While originally developing iPhone prior to its unveiling in 2007, Apple's then- CEO Steve Jobs did not intend to let third-party developers build native apps for iOS, instead directing them to make web applications for the Safari web browser.
However, backlash from developers prompted the company to reconsider, with Jobs announcing in October 2007 that Apple would have a software development kit available for developers by February 2008. The iPhone App Store opened on July 10, 2008. On July 11, the iPhone 3G was released and came pre-loaded with support for App Store.
Initially apps could be free or paid, in 2009 Apple added the ability to add in-app purchases which quickly became the dominant way to monetize apps, especially games.Īfter the success of Apple's App Store and the launch of similar services by its competitors, the term "app store" has been adopted to refer to any similar service for mobile devices. trademark on the term "App Store" in 2008, which was tentatively approved in early 2011. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton, who was presiding over Apple's case against Amazon, said she would "probably" deny Apple's motion to stop Amazon from using the "App Store" name. In July, Apple was denied preliminary injunction against Amazon's Appstore by a federal judge. The term app has become a popular buzzword in January 2011, app was awarded the honor of being 2010's "Word of the Year" by the American Dialect Society. "App" has been used as shorthand for " application" since at least the late 1970s, and in product names since at least 2006, for example then-named Google Apps.
Īpple announced Mac App Store, a similar app distribution platform for its macOS personal computer operating system, in October 2010, with the official launch taking place in January 2011 with the release of its 10.6.6 "Snow Leopard" update. In February 2013, Apple informed developers that they could begin using for links to their apps. In June at its developer conference, Apple announced an upcoming "Kids" section in App Store, a new section featuring apps categorized by age range, and the section was launched alongside the release of iOS 7 in September 2013. In 2016, multiple media outlets reported that apps had decreased significantly in popularity. Recode wrote that "The app boom is over", an editorial in TechCrunch stated that "The air of hopelessness that surrounds the mobile app ecosystem is obvious and demoralizing", and The Verge wrote that "the original App Store model of selling apps for a buck or two looks antiquated". Issues included consumer "boredom", a lack of app discoverability, and, as stated by a report from 2014, a lack of new app downloads among smartphone users. In October 2016, in an effort to improve app discoverability, Apple rolled out the ability for developers to purchase advertising spots in App Store to users in the United States. The ads, shown at the top of the search results, are based strictly on relevant keywords, and are not used to create profiles on users.