“A decade ago, Apple opened a store peddling iPhone apps, unlocking the creativity of software developers and letting users truly make their mobile devices their own,” Michael Liedtke reports for The Associated Press. “The resulting explosion of phone apps — there are now more than 2 million for the iPhone alone — has changed daily life for billions of people around the world.”
“It has created new industries — think ride-hailing services like Uber, which would be unimaginable without mobile apps — and pumped up demand for software developers and coding schools,” Liedtke reports. “None of that was going on when Apple’s app store debuted 10 years ago Tuesday. At the time, mobile phones were largely a take-it-or-leave-it proposition, with features programmed by their manufacturers and customization mostly limited to a choice between tinny electronic ringtones.”
“The iPhone itself was still in its infancy, with only 6 million devices sold during the device’s first year. Then came the App Store, which offered 500 programs users could take or leave themselves. During its first weekend, people downloaded 10 million apps — many of them games,” Liedtke reports. “Apple competitors Google, Amazon and Microsoft soon launched their own app stores. Together, these companies now offer roughly 7 million apps. Apple, meanwhile, has now sold more than a billion iPhones .”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Happy 10th birthday, App Store!
SEE ALSO:
Apple’s revolutionary App Store turns 10 – July 10, 2018
The App Store was absolutely nothing new.
Fandango, PocketPC2go, a d many many more sold applications for peas and phones ranging from Symbian to Windows Phone.
That’s not even counting repositories.
And, of course, you were there ushering their existence into the world. (I hope you don’t mind my sarcasm to your cynicism.) lol
Don’t mind at all Dingly ol’ boy…
I can’t take credit for any of it, I was just a customer.
Credit goes to the scores (hordes) that preceded Apple! 🙂
That would be PDAs and phones….
Hmmm… did the article make the claim that the App Store was “new”? No? So, you’re saying you just made a strawman argument. Kudos to you!
And, why didn’t those apps sold on Symbian and Windows, change our World? Maybe cause they were just “baby” apps.
For a cynic, you disappoint me. You should consider another gig, one that you are better at.
I see… you’re discussing impact, not invention.,,
You know who else had impact? MS!!!!
Yes, the App Store introduced censorship. It did have a dystopian impact.
And that is what the article is about. You, on the other hand, went off on your own tangent, presumably, because you saw the headline, skipped reading the actual article, and wrote your first blather, missing the point altogether. Kudos, you’ve shown everyone you’re just a reactionary.
Think about this for a moment… there can be no “best” without “first”. There may be business achievement with the App Store, that’s undeniable, but it’s not on merit, it’s on bundling, not technical innovation.
The world public in general had not any idea what an app was until the App Store appeared on an iPhone. Only people who had worked with computers knew the long word application(as applied to computing). Most people in the world didn’t have any experience with computing otherwise. Because of iPhone, copycats brought (handheld) computing to the masses as is evident today.
I can still remember in the early days that a 17 year old high school guy got his first check from the App Store – it was for $250,000. That was a massive lesson in the impact that Apple has in the developer, and budding developer, world.
Remember those numbers: 17 years old and $250,000
And that was just the first check.
And with one click, it can become forbidden, and there’s no other store to sell it.