Appillionaires: Secrets from Developers Who Struck It Rich on the App Store

Chapter 3: A Bedroom Revolution

“Steve Jobs told USA Today that the Apple App Store will launch with “more than 500 apps”... Of these, 25 percent will be free and 90 percent (of those for sale) will cost $9.99 or less. “This is the biggest launch of my career,” said Jobs. Analyst Tim Bajarin at Creative Strategies said, “When IBM introduced the PC, it was good, but it didn’t take off until people started discovering the software.” It’s these apps then, he adds, that “dramatically differentiates the iPhone” from Treos and BlackBerrys. Indeed, while consumers are focused on the launch of the iPhone 3G device, it’s the App Store which has analysts in such a tizzy.” — Thomas Ricker — Engadget

Birth of the App Store

It’s testament to the cleverness of any great idea that once it exists, you can hardly imagine things any other way. The App Store has become such an influential part of the mobile phone scene that it’s difficult to imagine what things were like before the app explosion, or to rationalize the extremely short amount of time in which the app business has taken over the tech industry.

Amazingly, the first iPhone did not launch with an App Store. The App Store is a relatively recent invention, unleashed on July 11th, 2008, but in that time it has come to dominate both the mobile industry and popular culture itself. For a company that sells a tiny percentage of the mobile phones on the planet, Apple takes the majority share of the profits. So, not only does the App Store have ...