App Store At 10

Apple’s App Store turned 10. If you remember Walter Isaacson’s book on Steve Jobs, then you would remember Steve wasn’t a fan of the idea of an app store. An enthusiast community saw an opportunity, released a cracked iOS and an app store for independent apps. Very few developers were on board for the web apps, that Apple was pushing.

Instead it was a bunch of renegades who thought App Store was needed. They called it iOS jailbreaking. By the way, our friend Ben Schachter of Macquarie Research points out that “99.9% of all apps in the App Store have earned less than $1 million,” and that ” In 2017 iPhone Apps were 84% of total sales,” with iPad getting the rest.  

App store’s tenth anniversary is a timely reminder that enthusiasts — derisively labeled fanboys — help turn companies into cultural movements. Twitter, as it does a bearhug on its ecosystem, shouldn’t forget that a large part of its success comes from those same enthusiasts.