At WWDC, in 2007, Scott Forstall took the stage and introduced iPhone web apps as Apple’s ‘sweet solution’ for apps on iPhone. To the developers delight, in October, Steve Jobs confirmed that the company was working on an iPhone SDK for third-party developers, which was then released in March 2008. Four months later, the App Store launched on July 10, 2008, with around 550 apps, available on the original iPhone, iPod Touch, and the iPhone 3g. Some of those apps are available even today, and continue to be in active development.

During its first weekend people downloaded 10 million app and in the first year of the App Store, people downloaded over 1.5 billion apps. It was a clear indication that the app store is going to be a huge success. Steve Jobs said:

“The App Store is a grand slam, with a staggering 10 million applications downloaded in just three days. Developers have created some extraordinary applications, and the App Store can wirelessly deliver them to every iPhone and iPod touch user instantly.”

After ten years, there are over 2 million apps available for download on the App Store. Today, we can truly say “there is an app for that.”. Companies like Snapchat and uber are now worth billions of dollars thanks to their mobile apps, there are so many success stories like these. There are stories of developers going from rags to riches overnight, due to the success of their apps. Stories like, Steve Demeter the creator of a smash-hit puzzle game Trism that made $250,000 in just 2 months after the launch on the app store, and then steve spent all the money for next 10 years in creating a sequel to trism, i.e trism 2 that is available for download on the app store. Some apps, like instagram lead to billion dollar acquisition thanks to the app store. App store has really helped developers grow their business by making their hard work pay off. App Store has come a long way in the last 10 years. It has changed the way we live our lives and influenced the whole world in the past decade.

Big events in the App store’s history:

Steve Jobs said, that the app store would put large and small developers on an even playing field, and put their apps in front of every iPhone user.

Since the launch of the app store, it has achieved a number of milestones and Apple has been continually improving the experience of the app store for both developers and customers. Lets have a look at the timeline:

App store revenue and sales:

Today, the app store has over 2.1 million apps and about 20 million registered developers and 500 million weekly App Store visitors. At WWDC 2018, Tim Cook announced that developers had been paid over $100 billion since 2008. App analytics company App Annie expects the App Store’s annual revenue to climb to over $60 billion by 2021. This is some growth and these are some healthy numbers. This seems likely looking at the growth of App Store. This would help developer create a sustainable business and help them survive on the App Store. Let’s have a loot at the app store sales numbers:

2017: $38.5 billion

2016: $28.5 billion

2015: $20 billion

2014: $15 billion

2013: $10 billion

2012: $4.9 billion

2011: $2.9 billion

2010: $1.8 billion

2009: $769 million

2008: $206 million

Apple expects that $350 billion will be contributed to the US economy over the next five years. $5 billion will be committed to Apple’s Advanced Manufacturing Fund, up from the previously announced $1 billion. $55 billion is estimated to be spent in 2018 alone with domestic suppliers and manufacturers.

Most popular apps and some interesting findings:

On the 10th anniversary of Apple’s iOS App Store, Sensor Tower has shared a list of the apps and games that have spent the most time at the #1 spot on the app store’s different charts. During the period: July 1, 2010 to July 5, 2018, Sensor Tower found that a total of 30,000 unique apps have reached #1 on the free, paid, or top grossing charts in at least one country.

Sensor Tower found 422 apps that hit #1 on the top free iPhone apps chart in the United States during this period, and of all those apps, Facebook Messenger spent the most days at #1 with 317 days. Worldwide, WhatsApp earned the top spot with a total of 1,783 days at #1 for free iPhone apps. Popular apps in both the U.S. and worldwide for these charts included Snapchat and YouTube.

For paid apps, Minecraft had the most days at #1, both in the U.S. (847 days) and worldwide (1,645 days) App Stores. Games were popular in U.S. paid iPhone apps charts that included Angry Birds (311 days), Heads Up (225 days), and Where’s My Water (47 days), but worldwide there were a number of apps like Facetune (1,501 days), Afterlight (1,312 days), and 7 Min Workout (1,134 days).

For top grossing iPhone apps chart in U.S, Clash of Clans spent 805 days at #1 far ahead Candy Crush at second position with 278 days. Most of the apps in the list were games. Worldwide, Clash of Clans held onto the top spot with 1,900 days, while Spotify also remained in the top ten with 1,047 days spent at #1.

There is some more interesting data that i would like to show you, from sensor tower.

With iOS 11 Apple, introduced its completely redesigned App Store and one of its goals was to improve app discovery by placing a larger emphasis on editorial content. A study from Sensor Tower reveals those changes appear to have been working.

According to Sensor Tower, more apps are being discovered by browsing the App Store following the redesign launched in September.

Before the redesign, downloads by browsing the app store accounted for around 10 percent of all downloads. With the new App Store, they’ve grown to more than 15 percent and it continues to remain steady even after 10 months.

