On July 10, 2008, Apple launched the App Store, an online hub where iPhone owners could browse and download apps from third party developers. More than anyone could have expected, this became a defining moment in the history of personal computing.
Foremost, it profoundly changed the smartphone. Apple's handset was able to finally take on the multitude of functionalities we now expect of all touchscreen phones: Sharing photos, posting to Facebook, finding a place to grab dinner, composing music, and playing every kind of game, from word puzzles to first-person shooters.
But while this simple digital storefront forever changed the iOS experience, it also changed the way we think about software distribution and valuation.
“Software distribution was absolutely primitive before the App Store,” app developer Phill Ryu told Wired. “It deserves just as much credit as the original iPhone hardware and iOS in defining our modern smartphone experience.”
The App Store has trained us to see an app purchase as an ethereal moment, a simple action completed with a mere tap. No more having to pull out a credit card, fill a web form with personal information, or even give a second thought about it, like you would with a license-based software download in the pre-App Store days. It also made the decision to purchase an application much more casual. Because apps were cheap, you could afford to download one, play with it, and if you didn't like it, delete it and try something else. Never before was that a viable option.
"Today, people are paying for apps without trials, just on faith that it'll solve a problem for them or entertain them," says Mac and iOS developer Steve Streza.
This one-stop store also leveled the playing field for indie publishers like Streza (he used to work on Pocket, but he now develops apps independently). Small, one or two-person software shops previously had no way to showcase their product offerings in front of a significant audience. The App Store enabled the little guys to get their material out side-by-side with big publishers, and in front of the eyes of millions of consumers.
But a third party app store wasn’t even originally in the plans for the iPhone. Or at least outwardly, it wasn't. When it first debuted in 2007, the iPhone came stocked with a handful of Apple-built apps -- nothing much different than what you’d find on an advanced PDA-type device at the time, really. A SMS app, calendar app, camera and photo library, and the ability to make phone calls, among others. Then-CEO Steve Jobs proclaimed web apps were the future, and mobile Safari would be the portal. Developers groaned, and the jailbreak community was born. As the underground blossomed, it showed the full capabilities of what an iPhone or iPod touch could do. Apple took note, releasing its first iPhone OS (as it was then known) SDK in March 2008. The company then launched the App Store alongside the iPhone 3G and iOS 2.0.1 that July. The App Store debuted with 500 third-party apps, including top grossing titles like MLB.com's At Bat, Sega's Super Monkey Ball, AIM, Facebook, and Shazam. Other popular titles like Doodle Jump and TapTap Revenge launched soon after.
The App Store made downloading new software easy and commonplace. For proof, look no further than Apple's App Store download numbers: It reached 10 million downloads its first weekend and 100 million downloads by September 9 that year. By April 2009, iOS users had downloaded 1 billion apps. As of WWDC 2013, that number has reached a staggering 50 billion downloads. And that’s just for iOS alone.
The App Store has since inspired a number of similar app markets. Today there are dozens of app stores in existence. Some are platform specific, like Google Play or BlackBerry App World, while others are carrier specific, like the Verizon App Store, or completely independent, like Cydia for jailbroken iOS devices. In 2011, the App Store experience even came full circle as Apple introduced the Mac App Store for desktop apps.
“The App Store was a game changer for the whole mobile industry,” Saara Bergstrom, Rovio VP of Marketing & Communications tells Wired. “It made independent publishing mainstream for developers and apps easily available for consumers.”
Developer Phill Ryu says it’s easier than ever to make an app and sell a copy to a customer out there. Still, while some apps are profitable based on the sheer number of downloads (if it’s a paid app) or through in-app purchases or advertising, many app makers subsidize the cost of their development with venture capital, a model borrowed from the web world. But the competition against other apps and developers is intense. There are currently 900,000 apps in the App Store. While this sheer volume of apps is certainly one of the App Store's greatest strengths over competing mobile platforms, Ryu says it also presents one of its biggest challenges.
“All that value is out there, an immense long tail of apps created by tons of developers and hidden away, waiting to be tapped by their target customers. We just need dramatically improved discoverability to fully unlock it,” Ryu says.
Streza agrees, adding that the App Store features some design decisions that have reinforced some unhealthy models. For example, the top charts sections have given rise to scam apps that emulate other popular apps. And because the App Store displays a list of apps and their prices right next to each other, a person will likely gravitate towards the cheaper app option when searching for a specific type of app. This forces the value of apps to go down across the board. Since the launch of the App Store, this fact has had a dramatic effect on the way the general public views and appreciates software.
Ryu calls this change in the perceived value of applications “both beautiful and terrifying” for app developers. "The explosive popularity of apps has made them more relevant and valuable than they have ever been to the average person's life, while simultaneously driving prices down to the floor," he says.
Streza observes that for many consumers, this is the first time they've actually thought about the value of software, and been willing to install applications frequently and confidently. "Aside from a few key products like Microsoft Office, consumers on the desktop were largely scared off of buying software because of malware," he said. Big name developers, rather than indie developers, also dominated the desktop software space. If you didn't work for a Microsoft or an EA or another major title, it was extremely difficult to get your software noticed and adopted. Apple's robust, but not entirely transparent, app vetting process has been a double-edged sword in that respect. It's given consumers confidence that apps, no matter the developer, are trustworthy and secure. But it can sometimes be boggling to developers to have seemingly legitimate apps denied from the App Store, or to see an app denied because Apple decides it too closely mimics functions that already exist in Apple-built apps.
While the downsides are clear -- and many points of contention will likely remain unresolved -- the gains we've seen as a result of the App Store are phenomenal. Five years ago, software acquisition was a tricky beast. But now, developers have a huge audience of device owners to cater to, and they can deliver or update a product instantly. The small-beans software developer can now view coding as more than just a hobby. With such a broad marketplace, every little app has potential. And of course, consumers are winners too. They now have an unbelievably wide variety of software to customize their mobile experiences, help them get things done, or simply pass the time.
