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Skyfire browser pulls in $1 million during first weekend

updated 04:30 pm EST, Thu November 11, 2010

Flash-capable app sells over 300,000 downloads


Despite day-one troubles with overloaded servers resulting in temporary removal from the App Store, the Skyfire iPhone app reportedly generated about $1 million in its first weekend. The browser lets users view Flash video on iOS devices through remote transcoding. A company-estimated 300,000-plus downloads were sold over the weekend, putting sales at about $1 million before Apple's take, worth roughly $300,000.

The early sales may indicate heavy demand for Flash support on iOS devices, despite Apple's insistence that HTML5 is the future of the web. With so many sites being dependent on Flash for video, and either unready or unable to use HTML5, Skyfire could be seen as essential for some users. The app doesn't support Flash games or animations however, and is blocked from accessing Hulu.

Server loads are said to have been so high on launch day that the app had to be voluntarily pulled by the developer to buy time for upgrading backend. Downloads are now sold in batches to prevent a repeat of any problems.

The company is already working on an iPad version of the browser. Nothing is known so far about pricing or additional features.








by MacNN Staff

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TAGS : 

iPod, iPhone, industry, software, iPhone apps, Skyfire, iPad

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Comments

  1. lamewing

    Forum Regular

    Joined: Aug 2004

    +1
    11/11, 05:00pm | report spam | (1 reply) Reply |

    Flash not wanted

    But "no one wants flash on a mobile device" ...err, right.

  1. coffeetime

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Nov 2006

    -1
    11/11, 05:04pm | report spam | (1 reply) Reply |

    Adobe...

    must have a big grin on this one.

  1. icewing

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: May 2008

    +1
    11/11, 05:05pm | report spam | Reply |

    Great for them!

    But I still don't want Flash...ever, anywhere. Didn't like it before this whole mess started...

  1. Jeronimo2000

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2001

    -1
    11/11, 05:29pm | report spam | Reply |

    No Flash for me, thank you.

    Well, I never missed Flash on my iDevices (and I got iPhones since they came out in '07), but then again, who cares what I do or don't miss? Apparantly there's a huge market for this kind of thing, and I'm happy for the guys who plugged a hole there. They must be thrilled beyond belief.

  1. Marook

    Forum Regular

    Joined: May 1999

    +1
    11/11, 06:17pm | report spam | (1 reply) Reply |

    I still don't get it!

    Why can't the sites that this browser can access, simply use HTML5 tags and H.264 video?
    Funny thing is, it might be H.264 they embed in the flash plug-in.. ;-)

    And since this 'browser' can't access
    - sites that are account protected
    - sites that block, like Hulu
    - any non-straight-video
    - any games

    it seems to only leave back the videos that should simply be converted to h.264 and Adds!
    So it's amazing they got all those users - someone must be interested in seeing how well it (the conversion) works... ?

    But WHY?

  1. facebook_Justin

    Via Facebook

    Joined: Nov 2010

    0
    11/11, 06:55pm | report spam | Reply |

    comment title

    Apple, I beg of you, please don't put that virus Flash on the iPhone just because this does well. Remember, sometimes bad things do well, look at all people that chose to be n***'s in the 40s, but we all know they were bad. And look at Microsoft, it's doing good even today but it's very bad. Just because this piece of virus-enabling c*** is doing well does NOT mean you should put that evil virus on the iPhone. There's a lot of sick sick morons in this world, I can't believe this many people want to view 20,000 Flash ads per website, so they download something like this. I bet it was Google or some other company that has serious interest in Flash (due to 90% of AdSense ads being in Flash) that bought the app a million times.

  1. doctor9

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2001

    +1
    11/11, 08:29pm | report spam | Reply |

    Umm...is this impressive?!

    There have been 65+ million iPhones sold. Be generous...say half of those were upgrades from previous iPhones, so 33 million iPhones in the wild. That means less than 1% of the available users have downloaded this app to see Flash. Granted that's one weekend, but it's the opening weekend when the most avid users will get it...afterwards, the attrition rate will increase, ie - they won't have another 300,000 sales weekend.

    So, is this really THAT indicative of support for Flash on iPhones?!!

    /

  1. Cronocide

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Nov 2010

    +1
    11/11, 10:29pm | report spam | Reply |

    There is money out there

    For developers with ideas and methods to give people what they want, regardless of what the public tells them. No Flash for me thank you, I'm the designated render-er tonight.

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