10 by 10: Decade of fun, huge payouts at App Store

Dubai - Over 2.03M apps available; $100B paid out to developers in June

'X' is really marking the spot for Apple as of late; after its decade-anniversary flagship iPhone X, another core unit of the tech giant is turning 10: the App Store.
Apple's digital distribution platform will celebrate 10 years on, fittingly, July 10. What started with 500 apps in 2008 now has over 2.03 million as at the first quarter of 2018, according to Statista Apps designed especially for the iPad, which was first introduced in 2010, are at more than 1.3 million.
Google Play remains No.1 with over 3.8 million apps.
"In its first decade, the App Store has surpassed all of our wildest expectations - from the innovative apps that developers have dreamed up, to the way customers have made apps part of their daily lives - and this is just the beginning," Phil Schiller, senior vice-president for worldwide marketing at Apple, said in a statement. "We could not be more proud of what developers have created and what the next 10 years have in store."
Today, Apple says more than 500 million visit the App Store on a weekly basis in 155 countries. The most-downloaded app of all time on the platform is Facebook, while a report The Verge, quoting a new study from App Annie, revealed that Netflix was the app that users spend the most time with. The list also showed that most of the top apps are from Apple's rivals, including Microsoft and Google.
The App Store also created an economic phenomenon. When it started, certain publishers normally charged 99¢ for the right to use their apps or specific features in them. The introduction of in-app purchases (IAPs) in 2009 proved to be a viable business model, and by June 2010, $1 billion was paid out to developers from IAPs and paid apps.
In 2011, the App Store started supporting subscription apps, and by 2016, had expanded support to all 25 of its categories, including games, kids and health and fitness. Over 28,000 iOS apps now offer subscriptions, which are up 95 per cent from last year.
This, in turn, became a huge payout: at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that developers' earnings had topped $100 billion.
He added that Apple has 20 million registered developers.
Apple has also used the App Store to reach out to more sectors of society, evidenced by its recent announcements to teach students to code and provide programmes for persons with disabilities.
- alvin@khaleejtimes.com