Industry News & Events
Appy Birthday: Everything you need to know about 10th anniversary of the App Store
Lewis Leong
Jul 27, 2018
Jul 27, 2018
Industry News & Events
It’s hard to imagine a world before the iPhone and the App Store, but ten years ago, that was our reality. Desktop computing was the dominant force and mobile was just in its infancy, with operating systems like Nokia’s Symbian and Windows Mobile leaving much to be desired in terms of usability.
Now, a decade later, we can take a step back to see just how influential the Apple’s App Store has been on all of our lives. For the month of July, we focused on taking a look at where the App Store has been and where it’s going. Here’s everything you need to know about the 10th anniversary of the App Store.
From frustrated fowl to crumpled confections, the App Store changed gaming as we knew it. Before the App Store, mobile gaming was relegated to simple monochromatic experiences like Snake on Nokia devices and handheld systems like the Nintendo Gameboy.
When the iPhone launched, followed by the App Store a year later, mobile underwent a revolutionary change. Game developers now had access to touch screens, accelerometers, and a distribution system that easily reached millions of players. The App Store birthed revolutionary mobile games like Rolando, Angry Birds, Draw Something, and many more. Our infographic takes you through ten years of the most iconic mobile games that launched in the App Store.
Read more: 10 years of games in the App Store: From frustrated fowl to crumpled confections [Infographic]
Beyond mobile gaming, the App Store changed many other industries. We asked experts from various fields how the App Store changed our world, and these are the responses we received. We spoke with experts in fields like gaming, PR and journalism, therapy, and journalism to see how the App Store affected their industries. Here’s what they had to say.
Read more: 10 Years Later: How the App Store shaped our world
Now that we’ve got the walk down memory lane out of the way, let’s explore where the App Store is going over the next decade. In part one of our two-part series, we explore Apple’s fight with Google for app store supremacy. iOS still leads in terms of consumer spend, but Android has many more downloads worldwide. Since Android is open source, consumers have more hardware choices for budget smartphones. This allowed Google’s Android OS to become popular in emerging markets where consumers can’t spend upwards of $800 on a smartphone. Apple will have to address these markets if it wants to continue seeing massive success for the App Store.
In part two, we examine Apple’s challenges in China and its struggles with app discovery on iOS. China is a unique market for Apple because of Android app store fragmentation, which means it’ll have to go up against titans like Tencent and Baidu.
While iOS 11 brought a dramatic redesign of the App Store, app discovery is still a problem on the platform. Additionally, the company faces a constantly shifting political and legislative landscape.
Read more: How Apple’s App Store can win or lose the next ten years
