How the app phenomenon is changing economics

[Crossposted at SpreadingScience]

by bfishadow

Instagram Hits One Million Users in First Ten Weeks
[Via Daring Fireball]

Off the top of my head, I’d say Instagram is my favorite new app of 2010.

Update: As a point of reference, it took Twitter two years to get to one million users.

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One million in 10 weeks. The dynamics of that are just insane.

And the app market place requires them to be very, very attentive to what their customers want. Otherwise, another app could steal those one million even faster.

This rapid adaption to what customers want requires a very different organizational structure than at many companies. It must be able to adapt rapidly to new information and it must move that information around rapidly.

Because now there are a million people who want this app to continue to provide them with new ways to interact with their photos.

You see this in games now. Updates are not just for bug fixes, etc. They include new levels – as seen with Angry Birds – or new swords and enemies – as seen with Infinity Blade. These were both free upgrades that could be developed in a couple of months rather than years. They keep the game in front of people because the updates are downloaded automatically from iTunes. No new marketing costs.

Then when a new version comes out, people are ready to pop some more cash.

Staying engaged and being adaptive – the successful companies will have both of these attributes.

What a sad and wonderful story for this Christmas

Out on the Ice
[Via Daring Fireball]

Great writing and reporting by Mary Rogan for GQ:

Brian Burke isn’t just a legend of the NHL. He’s a fists-up, knock-your-teeth-out gladiator. But when his hockey-loving son came out of the closet and died soon after, he was thrust into a strange new role: advocate for gays in a macho sports culture. He’s no cheerleader — he looks like he hates every minute of it — but locker-room homophobia may have finally met its match.

Heartbreaking and heartwarming. (Via Jim Coudal.)

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Really great writing seems so rare these days. Telling a great story about a great subject with great characters requires a lot of attention to detail, to pacing, to stage setting and to revealing the narrative.

I cried a lot reading this. It is not an easy story. Great ones rarely are. But it does demonstrate how wonderfully important things can be done by regular people when circumstances knock.

People with courage and strong convictions can do a lot in this world. Even if sometimes it takes a tragedy to start the journey. Even if they have to go second.

And Mary Rogan has done something really special by pulling the story of this courageous man and his father so close to the heart. We can all learn something from this essay.