The App Store was launched ten years ago. Ten years! It’s hard to believe, but it was July 10th (next Tuesday) that Apple unleashed this world-changing concept. The company put out a long self-congratulatory announcement pre-celebrating this incredible milestone, including this great GIF: Before 2008, the software industry was dominated by a few large companies. The App Store opened the door for any developer, from one-person shops to large studios, to come up with a great idea, build a high quality app and seamlessly deliver it to the growing number of customers around the world that today exceeds 1 billion people. MLB At Bat, Tap Tap Revenge, Trism, The New York Times, eBay and Travelocity represented the wide range of apps available from day one, bringing to life an entirely new way to travel, play games, read the news and experience sports right in the palm of your hand. Protecting user privacy is paramount in the Apple ecosystem, so from the beginning, Apple has taken great care in providing clear guidelines to developers and thoughtfully curating a safe, trusted app marketplace to ensure the best experience possible for customers around the world to discover and access apps.<doc-sep>advertisement advertisement When Apple’s iPhone App Store opened for business 10 years ago today, alongside the release of the iPhone 3G, it was a revelation. Suddenly, having a centralized way to find, purchase, download, and update applications didn’t just seem like a smart idea, but a mandatory one for any company in the software platform business. advertisement advertisement It wasn’t long before app store mania took hold, as other tech companies tried to recreate Apple’s business model, even when doing so didn’t make much sense. Soon enough, app stores weren’t just the domain of smartphones. They also started popping up on desktop computers, within web browsers, and even inside social networks. Unsurprisingly, few of these efforts have survived. As the iOS App Store turns 10 years old, let’s look back at the long list of imitators that flopped—or ar least didn’t experience anything like the instant, epoch-shifting success of Apple’s original software storefront. Blackberry App World Launched: March 2009 advertisement What it is: A way to find, download, and purchase apps for Blackberry phones, announced when it became clear that any smartphone platform without an app marketplace would be a nonstarter. (In 2013, Blackberry changed the name to “Blackberry World” to coincide with the launch of its Blackberry 10 operating system.) What happened: While the idea of an app store for Blackberry phones made sense, the platform had deeper problems that a storefront alone couldn’t solve. Despite some early success for App World developers, Blackberry’s clunky operating system and hardware couldn’t keep up with the iPhone and Android, and Blackberry 10 arrived too late to gain any momentum. Although Blackberry claimed that its store had 120,000 apps by mid-2013, it turned out that more than a third of them came from a single developer that had perfected the art of shovelware. Current status: The last Blackberry 10 phones arrived in 2015, but Blackberry says it will support them through the end of next year. Until then, Blackberry World lingers on in a vegetative state. advertisement See also: The Windows Phone Marketplace, which never gained enough developer traction to give Microsoft a chance in the smartphone wars. Chrome Web Store Launch date: December 2010 What it was: A way to discover–and, in some cases, purchase–web-based apps and games that ran inside Google’s Chrome browser. The goal was to give Google a platform-within-a-platform on Windows and Mac, but also to help establish an app ecosystem for Chrome OS. advertisement What happened: Despite several attempts by Google to encourage app-like experiences using web technologies, most Chrome Web Store apps were just bookmarks to existing websites. Users didn’t need an app store for that. Current status: Although the Chrome Web Store still exists for browser extensions and themes, Google shut down the apps section on Windows, Mac, and Linux last year. And while those apps are still available on Chrome OS, their fate seems uncertain now that Google has brought the Android-based Google Play Store to Chromebooks. See also: Firefox Marketplace, Mozilla’s similar–but more open–attempt at a web-based app store. It fizzled out alongside Firefox OS, and officially shut down in March. advertisement Intel AppUp Launched: January 2010 What it was: Intel’s attempt to establish an app store within Windows–particularly on netbooks and ultrabooks–before Microsoft got around to doing so. Laptop makers were encouraged to preinstall AppUp in exchange for a cut of store revenues; Asus and Acer even launched their own branded versions of the store. Eventually, Intel hoped AppUp would run on more