Back to all articlesMobile apps have been evolving for years and they have made everything one “tap away.” Over the years, we have become dependant on apps for communication, to keep organised and for entertainment.
They have become a new way for businesses get their revenue by providing their services through mobile apps and within four years of the app store launch, applications became a necessity of life.
Mobiles
In August 1994 the first ever smartphone was launched. The smartphone Simon was launched by IBM with no app store but over 10 built in apps which included:
- Contacts
- Calendar
- Calculator
- Clock
In March 2002 Blackberry launched the Blackberry 5810 with the innovative concept of wireless email. It also has a range of apps which included, arcade games, ringtone editor, to do list and sketch pad.
The iPhone was released in June 2007, it included built in apps like weather, maps and text photo. The following year, in November 2008 the first android smartphone was released as well as the HTC dream.
App stores
In 2008, with the release of iOS 2.0 Apple launched App Store. It went live with 500 apps available and within 3 days of the launch it received 10 million app downloads. Also, in 2008 Google launched android market.
April 2009 the App Store surpassed 1 billion downloads. Moreover, in December – Facebook, as in 2008, again remains the most downloaded app.
April 2010, Apple have their first IPad Launch and within 2 months, Apple eclipsed 5 billion downloads with 225,000 apps, 1,100 specifically optimised for IPad and the total android market app download exceed one billion!
The following year, in January 2011 – the total Apple store app downloads exceeded 10 billion. The ten billionth app downloaded was a game called “Paper Glider”
Also in 2011:
- February – The android market was updated to 3.0 Honeycomb redesigning the user interface
- November – Google Play Music was launched
- December – Total android market app downloads exceed 10 billion
In 2013:
- 50 billion app downloads with a library of 800, 000 apps available
- Google play received 50 billion downloads from Google Play Store
Successful Mobile Apps
- Temple Run – 2011 was the year of Temple Run with 100 million downloads it became one of the highest grossing apps on the app store!
- In 2012 ‘Draw Something’ reached 1 million users in 9 days
- 2 billion downloads in four years, Angry Birds is the real game.
- 63% of IOS revenue came from gaming apps like Temple Run 2, Candy Crush and Angry Birds
- App messaging took over mobile messaging
- Soon after reaching 12 million downloads, Instagram succeeded to get 50 million downloads in just another four months!