iPad Generates Massive Interest Among App Store Developers [New Apps Numbers Triple Because of the iPad; First iPhone OS 3.2 App Waiting in the Store for the Tablet]

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No matter how much criticism surrounded the iPad and its features, developers already treat it as a potential gold mine. The device has what it takes to become a hit product in the following months and apps developers will definitely want to cash in on that if it’s possible. A recent study shows that the number of projects started for the App Store almost tripled in January and the only one to blame is the iPad.

Flurry Analytics, a company that told us about iPhone OS 3.2 being tested in the wild just before the iPad launch, is now back with details about iPhone and iPad apps development.

It looks like 1,600 new apps containing Flurry analytics have been started in January compared to just under 600 in December. The obvious increase in app development is due to the iPad launch and it’s basically the largest one since Flurry has been analyzing iPhone OS app development. The company is definitely “blaming” the iPad:

“As such, we hypothesize that excitement generated by Apple’s iPad event in January is driving this growth. For developers who get a jump on customizing their applications for the iPad, there may be an opportunity to stand out early on, and earn more downloads.”

That doesn’t mean that all these projects will be completed although we can only imagine that we’ll see even more apps flood the App Store by the time the iPad becomes available in stores. And just in case iPhone OS 4.0 brings multitasking we might see a similar increase in app development later this year but it’s too early to comment on that.

In the mean time we already have an application that has been updated to work on the iPad. TextExpander version 1.1.3 only brings “updates for iPhone OS 3.2.” The app is basically a tool to help you integrate quickly snippets of text in your SMS messages and emails in order to send those out faster. We can only expect to see most apps in the App Store get similar updates for iPhone OS 3.2 in the near future and sooner or later we’ll be able to run our favorite apps on the iPad too. Just in case we’ll want to get one.