Hey guys it’s Greg with Apple Explained, and as you can see from the title, History
of the App Store won this week’s voting poll.
If you missed the poll and didn’t get to vote, make sure you’re subscribed, that
way the voting polls will show up right in your activity feed.
Now I’m glad this topic won because 2018 is the ten year anniversary of the App Store
and that means if you’re in middle school right now, you probably don’t remember what
life was like before the app era.
So let’s travel back to 2007, the year of the original iPhone, and explore how people
used their smartphones without an app store.
Back then, when you purchased a smartphone, whether it was a Blackberry, iPhone, or Nokia,
you were stuck with the software included on the phone.
If you wanted to use Facebook, you had to go through the smartphone’s web browser
and get on Facebooks website.
And because you were accessing the site on a mobile device, you were served the mobile
site version.
And the problem with this was most mobile sites were half-baked versions of the full
website.
So you typically didn’t have access to all its features and functionality, and if you
did manage to access the full desktop site from a mobile device, it was slow, clumsy
to navigate, and hard on your battery.
So right away you can see the need for an app store.
But things always appear more obvious in retrospect because Steve Jobs didn’t believe the iPhone
needed an App Store, he favored the concept of web apps.
The reasons why he preferred this approach is that web apps were inherently free, easy
for developers to create and update, and didn’t require the infrastructure and resources necessary
to operate something like an app store.
Jobs said, “The full Safari engine is inside of iPhone.
And so, you can write amazing Web 2.0 and Ajax apps that look exactly and behave exactly
like apps on the iPhone.
And guess what?
There’s no SDK that you need!
You’ve got everything you need if you know how to write apps using the most modern web
standards to write amazing apps for the iPhone today.”
Needless to say, not everyone agreed with him.
Apple board member Art Levinson favored the app store approach and called Jobs six times
to change his mind, saying, “Jobs at first quashed the discussion, partly because he
felt his team did not have the bandwidth to figure out all the complexities that would
be involved in policing third-party app developers.”
And I think that was a very reasonable concern.
After all, no one had ever made an app store for such a large platform like iOS before.
This disagreement created a divide within Apple.
Team web apps, and team app store.
Those who supported an app store argued that developers needed the ability to create native
apps on iPhone since it came with so many benefits.
Great power management, offline access, optimized performance, ease of use, monetization opportunities,
and a reason for customers to choose iPhone over its competitors.
Needless to say, Jobs ended up getting his way and at the 2007 WWDC, Apple announced
that iPhone would run web apps.
But the news fell flat.
Developers were frustrated that they couldn’t create native apps for iPhone like they’d
been doing with the Mac.
It also left very little room for developers to monetize their web apps outside of ad revenue.
And the features of their web apps would be limited to the capabilities of Web 2.0 instead
of having access to native APIs in an iPhone Software Development Kit.
This disappointment sent a clear message to Jobs, and he responded later that year in
an open letter that began, “Let me just say it: We want native third party applications
on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers hands in February.
We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone
and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users.”
This change of heart was well received in the tech community and customers became excited
about the potential of native third party apps.
About five months later Apple released the iPhone SDK to developers for a $99 annual
fee.
Developers praised the software development kit since they could build and test apps quickly
and had access to some of the same APIs Apple used to build their apps.
The kit also had an iPhone simulator to mimic the look and feel of the device on the computer
while developing.
This kicked off an app-creation frenzy.
Developers knew that being one of the first apps offered on the App Store was a huge advantage,
since the marketplace would quickly balloon in size.
Five months later Apple opened the App Store to customers with 500 apps available.
And in its first three days, users downloaded over 10 million apps.
The app store was a grand slam, and it was just the beginning.
At the end of 2008 the app store offered over 10,000 apps and Apple released the top ten
paid and free apps of that year: The top ten paid apps were Koi Pond, Texas Hold’em,
Moto Chaser, Crash Bandicoot: Nitro Kart 3d, Super Monkey Ball, Cro-Mag Rally, Enigmo,
Pocket Guitar, Recorder, and iBeer.
The top ten free apps were: Pandora Radio, Facebook, Tap Tap Revenge, Shazam, Labyrinth
Lite, Remote, Google Earth, Lightsaber Unleashed, AIM, and Urbanspoon.
If you were around for the release of the app store you were probably just hit with
a bit of nostalgia.
In 2009 Apple ran an ad campaign with the slogan “There’s an app for that” and
the catchphrase found its way into pop culture and was parodied several times over by YouTubers
and television shows alike.
The term “app” became so popular that it was awarded the honor of being 2010's "Word
of the Year" by the American Dialect Society.
The immediate success of the app store prompted other smartphone companies to do the same
on their platform.
Google released their own store for android called Google Play near the end of 2008, Microsoft
opened its Windows Store in 2012 (later renamed Microsoft Store,) and Amazon released their
Amazon Appstore in 2011.
Now Amazon’s store was the only one to share the Appstore name with Apple, and this triggered
a lawsuit.
Now that may sound a bit petty, but Apple had applied for a trademark on the term “App
Store” in 2008, which was technically approved in early 2011.
