Apple's App Store Turns 5: Relive The Milestones And Best Apps Of All Time

On July 10, 2008, the App Store was born. Five years later, customers have downloaded over 50 billion apps, with approximately 850,000 individual apps currently available for free or sale in Apple’s store. On the day the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the arrival of the App Store, it contained 500 third-party apps for the iPhone and iPod touch, 25 percent of which were free. During its first weekend, the App Store saw initial downloads totaling 10 million. As Jobs said at the time:

The App Store is a grand slam, with a staggering 10 million applications downloaded in just three days. Developers have created some extraordinary applications, and the App Store can wirelessly deliver them to every iPhone and iPod touch user instantly.

The first commercial

Take a look at the very first advertisement for the App Store:

Favorite moments

Earlier this week, Apple posted a special section in iTunes called "5 Years of the App Store." The section, which is also available via the App Store app in iOS, features two sub-sections, Apps + Games, and Milestones. Here are our favorite milestones of each year:

• 2008: By December, the Facebook for iPhone app had been downloaded nearly 5 million times.
• 2009: In April, the App Store celebrated its 1 billionth download.
• 2010: On April 3, the first iPad is released.
• 2011: The HBO Go app arrives.
• 2012: On March 29, Paper by Fifty-Three launches. A few months later it becomes the iPad App of the Year.
• 2013 (so far): On June 10, Apple CEO Tim Cook announces that developers have made a combined $10 billion in the App Store.

Everyone's favorite apps

The most popular apps of all time, as of May 2013 when Apple announced the 50 billionth download: For the top 25 all-time paid iPhone apps:

1. Angry Birds
2. Fruit Ninja
3. Doodle Jump
4. Cut the Rope
5. Angry Birds Seasons
6. WhatsApp Messenger
7. Camera+
8. Words With Friends
9. Tiny Wings
10. Angry Birds Space
11. Pocket God
12. Plants vs. Zombies
13. The Game of Life Classic Edition
14. The Moron Test
15. Where’s My Water?
16. Draw Something
17. Monopoly
18. Angry Birds Star Wars
19. MotionX GPS Drive
20. Skee-Ball
21. Scrabble
22. UNO
23. Minecraft – Pocket Edition
24. Color Splash
25. The Sims 3

For the top 25 all-time free iPhone apps:

1. Facebook
2. Pandora Radio
3. Instagram
4. YouTube
5. Skype
6. Words With Friends Free
7. The Weather Channel
8. Twitter
9. Temple Run
10. Google Search
11. Netflix
12. Shazam
13. Angry Birds Free
14. Draw Something Free
15. Flashlight Ⓞ
16. Facebook Messenger
17. Google Earth
18. Fruit Ninja Free
19. iHeartRadio
20. Movies by Flixster, with Rotten Tomatoes
21. Bump
22. eBay
23. PAC-MAN Lite
24. Groupon
25. Google Maps

For the top 25 all-time paid iPad apps:

1. Pages
2. Angry Birds HD
3. Angry Birds Seasons HD
4. Where’s My Water?
5. Fruit Ninja HD
6. Angry Birds Space HD
7. GarageBand
8. Words With Friends HD
9. Cut the Rope HD
10. Keynote
11. Numbers
12. Angry Birds Star Wars HD
13. GoodReader for iPad
14. Scrabble HD for iPad
15. Minecraft – Pocket Edition
16. Plants vs. Zombies HD
17. Notability
18. Monopoly for iPad
19. Quickoffice Pro HD
20. Star Walk HD
21. Draw Something
22. iMovie
23. iPhoto
24. Where’s My Perry?
25. Bad Piggies HD

And finally, for the top 25 all-time free iPad apps:

1. Skype for iPad
2. The Weather Channel for iPad
3. Netflix
4. Angry Birds HD Free
5. Kindle
6. Facebook
7. Pandora Radio
8. Calculator for iPad Free
9. Fruit Ninja HD Free
10. Words With Friends HD Free
11. Google Earth
12. ABC Player
13. Calculator Pro for iPad Free
14. Temple Run
15. YouTube
16. eBay for iPad
17. CNN App for iPad
18. Dropbox
19. Adobe Reader
20. Twitter
21. Solitaire
22. NYTimes for iPad
23. Temple Run 2
24. Hulu Plus
25. Draw Something Free

Happy anniversary, App Store. What a great ride it has been! See also: Infinity Blade II And More Go Free In Celebration Of App Store's 5th Anniversary.

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