than just PCs, including devices running on a nascent mobile operating system called MeeGo. What happened: Laptop perused the store in the fall of 2010 and found it be “sparsely stocked,” though it did land Angry Birds the following year. And while the store had tens of thousands of registered developers, Intel seemed to recognize that getting consumers to care about a third-party app storefront was an uphill battle. In an interview with PC Mag in 2011, Intel’s Peter Biddle cheerfully called AppUp “the world’s largest app store that nobody’s ever heard of.” advertisement Current status: Intel shut down AppUp in 2014, two years after Microsoft released Windows 8 with its own app store. Still, the chipmaker didn’t directly acknowledge the Windows Store as a reason for AppUp’s demise, saying only that it wanted to focus on “the needs of enterprise and business users.” Wholesale Applications Community Announced: February 2010 What it was: A joint effort by wireless carriers–including AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom–to create their own app store that worked on any phone, regardless of operating system, thereby allowing them to cash in on the app craze. Instead of creating native apps, the group wanted to push apps based on open web standards. advertisement What happened: Andy Rubin, then Google’s head of Android, immediately dumped cold water on the idea, and Apple had little incentive to participate with the iOS App Store already in full swing. Over the next two years, the project languished as carriers had trouble agreeing on a common distribution model, and the group dissolved in 2012 without having launched anything. Current status: Although the Wholesale Applications Community dream never came to life, you can still visit a website extolling the group’s values and approach. Facebook App Center Launched: June 2012 advertisement What it was: Not exactly an app store, but a hub for finding iOS apps, Android apps, and websites that played nicely with Facebook. It certainly looked like an app store, though, with personalized recommendations and ratings for each app. The App Center arrived shortly after Facebook expanded its Open Graph, which allowed apps to automatically share information about users’ activity with friends. Apps that supported this Facebook feature, such as Spotify, were among the App Center’s most-promoted apps. What happened: In 2014, Facebook scaled back the App Center to include only games. Although the company didn’t explain its reasoning, users probably weren’t interested in browsing for apps based on whether or not they would share data with Facebook. And over time, Facebook has rolled back many of the data-sharing capabilities it was pushing for third-party apps back in 2012. Current status: Although Facebook has gotten out of the app curation business, its game portal is still around. advertisement The Windows Store Launched: October 2012 What it was: A centralized way to find, purchase, and download Windows apps, particularly those that were optimized for touch screens in Windows 8 and Windows RT using the interface originally known as “Metro.” At launch, plain old Windows desktop software was not allowed into the store. What happened: The Windows Store’s fate is entwined with that of Windows 8 itself. Many users didn’t appreciate Microsoft’s pivot to a touch-centric interface, and were rightly opposed to abandoning desktop software for a limited and less capable selection of apps. Although Microsoft attracted some big names like Netflix and Evernote, the Windows Store never rivaled the breadth of the iOS App Store and Google Play Store. advertisement Current status: As Microsoft has refocused on the desktop, its Windows storefront–now called the Microsoft Store–has turned into a hub for all kinds of programs, including ones that aren’t designed around touch screens. (Programmers and Linux enthusiasts can even use the store to download the Ubuntu Terminal.) When viewed as an optional benefit for Windows users, the store isn’t a failure, but Microsoft’s attempts at building versions of Windows that only run Store apps have yet to take off. Skype App Directory Launched: August 2011 What it was: A centralized location for apps built on Skype’s developer tools, complete with ratings, reviews, and screenshots. Example apps included call recording software, a way to look up and join conference calls from your calendar, and a screen-sharing tool. advertisement What happened: The Skype App Directory might’ve been inspired by mobile apps, but it was also a victim of them. In 2013, Microsoft discontinued Skype’s desktop API to focus more on mobile development, and shut down the App Directory that year. Current status: Four years after shutting down the App Directory, Microsoft launched a developer preview for Skype add-ins, letting users add GIFs, polls, and information from third-party apps to their conversations.