It seems like forever ago that I had my claws around the lovely NOOKcolor for the first time. November of 2010 is was, and a week with the device I did spend. Back then the 3rd party apps situation wasn’t the greatest. In fact, there were approximately 8 of them and they weren’t that great. Since then of course there’s been some major pushes forward with the developer program for the platform and their first big milestone at 1 million app downloads – after just one week!
Amongst favorite apps downloaded in the NOOK Apps store are, unsurprisingly, Angry Birds, Drawing Pad, and Pulse. Fliq Calendar is the only item up there that your humble narrator did not see coming. A million app downloads may not seem like much when compared to the major players like the Android Market and Amazon App Store, but given the fact that the NOOK Apps store has a much more limited selection of apps, this number does resonate. While the original plan for the NOOKcolor in its app selection did seem to be reader-centric only, the selection this new NOOK-centric store has appears to be broader.
Amongst apps available in this currently-operating store are their top five selling apps: Angry Birds, Drawing Pad, Solitaire, Aces Jewel Hunt and Astraware Mahjong, as well as items coming soon like UrbanDaddy, FriendCaster for Facebook, Bloki for kids, and PBA Bowling 2. For more information on how you can develop specifically for the NOOKcolor, head back to our post entitled NOOKcolor Developer Program Ramps Up Vital Connections.
Also check out the press release for this announcement below:
Barnes & Noble Quickly Hits 1 Million
NOOK Apps™ Downloads by NOOK Color™ CustomersMilestone Reached Just One Week After NOOK App Shopping Made Available to All NOOK Color Customers
Angry Birds, Drawing Pad, Fliq Calendar and Pulse Among Most Popular Apps
New York, New York – May 16, 2011 – Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, announced a major new milestone for its recently updated award-winning NOOK Color Reader’s Tablet™. Just one week after the company made its free software update featuring popular NOOK Apps available over the air for all NOOK Color customers, customers have made more than one million apps downloads. NOOK Color customers are enjoying access to a variety of popular NOOK Apps and downloading a selection of both paid and free apps that get even more out of their Reader’s Tablet, and have given the top 10 paid and free NOOK Apps the highest 4 or 5 star rating.
All NOOK Apps are optimized for NOOK Color’s stunning 7-inch color touchscreen. The top five paid NOOK Apps are Angry Birds, Drawing Pad, Solitaire, Aces Jewel Hunt and Astraware Mahjong. Among the top five free NOOK Apps are Fliq Calendar, Fliq Notes, Pulse, NOOK Word of the Day™ and Fliq Tasks, which help keep customers organized and informed on the highly portable NOOK Color. With the recent v1.2 software update, Barnes & Noble brought the most-requested tablet features to its bestselling NOOK Color, which, in addition to NOOK Apps, includes full-featured built-in email, enhanced Web experience and more exciting content for adults and children. The device, which had already been acclaimed as the best reading device on the market, is now the best tablet value on the market at just $249.
“Our recent software update to NOOK Color delivered the most requested tablet features by our customers, including the ability to shop for and download high-quality apps. Reaching over a million app downloads in just a week since the launch of NOOK App shopping for all NOOK Color customers exceeded expectations, and is an exciting milestone for our developers, publishing partners, and most importantly for our rapidly growing NOOK Color user base,” said William Lynch, Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble. “Our stores and booksellers have been a key part of educating our large NOOK customer base on the terrific applications available for them. We’re building on the early success of our NOOK Apps offering by scaling our collection of popular apps with the thousands of developers who’ve approached us, while ensuring we continue to deliver the high-quality experience NOOK Color is known for.
Barnes & Noble continues to bring NOOK Color customers new applications from leading third-party developers and content providers for the whole family to enjoy. In the past weeks, Barnes & Noble has added new NOOK Apps including QuickOffice Pro, FriendCaster for Facebook, UrbanDaddy, more games from Concrete Software including Aces Traffic Pack, Aces Cribbage and PBA Bowling 2, FlightView Elite, RepliGo Reader, and 3001 Wisdom quotes. Recently added NOOK Apps for children include Bloki, My First Alphabet Sights & Sounds and CardDroid Math flash cards. Through the Shop area on the device, NOOK Color customers can easily explore NOOK Apps, available in categories including Play, Organize, Learn, Explore, Lifestyle, News and Kids. Approximately half of the collection available for $2.99 or less and the vast majority priced at $5.99 or less.
More information about the recent NOOK Color update is available at www.nookcolor.com/update. Barnes & Noble invites current and prospective NOOK customers to experience new NOOK Apps at the NOOK Boutique™ or display in one of Barnes & Noble’s more than 700 bookstores across the country or by visiting www.nookcolor.com.
I really think the Nook Color has been under estimated as a tablet. I’m really curious to see if “analysts” will consider it a tablet (iPad like device since real PC tablets are considered PCs and not tablets) in the next set of stats. . .
I own the nook color.. without rooting or installing your own version of android its a very limited tablet.
I’m actually surprised they reached 1 million app downloads.. the nook color market barely has any apps, let alone free apps that people would download.