iPad App Store Breakdown: Top Apps & Categories [Chart]

The iPad App Store recently bumped over the 100,000 app milestone, leaving the competition sputtering along with apps that number in the hundreds. We decided to dive in and see which apps are the most popular, in terms of numbers and found that even the lowest ranking iPad app category has more apps than Android and WebOS Tablets.

The iPad owes part of this success to the fact that it was first on the scene, but it also owes a lot to Apple’s marketing which pitches the iPad as whatever you want it to be. While the competition is finally trying to show what you can do with their tablets, Apple has an impressive 97,000 app lead.

iPad App Breakdown

On July 2nd we found 101,104 iPad apps in the iPad app store, not counting the nearly half a million iPhone apps which can scale up to run on the iPad. These apps span 20 categories ranging in size from 401 apps to an astounding 19,565. The iPad apps range in price from free all the way up to $999 and cover a wide range of interests, hobbies and careers.

App Category	Number of Apps	Top 3 Grossing iPad Apps by Category
Books	19,565	Comics, Marvel Comics, Cars 2 Storybook Deluxe
Education	11,903	Star Walk for iPad, Proloquo2Go, Inkling
Finance	1,591	MarketWatch Market Data, Pageonce Pro, Stock Genie
Healthcare & Fitness	1,819	Men’s Health Magazine, MyNetDiary, SELF Magazine
Medical	1,947	Visible Body 3D Human Anatomy, Skyscape Medical Resources, modalityBODY
Navigation	1,907	WingX Pro7 Aviation, MotionX GPS Drive HD, iNavX Marine Navigation
Photography	2,288	iMovie, Snapseed, 8mm HD
Reference	4,344	Glo Bible, BibleReader, World Atlas HD
Sports	2,142	Tour de France All Access, MLB.com At Bat 2011, Golf Digest Magazine
Utilities	4,150	Skyfire Web Browser, Boingo Wi-fi Credits, Air Display
Business	3,987	Quickoffice Pro HD, Documents to Go Premium, Splashtop Remote Desktop
Entertaintment	8,059	SlingPlayer Mobile, Vanity Fair, PEOPLE Magazine
Games	15,046	Smurf’s Village, Tap Pet Hotel, Monopoly
Lifestyle	6,402	Cooking Light Recipes, O The Oprah magazine, Creston Mobile Pro G
Music	3,432	GarageBand, djay, AmpliTube
News	3,262	The Daily, New York Post, The New Yorker Magazine
Productivity	3,019	Pages, Numbers, Keynote
Social Networking	1,141	MyPad+, Grindr Xtra, Friendly Plus
Travel	4,699	FlightTrack Pro, FlightTrack, ZAGAT TO GO
Weather	401	ForeFlight Mobile Aviation, Weather+, Garmin Pilot My-Cast Aviation
Total	101,104	Pages, Smurf’s Village, Tap Pet Hotel

You might think that Apple is cheating by pulling in books, but this category isn’t based on the books available in iBooks. The Books category is actually made up of book apps like iBooks, Kindle, Comics and dedicated book apps.

It’s no surprise that the Games category takes second place. Whether you’re looking for card games, casual games or console quality ports, the iPad App store has you covered with fun time wasters and puzzling brain teasers.

Taking third is the Education category with thousands of apps to help kids and adults learn new skills. From reading to reference apps, you’ll find them tucked away in the Education category. This is also the home of the $999 BarMaxCA app which help lawyers prep for the Bar exam.

 

In the end, it’s not the sheer number of apps that helps the iPad beat down competition again and again, it’s that the iPad app store doesn’t leave most users wanting for an app to fill their needs. In addition to covering all the bases, the large install base of paying app customers allows iOS developers to put the time and effort into niche apps that can find a large enough audience on the iPad to be worthwhile.