History of Apps Store

Bangalore: Since July 2008, when Apple unveiled its App Store, there has been an immense growth and popularity of online mobile apps stores which in turned led to an increase in the demand for apps. This was evident as 10 million apps were downloaded by the first weekend of the app store. Android gave a stiff competition to Apple by opening an app store on October 2008 which was later followed by Blackberry and Nokia’s Ovi Store in April and May 2009 respectively.

The Android Market: Help end users to find, purchase, download and install applications on their Android devices. With only 50 apps in 2008, the number of apps shot up to 4, 43,920 as on May 23, 2012.

iPhone App Store:  A service for the iPhone, iPOd Touch and the iPad, allow users to download app either through ITunes of from their mobile phones. Launched with just 500 apps in 2008, and 6 billion apps downloaded as on July 2011, it now has 585,000 as on March 7, 2012.

Ovi Store: Nokia users can download videos, games, images, ringtones and other applications to their smartphones.  While some applications are free, others can be purchased using a credit card or operator billing from selected operators. Launched with only 1,263 apps on May 26, 2009, Ovi had 83,500 apps and 6 billion downloads as on July 2011.

BB App World: This service allows Blackberry users to browse, download or update their third-party applications. Launched on April 1, 2009, it had 2 billion downloads as on February7, 2012 with over 99,500 apps in the online store.

Windows Phone Marketplace: A service from Microsoft that allow users of their Windows Phone 7 to download and browse applications that have been developed by third parties. Launched in selected countries on October 21, 2010, it has 92,383 apps as on May 15, 2012.

ShoutEm, a platform for iOS and Android app creation traced the evolution of Apps store from July 2008 to August 2011 and illustrated it in a detained infographic given below.