Apple spokesperson Kristin (who-goot) Huguet told Bloomberg that, “Apple’s fear is
that by using the ‘App Store’ name, Amazon’s offering will ‘confuse and mislead customers.’”
But after making little progress on the lawsuit after two years, Apple and Amazon called a
truce.
According to Apple, they didn’t need to pursue legal action against Amazon anymore
because consumers had spoken clearly in their preference for the Apple App Store.
The App Store received its first small update in iOS 3 which introduced in-app purchases
and push notifications for third party apps.
Now, the release of in-app purchases will probably go down as one of the most controversial
features in App Store history.
The announcement was huge for developers, and led to a fundamental shift in the way
applications were marketed and priced.
Up until this point, developers of premium applications faced a major problem: they had
no way of offering a watered down version of a premium application for free that users
could pay to unlock if they liked what they saw — a capability that was quite common
on desktop software.
This led to the creation of ‘Lite’ versions of applications, which typically offered a
reduced feature set, and required users to buy an entirely new application to access
its premium features, which obviously wasn’t user friendly.
With in-app purchases, this was no longer a problem.
Lite versions of applications were removed entirely, and in its place premium apps were
offered for free with feature restrictions.
If users wanted access to all the features down the road, they could easily purchase
them from within the app.
But there was a downside to this capability, particularly with gaming apps.
Instead of being used to unlock features, in-app purchases were used to endlessly charge
users in order to keep playing a game.
You could download some great games for free, but it may only be a demo.
So in order to play the full game, you’d have to pay.
And to continue to play the game, or to unlock new content, you’d have to pay again.
This was a result of the new freemium pricing strategy that plagued the majority of “free”
gaming apps including Candy Crush, Clash of Clans, and Farmville.
Some users also felt that developers were only releasing a portion of their game, and
then charging users for the remaining gameplay, rather than using in-app purchases to provide
bonus content.
But unfortunately Apple had no control over how developers utilize in-app purchases, so
the feature was and continues to be exploited in order to maximize profit.
In iOS 4 Apple tried to help developers monetize their apps by introducing iAd.
And this is where web apps snuck back into iOS because when a user tapped on an iAd,
it would fill the screen with a web app-based interactive advertisement that could offer
downloadable freebies like wallpapers, videos, and even apps without requiring a trip to
the App Store.
And when a user tapped the exit button, the ad would disappear from the screen and leave
the user right where they left off.
So throughout the entire process, you were never taken out of the app.
This was in contrast with other ads which would rip users out of their app and take
them to the web browser to display the advertising content.
After six years of activity, Apple quietly discontinued the iAd App network in 2016 without
any justification.
In iOS 5 the App Store was integrated within Game Center so users could easily find and
buy new games.
And the App Store also received a new downloads section where you could see a list of apps
you’d downloaded from any iOS device connected to your account.
The App Store got its first redesign in iOS 6 that included viewing app screenshots in
full screen.
Also, when you downloaded an app, it didn’t redirect you to the home screen anymore, a
helpful feature if you wanted to stay in the app store to download multiple apps.
In iOS 7 the App Store received many new capabilities including a wish list, searching through previously
downloaded apps, auto app updates, viewing popular apps based on location, and new icon
animations when downloading an app.
And developers gain access to the new HealthKit API in iOS 8 which allowed them to link apps
to a central database of a users personal health data, with the users permission.
In iOS 10 developers could buy ad spots in the App Store’s search results similar to
what we see with google and Amazon.
Apple also allowed developers to respond to user reviews of their app.
Finally, in iOS 11 the App Store received its biggest redesign yet that was cleaner
and more consistent with other apps like Apple Music.
It also had a bigger focus on editorial content like daily highlights.
This reorganization was meant to encourage app discovery and help lesser known apps earn
some time in the spotlight.
Today, users spend more time on apps than mobile search and the app revolution shows
no signs of slowing down.
The App Store offers over 2 million apps that have been downloaded more than 130 billion
times.
And all of this success has added up to over $70 billion in revenue for developers.
But the worldwide popularity of the App Store has caused some problems, especially in China.
In 2017, the Chinese government requested that Apple remove the The New York Times App
from the China App Store.
Most likely to block critical or revealing information about their leadership.
Apple spokesperson Fred Sainz said, "we have been informed that the app is in violation
of local regulations.
As a result the app must be taken down off the China app store.
When this situation changes the app store will once again offer the New York Times app
for download in China.”
Apple also began removing VPN apps in compliance with new laws in China requiring a government
license for businesses offering VPNs.
Many criticized Apple for enabling China’s aggressive censorship in order to maintain
access to the lucrative Chinese market.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio said, “Here’s an example of a company, in my view, so desperate
to have access to the Chinese marketplace that they are willing to follow the laws of
that country even if those laws run counter to what those companies’ own standards are
supposed to be.”
But Tim Cook remained optimistic about the situation, saying, “My hope over time is
that some of the things, the couple of things that’s been pulled, come back.
I have great hope on that and great optimism on that.”
But what do you think?
Is it okay that Tim Cook is bending to China’s will, or is Apple just practicing standard
business protocol by adhering to local laws?
Let me know what you think.
And if you want to vote for the next video topic, don’t forget to subscribe.
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next time.