One billion mobile devices will access the Internet in 2010, predicts IDC.  The prediction makes sense, all year we've been seeing new smartphones.  Palm Pre, iPhone 3GS, Droid and plenty of others all have the capability to access the Internet, and they are becoming more and more affordable.  You can get an iPhone 3G with an AT&T plan for $99 dollars today.  IDC says the devices that will lead the way include Apple's iPhone, RIM's BlackBerry, Nokia's smartphones, and phones that run Windows Mobile and Android.  200 million of these devices will ship in 2010 representing 16% of the market.  IDC also predicts these phones will be more and more available for sub-$150, thus accelerating the market.  

And with an explosion in mobile devices accessing the Internet, developers will dramatically shift their momentum to mobile devices.  IDC takes a look at Apple as an example point out, "There are now over 100,000 iPhone apps listed on Apple's iTunes store, up from 10,000 a year ago —that's an annual growth rate of 900%. As a point of comparison, there are on the order of 10,000 Windows PC applications listed on Microsoft's Windows 7 compatibility Web site. We predict at least 300,000 iPhone applications by the end of 2010, many of the new apps coming from well-known Global 2000 business and consumer brands."

300,000 apps a good thing?  Probably not, I'll predict most of us will never get to them, and there will be plenty of low quality, worthless applications.  This will also make it a lot tougher for app developers to start a legitimate business selling applications when they find all their efforts get lost in the fog of the App Store.  Apple should probably work on improving the visibility of apps in the App store or 300,000 apps could counterfire on the ecosystem.   

And the all mighty iPad everybody has been rumoring, blogging and predicting all over the Web this year - basically Apple's tablet computer.  We didn't see it at WWDC this year, but IDC believes we'll see it in 2010.  The "iPad" will be more of big iPod touch as opposed to a touchable Macbook believes IDC.  It's for, "watching videos/movies, reading books/magazines/newspapers, surfing the Web, videophone, and online gaming."  IDC backs this prediction saying, "with all the developer energy around the iPhone/Touch platform, this should be no surprise at all."

These all seem like obvious and very likely predictions due to technology trends seen throughout 2009, but let's see if they actually come true.   Read the full report here, login required.