August 11th, 2008

Jobs: App Store is huge; iPhone has a kill switch

Posted by Larry Dignan @ 2:08 am

Categories: General, Software Infrastructure, Mobile, Apple, iPhone

Tags: apple iphone, job, steve jobs, apple inc., sales strategy, tools & techniques, sales force management, sales, management, larry dignan

Apple CEO Steve Jobs says App Store users have downloaded more than 60 million software programs and confirmed that the iPhone has a kill switch so the company can nuke brand breaking software.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Jobs noted that:

• Apple is selling an average of $1 million a day in applications;
• Jobs said App Store could “crest a half a billion” in annual sales;
• Apple is making enough on the App Store to cover expenses (it’s all about the ecosystem and moving handsets).

But the biggest nugget possibly comes in the second to last paragraph of the Journal story. Jobs confirmed that Apple can remove software from iPhones remotely. Jobs said he hopes Apple doesn’t have to use that big red button, but it would be “irresponsible” not to have it. At least Jobs solved a little bit of the mystery around the kill switch, which has been debated heavily.Naturally, there were a few items Jobs didn’t talk about:

• Jobs didn’t give an iPhone 3G sales figure;
• He didn’t–or wasn’t asked–about the company’s scaling issues with MobileMe.