First, to Apple, for releasing daily download statistics in iTunesConnect: thank you. This information was sorely needed by developers, and its availability will help developers gauge the performance of their applications, adjust price points, and know when applications need critical updates. From what we’ve seen from published sources (minding the NDA), the application reporting differentiates between paid downloads and free updates, and is providing application developers with some much-needed insight into their application’s performance.

It’s a bit ironic that I first got this news from a well-meaning friend, who suggested it was bad for Pinch Media. After all, prior to Apple’s daily downloads numbers, the only developers in the AppStore getting reasonably accurate statistics were ones that rolled their own or used a service like Pinch Analytics. (Only the AppStore can provide accurate download numbers - but we come pretty close by counting first-time users. It’s not 100% accurate, but generally when someone downloads an application, they try it out that day or the day after.) But I couldn’t be more thrilled - because this access to new information is getting the developers we’ve been talking to into an optimizing mood. And when you’re thinking about ways to get those download numbers up, you realize pretty quickly that the download numbers themselves are just a small piece of the information you need to make intelligent decisions.

If your download numbers aren’t what you hoped, or you’re simply looking for ways to grow your business, Pinch Analytics can help you make intelligent decisions. Our unique user reporting will tell you if the downloads you’re getting are translating into regular, repeat users who will spread your application through word of mouth, or whether your application is being used and quickly abandoned. Our session counting will help you see just how often your users are accessing your application, so you can determine whether other revenue models, like advertising, might outperform your current paid downloads. Our custom event tracking can be used easily to help you figure out which features your users love - and which ones need a lot of work. And for location-aware applications, nothing’s better than our geographic reports for determining which areas of the world you should be concentrating on the most.

The number of applications available on the AppStore is growing rapidly - breaking 1,000 at the start of the week, now just under 1,300 (and likely above it by the end of the day.) Standing out in the crowd is going to get more and more difficult. To do so, we need as much information as possible. By releasing daily download numbers, Apple is once again showing its commitment to improving the iPhone development platform, and they should be congratulated for it. But full analytics (and full understanding) requires a much closer integration with your application.