2008 Year in Review: The App Store redefines the mobile user experience

Before Apple introduced the iPhone in mid-2007, the vast majority of American consumers still considered their mobile handsets little more than a tool for voice communications--for the most part, sending text messages, snapping photos and downloading the occasional ringtone constituted the sum total of their mobile data activities. But in delivering a more intuitive and streamlined user interface, the iPhone also heralded the emergence of a new, media-rich mobile experience: Speaking in February at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, AT&T Mobility president and CEO Ralph de la Vega called the iPhone "a game-changer," reporting that since AT&T exclusively launched the device, 95 percent of iPhone owners regularly surf the web, even though 30 percent had never done so prior to acquiring the device.

But the real revolution was still to come: On July 11, Apple launched its App Store virtual storefront in conjunction with the U.S. retail debut of the iPhone 3G. The App Store opened relatively modestly--in an interview with The New York Times, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said the storefront would initially feature more than 500 applications including educational programs, mobile commerce and business productivity tools, with games representing about a third of the first-wave apps. But consumers downloaded more than 10 million iPhone applications within the App Store's first three days and 60 million in the first month, a $21 million windfall for Apple's developer partners. By early December, iPhone owners downloaded more than 300 million mobile applications in all, with the total number of apps available via the App Store topping the 10,000 mark.

In effect, the App Store has reshaped the mobile user experience from top to bottom--no longer must subscribers troll carrier decks and retailer web sites in search of applications optimized for their particular device or operating system, or suffer through absurdly complicated download protocols. Moreover, the sheer abundance of applications available from the App Store virtually guarantees there is an app tailored for every iPhone owner, regardless of their personal wants and needs--no longer must developers create applications designed to reach the widest possible mass-market demographic. No wonder Google, Research In Motion and Palm have all announced rival app shops of their own, and a likeminded Microsoft effort is reportedly in the works--for consumers and developers alike, the best is still to come.