Steve Jobs never planned an App Store until developers pushed back
When Apple unveiled the iPhone in 2007, Steve Jobs told outside developers to build web apps for Safari rather than native software. Their backlash changed his mind, a toolkit followed in March 2008, and the App Store opened that July with 500 apps, growing to around 2.2 million by 2017.
Before the official store existed, owners who jailbroke their phones could already install unofficial software, including a paid location app called Navizon that sold in September 2007, almost a year before launch. Once the doors opened on July 10, 2008, novelty hits flourished: iBeer, which let people pretend to drink a pint from their phone, reportedly earned its makers $10,000 to $20,000 a day. In 2009 Apple added in-app purchases, which soon became the main way apps, especially games, made money.
The store's success turned app into everyday vocabulary; the American Dialect Society named it word of the year for 2010, though the abbreviation dates back to at least the late 1970s. Apple sought a trademark on App Store in 2008 but failed in 2011 to get an injunction stopping Amazon from calling its own marketplace an Appstore. A Mac version launched in January 2011.
By 2016 commentators were declaring the app boom over, citing bored users and apps that were hard to find. Apple responded by selling search advertising, first in the United States in October 2016, and by letting developers answer customer reviews from March 2017. Shopping peaks still set records: during the week from Christmas Eve 2017 customers spent more than $890 million, including $300 million on New Year's Day alone.
Apple says it had paid developers more than $320 billion by 2023, yet its 30% commission drew accusations of monopoly from companies including Spotify and Epic Games, and Dutch competition regulators ruled its in-app charges anti-competitive in October 2021. Removing old 32-bit apps trimmed the catalogue to just over 1.9 million by 2024.
Source: App Store (Apple)
