A new report says that Apple’s iOS app store could have over 5 million apps by 2020 – a 73% increase over today.
Sensor Tower is not prone to exaggeration but even it says that will create monumental headaches for discoverability – app developers won’t stand a chance unless they pay for positioning.
It uses its App Intelligence Platform to map out the app store from humble beginnings with 5,000 apps in 2008 to 1.5 million apps at the end of 2015. Apple says there are now around 2 million apps seven months later.
Games dominate the apps – 20,958 are added in May 2016 alone. But there are 22 categories driving growth ranging from 134 new weather apps to 2378 entertainment apps.
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Randy Nelson, Head of Mobile Insights at Sensor Tower, said, “We know where the App Store is heading in the next four years regarding the number of apps, but what does this mean for app developers - not to mention Apple itself? It is clear from the difficulty developers are having to get their apps discovered on a store containing roughly two million apps that some significant steps on Apple’s part will be required to make discoverability viable when there is more than twice that number to contend with.”
Apple’s response is “user pays” – including new easier to find categories driven by paid search advertisements. In other words, those who can afford to pay will play, and the remainder of the 5 million apps will languish.
Apple has said developers will have to bid on the top slot against a particular app name or keyword. Search ads will become a critical way for apps to be discovered in a growing storefront, especially given that Apple says over 65% of apps today are downloaded from a search query.
Its “Featured” section has also changed from the most popular apps to the new ones. Presumably, that will also have to pay. TechCrunch has a full article on the changes here.
Whether Apple does reach 5+ million apps is academic. It and Google Play are full of crap apps, old apps, outdated apps, and more than a fair share of grey (malvertising) apps. Per’apps it needs a good spring clean. Oh wait – there may be an app to do that!