📱 July 10, 2008 – Apple’s App Store Launches

Apple opened the iOS App Store on this day, debuting with 500 third-party apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch. This new digital storefront – accessible right from Apple devices – ignited a mobile software revolution. For the first time, consumers could browse and download a wide variety of apps (games, productivity tools, social media platforms, and more) in one convenient place. The App Store was an immediate hit, with 10 million downloads in its first weekend, and it has fundamentally changed how software is distributed and monetized in the mobile age.

The App Store created an entire ecosystem for developers large and small, lowering barriers to entry for software innovation. In the decade that followed, Apple paid out billions of dollars to app creators, and “there’s an app for that” became part of the vernacular. It wasn’t just Apple – the success forced Google, Amazon, and others to beef up their own app marketplaces. Today, mobile apps drive industries from gaming to banking, and the intuitive app marketplace model that Apple introduced in July 2008 is now standard worldwide.

Interesting Fact: One of the early breakout app hits was “Angry Birds,” illustrating the App Store’s global reach. Launched in 2009 by a small Finnish company, Angry Birds racked up over 50 million downloads in its first year, proving that app developers anywhere could tap into a worldwide customer base almost overnight.