<doc-sep>Without Apple's App Store, your iPhone may well have just stayed a phone. The App Store has been around so long, it's easy to forget that it wasn't always a core part of the iPhone concept. The store came a year after the introduction of original iPhone, arriving with the iPhone 3G. It debuted with 500 apps from developers like MLB and The New York Times, and iPhone and iPod Touch owners in 62 countries had access to the store when it opened 10 years ago today. It didn't take long to figure out Apple was on to something. By the weekend following the App Store launch, the number of available apps had jumped to more than 800, and users had downloaded them over 10 million times. "The App Store is a grand slam, with a staggering 10 million applications downloaded in just three days," Steve Jobs, Apple's then-CEO, said at the time. He wasn't exaggerating. Fast-forward 10 years, and the App Store had "surpassed all of [Apple's] wildest expectations," as Phil Schiller, the company's head of marketing, put it last week. Now playing: Watch this: Apple's App Store turns 10: The top iOS apps of all time Today, 500 million people from 155 countries visit the App Store each week. There are more than 2 million apps available for download, roughly 1.3 million of them designed specifically for the iPad. Developers are making big money -- more than $100 billion as of June 2018 -- selling apps. Apple didn't respond to a request for additional numbers on the App Store. "The app distribution model Apple perfected was as important as the iPhone launch a year earlier for creating today's smartphone mass market," said Ian Fogg, a tech analyst who was formerly with IHS Markit. On Tuesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook noted the 10th anniversary in a tweet, writing that "for hundreds of millions of people ... life is better because 'There's an app for that!'' Ten years ago, the App Store started a revolution that has changed our world. For hundreds of millions of people, in ways too many to count, life is better because “There’s an app for that!” Happy 10th birthday, @AppStore! — Tim Cook (@tim_cook) July 10, 2018 Here are five ways the App Store changed phones as we know them: It turned the iPhone into a must-have device and inspired scores of clones Just how vital is the App Store to the iPhone's success? In a word -- extremely. Apps are what helped turn the iPhone into more than a phone. They're what get users hooked on their devices; American users access them for about five hours a day, according to Flurry Analytics. The vast majority of the time we spend on our phones, 88 percent, is devoted to using apps, according to ComScore. Experts attribute the demise of BlackBerry and Microsoft's mobile ambitions to their troubles wooing app developers. Even Samsung, the world's biggest phone maker, struggled to convince developers to support the homegrown Tizen software found on its watches and TVs. The only other successful mobile platform, Google's Android, boasts 3.8 million apps in its Play Store. It made phones more than phones It used to be we all carried cellphones to make calls, text people and, maybe, play Snake. But today's smartphones pack more power than yesterday's computers. They're high-tech Swiss Army knives. The original iPhone brought us a slick browser and an easy-to-use email client. But the myriad of different apps is what keeps us coming back. Maps help us figure out where we're going, Spotify lets us stream music, and Netflix gives us movies on the go. That's not all, though. There are apps for almost anything you can imagine, including 200,000 for education. And in some countries, people don't even own computers or tablets, relying instead on their phones for all of their connectivity. It created entirely new businesses There would be no Uber without the App Store. Or Instagram, for that matter. Developers started making software tailored specifically for mobile devices, instead of first building for notebook and desktop computers. The "mobile first" push helped those companies gain millions of users. The App Store also made it easier for developers to build and distribute their software, and simplified the process for iPhone owners to find software they wanted. And because of Apple's tight curation process -- it examines and approves each app listed in the App Store -- users knew the software they downloaded would be virus-free. "Since day one, the App Store has been by far the easiest way for developers to reach the most people with our apps," Marco Arment, developer of the Overcast podcasting app, said in an Apple press release. "It eliminated the friction and overhead of setting up our own distribution and payment systems, making development far more accessible to everyone and letting us focus on our true passion: making the best apps