It’s a momentous year in the brand world. At least 85% of shoppers are influenced by a product’s packaging while they’re browsing for items. That seems reasonable enough as consumer habits haven’t changed that much over time. What has changed is storefronts; rather, an increased lack of physical storefronts. We know of one storefront that’s changed the way we operate on a daily basis, and as of July 10, 2018, it’s celebrating its 10th birthday: Apple’s App Store.
Forever changing the idea of the store, the app store started with a paltry 500 software applications, approximately 33% of which were games. It was released only hours before the first iPhones were put on sale. Giving people a place where they could not only browse for the applications they wanted but could create them and have a platform from which to market them was a game changer.
In the beginning, if you can believe it, Apple was the underdog. They were fighting against highly customizable software companies like Microsoft, who already had booming developer/application foundations comparatively. Now? In the 10 years that the App Store has been in existence, iOS developers have earned more than $100 billion. This number hasn’t peaked, nor will we see it let up anytime soon.
In fact, last year, consumers spent $42.5 billion on iOS apps, and at its current clip, the App Store sees 500 million visitors every week. With numbers like that, Apple is poised to continue on their hugely successful trajectory.
There are too many applications out there to even begin to tout the success that having the App Store has gifted them, but, Riccardo Zacconi, the CEO of iOS game Candy Crush says it well: “We launched Candy Crush Saga on the App Store over five years ago and it’s been hugely beneficial, allowing us to reach a brand new global audience. Our games have been played in all seven continents, including Antarctica! That shows just how influential and far-reaching the App Store has become.”
Generally, we steer clear from betting, but we’d put our money on Apple continuing to crush it.