Searching for app by typing keywords into the search box is still, the primary way users are finding and downloading new apps. Today, search accounts for 65 percent of downloads – well ahead of browsing and other methods. Sensor Tower based its findings on data collected on app downloads between May 2017 and April 2018.

The report also showed the differences between how consumers discover apps and games. Browsing plays a much more significant role in game discovery than it does for non-game apps. 56 percent of game downloads came from search, compared with 69 percent for non-games. Browse contributed to 24 percent of game downloads, compared to just 9 percent of non-game downloads.

This indicates that iOS users are seeing App Store’s editorial recommendations to learn about what new game to try next. Plus, the fact that games can now include a video preview, and labels like “Editor’s Choice” are better highlighted. Sensor Tower also found that games that were featured as the “Game of the Day” could see their downloads increase by 802 percent, compared to the weeks before being featured. Apps, by comparison, saw boosts of 685 percent. Apple is really working hard, so that developers are benefitted from the app store, by bringing them in lime light through all of these editorial contents.

We made it:

App Store launched in 2008 with around 500 apps. Some of those apps are available even today and being continually developed. Maintaining an application for an entire decade, with all the improvements and features brought with the new version of OS, is pretty amazing. iOS has come a long way ahead since 2008 and apps need to be transformed with all the changes. In this section i will show you some apps that were available on the App Store on the first day and continue to be available today:

Instapaper

Instapaper is a read-it-later that was created by Marco Arment and was later acquired by betaworks and is still one of the most used read-it-later service available. Instapaper was amongst 552 apps that were available on the app store on its launch. It has evolved over time, with new features for iPhone and iPad. Interface has changed(as it should), and is shown in the photo.

Pcalc

Pcalc is a calculator app developed by an indie developer James Thompson, it was launched on the app store on the day one for $10. A decade later, PCalc is still going strong. James launched the app for $10 and it is available for $10, even today. James, Over the years, has updated Pcalc with all the new features, it now supports drag and drop, has a lock screen widget, offers a number of custom icons. When Apple announced ARKit with iOS 11, Thomson shipped a new Pcalc version with an AR game hidden in the Pcalc’s about screen. Pcalc can be found on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV.

Trism

Trism is a simple puzzle game from independent developer Steve Demeter. It was one of the first ever games for iPhone, Trism became a huge success shortly after the launch of the App Store. Demeter made hundreds of thousands of dollars in the first few months. In 2 months steve made about $250,000. A decade later, Steve is back for Trism’s tenth anniversary and released a much awaited sequel to smash-hit game, i.e trism 2

Twitterrific

Craig Hockenberry, and Iconfactory developed the first ever Twitter client for iPhone, before the iPhone SDK was even announced, thanks to jailbreak before that, it existed only on the Mac. Twitterrific has evolved all these years, it won an apple design award in 2008. Twitterrific has always been updated with the new features for iPhone and iPad. It still remains one of the most famous and beautiful twitter app on the App Store. Twitterrific helped in building twitter’s brand and expand its user base. Its sad to see that twitter is taking steps that may kill these twitter clients. There is an in app purchase to add the ability to translate tweets.

Things

Things is a great task management app available on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It was amongst 552 apps that were available on the app store when it launched. Cultured code made the iPhone app in just about a month. Things is one of the most beautiful apps available on the app store. It is a 2 time winner of apple design award. It has been updated over the years with new features. It supports drag and drop, split view, integration with siri and so much more. Today, it is one of the best task management software available.

OmniFocus

Just like things, Omnifocus is a task management app, from The Omni Group, both have been available since day one. OmniFocus has taken a different approach to task management, than things. OmniFocus puts its emphasis on Perspective and forecast. It might seem complex to a new user, but once you get used to it, OmniFocus is one of the most power piece of task management software available. It has been updated over the years with new design, icon, and new features. It won an apple design award in 2008. It now supports iPhone X, split view on iPad, drag and drop, siri and much more.

Currency

Currencyis another app developed by an indie developer Jeffrey Grossman, it is a currency converter app that launched on the first day of the App Store. Over time, he has updated his app to keep up with the platform changes. It supports multitasking on iPad, iCloud support, and apple watch app. There is a today widget as well, for quick access to exchange values. There is an in-app purchase to remove ads.

Steve Jobs said, that the app store puts small and large developers in an even playing field. If you make a good quality app, it can become a potential hit on the app store, as we have seen with the app before. There are about 2 million apps on the app store and the competition is really tough. Future of the app store look quite good, looking at all the stats. These ten years have been a great success for the app store, and Apple. With the business model shifting towards subscription based apps, it will be quite interesting to see how the app store grooms in the next 10 years. App store has changed the way we live our lives, affecting millions of people around the globe. It has improved the lives of millions of people in one way or the other. Happy 10th birthday app store. Cheers! to many more years of success.