The Tech Media Minute: 5 Million App Store Titles, Pre-Ordering the 'iPhone 7'
You can now pre-order the “iPhone 7” in China. Here’s a look at that and other tech news for Thursday, Aug. 11.
Top news stories
By 2020, the number of titles in the App Store could double, according to research by the app marketing company Sensor Tower. If correct, this means we could see 5 million apps by that time.
In May, Apple approved 21,000 new games or 43 percent of the total, which was around 38,000. With all of those apps, Apple is likely to place even more emphasis on discovery in the next few years.
As Sensor Tower concludes:
Some of these improvements will likely come in the form of user interface upgrades, while others may very well benefit from Apple’s accelerated push into machine learning. We’re already seeing so-called assistants making their way into core areas of iOS itself—most prominently in the new iOS 10 iMessage and Photos refresh—so it’s not unrealistic to imagine a near-future App Store assistant that learns from user behavior to deliver customized recommendations, intelligently surfacing new apps based on behavior patterns or even conversations with others.
The App Store launched in 2008 for iPhone. By the end of that year, there were over 5,000 active apps. That number grew to 1.75 million by the end of 2015. Last December, the number grew to 2.93 million.
One company is already taking “iPhone 7” reservations
Apple has yet to announce a new iPhone, but that hasn’t stopped a company in China from starting to take pre-orders for the so-called “iPhone 7.”
Leleda is now accepting pre-orders through its website. Would-be buyers are asked to enter a name and a mobile phone number, and then add a verification code texted to that number. They can then choose how many new iPhones they’d like to reserve and book the reservations.
Cupertino is likely to announce new iPhones on Wednesday, Sept. 7 with official pre-orders starting soon after.
Related topics:
On this day
Today, Aug. 11 is Presidential Joke Day and Son and Daughter Day.
Rewind: Fifty years ago today, The Beatles began their last U.S concert tour.
Extra reading
We’ve looked around the web and found these other stories worth considering:
- Why Apple likes to keep secrets (and why it has a lot of secrets to keep), ZDNet
- How Apple will convince us to love the dongle, TechCrunch
- Apple Re-Hires Flipboard Co-Founder for Healthcare Push, Fortune
Want even more? Check out Tech Media Extra.
The Tech Media Minute is published Monday through Friday on AppAdvice to highlight the biggest stories in technology.