Do you remember when the iPad first came out and there were basically no apps made specifically for it? Even a bit later we were writing about the issue, wondering where the iPad specific apps were? Of course, now it has gotten to the point where if you see an app that claims to support the iPad app you’ll be surprised if you find an iPhone app with 1x/2x mode.
Some were concerned that the new iPad would launch with only the Apple specific apps and a couple of showcase apps like Sky Gamblers that were shown off last week at the launch event. Now we know that updating for the more device variations is difficult – just ask the entire Android tablet community, or this dev:
A friendly request: don’t freak out at non-retinized iPad apps coming out this week. It’s a lot of damn work.
So it was a bit of a surprise when we started hearing that there would be at least a dozen apps for launch. Then a couple dozen. Then supposedly 32 was the ‘official’ number. But as of this writing there are at least 50 apps updated for the Retina display for launch, with more coming tonight and loads more in subsequent days.
Here is the current list:
ABC Player
AIM for iPad
Another Monster at the End of This Book
Art Authority
Barefoot World Atlas
Calcbot
The Daily
Day One
Diamond Dash
Dwellable
The Early Edition 2
Echofon
Evernote
Evernote Peek
Flight Control Rocket
Foosball HD
Galaxy on Fire 2 HD
Grace
Incredibooth
Infinity Blade II
iStopMotion for iPad
Joining Hands
Kindle
Labyrinth 2 HD
Martha Stewart Cookies
Mass Effect Infiltrator
Mint
MLS MatchDay 2012
Modern Combat 3
NBA GameTime
NYTimes for iPad
Order & Chaos Online
Quotes Folder
Readability
Real Racing 2 HD
Redfin
Reeder for iPad
SketchBook Pro for iPad
Skitch
Sky Gamblers: Air Supremacy
Solar Walk
Soundcloud
Star Walk for iPad
StockTouch
TouchGrind BMX
Trulia
Tweetbot for iPad
Twitterrific
Vimeo
And as noted, others such as Facebook, Flipboard, Wired and others are expected during the day today. Some will really show off the improved graphics, others will simply be there to claim ‘Retina iPad Support’. But they will be there for a very specific reason – it will make them money. The distinction made about how much money flows through the app store is critical – developers were hesitent with the iPad initially, but now they are fast to release and differentiate.
Source: TechCrunch
Yeah I remember when we went through this same scenario right after the iPhone retina display came out too. It’s easy to forget that people got all concerned even though the pixel doubling worked much better than expected (similar to when the iPad first came out too). If only Android apps scaled from device to device even THAT nicely (but sadly they don’t)