we can." It took gaming mainstream With the launch of the App Store, gaming was no longer just for devoted fans with pricey game consoles or high-end PC rigs. Instead of spending hundreds of dollars on a console and another $50 on each new game, users instead can download games for a few bucks. Sometimes they pay nothing at all -- giving games away is part of a new business model. Apple introduced in-app purchases in 2009. They let users pay as they go instead of spending more on a game up front. King's Candy Crush Saga, for instance, is free to download, but if you want more lives or bonus items, you'll have to shell out money later. It turned mobile video into a key way to communicate Whether it's Netflix, YouTube or FaceTime, video is a vital feature of today's smartphones. From the very beginning, Apple knew how important video would be on its iPhones. The first model of the device came with a YouTube app, though Apple stopped preloading the app on its iPhones in 2012 after Google's Android software gained popularity. Other companies like HBO launched their services in the App Store. Apple's FaceTime, which debuted on the iPhone 4 in 2010, made it easy to actually see the people you're talking with. And numerous apps, including Instagram, have introduced new video features. Originally published July 10 at 5:00 a.m. PT. Updated at 7:06 a.m. PT: Added Tim Cook's tweet. Correction, 6:57 a.m. PT: This story initially misstated the number of apps available on the Google Play store. It is 3.8 million. 'Hello, humans': Google's Duplex could make Assistant the most lifelike AI yet. Tech Enabled: CNET chronicles tech's role in providing new kinds of accessibility.<doc-sep>
The App Store's 10th anniversary is quickly approaching, and Apple is already getting into the b-day spirit. Today on the company's newsroom blog , it looked back on the App Store's decade-long history, sharing interesting facts and figures and reflecting on the service's 10 whole years of operation. The piece opens with a small handful of notable individuals sharing their love for the App Store. Among them is Marco Arment, developer of Overcast and longtime iOS developer, who sings the platform's praises — especially when it comes to opening up app development and distribution to talented individuals who may not have had the opportunity otherwise: Since day one, the App Store has been by far the easiest way for developers to reach the most people with our apps. It eliminated the friction and overhead of setting up our own distribution and payment systems, making development far more accessible to everyone and letting us focus on our true passion: making the best apps we can. Over its 10 years so far, the App Store has developed into the richest, most diverse, and most accessible software ecosystem the world has ever seen. The post supplements Arment's praise as well, pointing out that before 2008, "the software industry was dominated by a few large companies" and that the App Store "opened the door for any developer, from one person shops to large studios," to build cool, quality apps and deliver them to a huge body of consumers. And huge it is: according to the company, the App Store's consumer base now exceeds 1 billion individuals. Apple also delved into how the App Store allowed developers to combine Apple devices' hardware with their software, allowing apps to do more than many had ever dreamed. The cutting-edge hardware and quickly evolving software from Apple, combined with creative ideas from developers who saw the potential of iPhone being in customers' pockets, spawned new industries that would forever change how people live, work and play — a revolution that continues today. Start-ups including Instagram, Calm, Uber and Instacart embraced features like the iPhone camera, Apple Pay, GPS and Location Services to deliver on-demand and personalized experiences, with many creating billion dollar businesses that started with apps in the App Store. At the same time, both traditional companies and those that started as websites, such as Twitter, Facebook, eBay, Yelp, Airbnb and Amazon, began building apps to meet changing customer behavior. In addition the post lauds the App Store's pivotal role in making gaming mainstream, changing the way people pay for software and services (hello, in-app purchases), and opening up more accessible doors to education, creativity, entertainment, AR, and wellness. To read more about the impact the App Store has had on technology and culture as a whole, I suggest you check out Apple's feature here. Thoughts? Questions? So how are you celebrating the App Store's 10th year on Earth? Downloading an app you've been considering for awhile? Browsing suggestions for cool new stuff just waiting to be discovered? Smashing your iPhone into a birthday cake? (Okay, maybe don't do that one.) Share with us in the comments!