As the pages in our December desk calendar fall away, 2010 is coming to a close. With the holiday season looming, Apple has yet again made their list and checked it twice; this morning, they launched iTunes Rewind 2010, wherein they highlight the best selling apps of the year.
Apple mixed things up a bit for this year’s list, doing away with the distinction between Apps and Games. Instead, apps from either category were pit against each other for the top of three separate lists: Top Free, Top Paid, and Top Grossing.
Given that the iPad didn’t officially exist last year, there was one other change made to the lists: iPhone/iPod Touch apps are ranked separately from iPad apps. It’d be a bit weird if they weren’t, right?
It’s a great bit of insight on what’s really selling on the App Store, with a few surprise hits in there (especially in the top grossing lists).
Top Free (iPhone):
- Angry Birds Lite
- Words With Friends Free
- Skype
- Tap Tap Revenge 3
- The Weather Channel
- Paper Toss
- Bing
- Rock Band Free
- Talking Tom Cat
No surprises here, really; Facebook is about as universal as applications get, and Angry Birds has been dominating the charts for months now.
Top Paid (iPhone):
- Angry Birds
- Doodle Jump
- Skee-Ball
- Bejeweled 2 + Blitz
- Fruit Ninja
- Cut The Rope
- Gamebox 1
- The Moron Test
- Plants vs. Zombies
Again, no huge surprises here. Most of these things are games that ruled the roost for most of the year on the day-to-day lists, and at least half of them are games that damn near everyone has on their handsets. Note that Angry Birds was the only app to make both the Top Free and Top Paid lists.
Top Grossing (iPhone):
- MLB.com At Bat 2010
- Angry Birds
- Call Of Duty: Zombies
- Bejeweled
- FriendCaller 3 Pro
- Zombie Farm
- TomTom U.S.A
- TETRIS
- Plants vs. Zombies
- Doodle Jump
MLB.com ruling this list is a bit misleading at the moment, as they’ve dropped the app to free while Baseball season is over. When it’s in, the live video streams of MLB games will set you back $15.
Again, Angry Birds dominates the list — but most of the other apps from the Top Paid lists are no shows. Though it’s a “free” app, FriendCaller 3 Pro sneaks in there at #5 with its pay-per-minute In-App purchase model, while the $50 TomTom coming in at #7 app proves just how important turn-by-turn is to smartphone owners.
Top Free (iPad):
- iBooks
- Pandora Radio
- Netflix
- Google Mobile App
- Solitaire
- Movies by Flixster
- IMDb Movies & TV
- Kindle
- Google Earth
- Virtuoso Piano Free
iBooks was sort of a given, as it’s the only app in the world that had the benefit of an on-screen alert sent out to just about every iPad owner in the world when it debuted, combined with the whole Kindle vs iPad thing.
It’s a bit surprising to see Pandora that high up there, considering that something that really seals the deal — multitasking support — wasn’t available on the iPad until just weeks ago.
Also interesting: notice that not a single game cracked this list.
Top Paid (iPad):
- Pages
- GoodReader
- Numbers
- Angry Birds HD
- Keynote
- Glee Karaoke
- WolframAlpha
- Pinball HD
- Friendly Plus For Facebook
- Star Walk for iPad
Finally, some games. Pinball HD comes in at #7, and, once again, Angry Birds is right up near the top. Apple’s own software makes three appearances (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote), while GoodReader’s slot at number 2 indicates that some people are expecting a little more out of the iPad’s document parsing abilities. Gotta love that a paid, third-party Facebook app is in the top 10, given that Facebook made the fairly crazy decision to avoid the platform thus far.
Top Grossing (iPad):
- Pages
- Numbers
- Keynote
- LogMeIn Ignition
- Scrabble for iPad
- Documents To Go
- Angry Birds HD
- Real Racing HD
- Plants vs Zombies HD
- Proloquo2Go
Again, Apple dominates. LogMeIn Ignition’s presence is well deserved; even at $19.99, this ultra-simple app for controlling a PC/Mac remotely is one that I feel I’ve gotten my money out of. Angry Birds shows up again. The $180 text-to-speech app (built to help those with difficulty speaking, such as those with autism, cerebral palsy, stroke, or a traumatic brain injury) Proloquo2Go sneaks in at #10 — that price tag may seem steep, but with equivalent dedicated hardware coming in at many thousands of dollars, it’s a steal.
What do you think? Any surprises? Any apps that you expected to make the list that didn’t?