Apple’s App Store turned 10 this week.
The smartphone emporium is visited by a colossal 500 million people every week, shopping for everything from the latest big-name games to nifty little apps created by one–man–band start-ups.
And it’s no exaggeration to say that it completely revolutionised the smartphone experience.
Here are five ways the App Store changed everything.
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1 It made mapping apps that much better
Smartphone maps existed before the App Store landed alongside the iPhone 3G. But the quality of mapping software was massively boosted by competition fostered by Apple's application market.
Google and Apple’s mapping tools lead the pack (even if the latter is still lacking compared with the former). However, services such as Here and the excellent Waze have truly come into their own thanks to the App Store.
Waze, owned by Google since 2013, has helped see off old–school satnavs with its community–drove data.
2 The dawn of augmented reality
Augmented reality (AR) has been a long time coming. But support for the tech in last year’s iPhone X, coupled with the launch of Apple’s ARKit, has meant that AR apps have boomed.
The most famous example, even before the iPhone X, was the smash hit Pokemon GO.
But since then we’ve had the stunning IKEA app that lets you place and move furniture in your home and plans for a new Lego game that lets you play with a virtual version of a real life set.
3 It killed handheld consoles
When the App Store first landed Apple made bold claims about how it spelled the death of handheld consoles, such as Sony’s PSP and Nintendo’s DS.
Fast forward a decade and it’s pretty clear that it was on the money.
Third-party classics such as ustwo’s Monument Valley and big-name titles such as the FIFA series have seen handheld consoles become yesterday’s news.
And with iPhones and iPads becoming ever more powerful, it’s likely at-home consoles could soon be feeling the heat too.
4 It's made smartphones into bona-fide productivity tools
Being able to access the likes of Microsoft Office and Apple’s own iWork suite from the App Store has also changed how we work.
As laptop sales dwindle, the ability to pick and choose productivity apps and download them onto large screen tablets and increasingly impressive smartphones means that working on the go is easier than ever and no longer requires multiple devices.
With the iPad Pro now being pushed hard by Apple, expect productivity tools to become ever more prevalent.
5 Streaming made easy
When Spotify first launched on the App Store, many tech-watchers were amazed that Apple was allowing a rival to tread on its territory.
But with its own Apple Music service now thriving, thanks in no small part to competitors’ raising the bar via its own app emporium, Apple clearly made a smart move.
Video streaming services have also been a cornerstone of the App Store, killing off plans in the last decade to bring TV tuners to phones.
Without the App Store, we wouldn’t all be glued to our screens on the commute or listening to the latest tunes the second they come out.
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