Apple has published a news release heralding the 10th Anniversary of the App Store, a milestone that the venerable marketplace will be officially celebrating next Tuesday. As Apple points out, the App Store opened on July 10, 2008, with the release of the iPhone 3G and iPhone Software 2.0.
At launch, the App Store included a mere 500 apps, 25 percent of which were available for free, and 90 percent of the commercial apps selling for $9.99 or less. Games also made up a third of the initial set of apps, and then-CEO Steve Jobs insisted that Apple was not trying to make money of the App Store specifically, but simply wanted to use the App Store as a way to “sell more iPhones.”
As Apple eagerly points out, the App Store grew from these fledgling roots into a “cultural, social and economic phenomenon” that redefined how users interacted with both their mobile devices and the internet at large, and today the App Store is available in 155 countries, includes apps from over 20 million registered developers, and gets over 500 million visits per week.
Apple’s news release highlights several milestones of the store along with testimonials from developers of popular apps such as Overcast/Instapaper, MLB At Bat, Temple Run, Super Mario Run, Candy Crush, Red Tides, HBO, Procreate, Monument Valley, and Pokémon GO, along with analysts, developers, and industry leaders in areas such as health, education, fitness, and accessibility solutions.
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