Apple’s App Store continues its impressive growth. App intelligence firm Sensor Tower anticipates that the volume of apps hosted by the iPhone maker will more than double over the next four years. The app intelligence firm predicts that the App Store will reach 5 million apps by 2020.
Games the most dominant category
Sensor Tower’s forecast implies that the App Store will be 73% bigger before the end of 2020 in comparison with the size the firm anticipates before the current year ends. The report is based on analysis of historical trends and data dating back to the release of the App Store in 2008 through today. The figures represent the number of globally active apps on the App Store at the end of every year.
Apple’s App Store had only 5,000 apps by the end of 2008, and the number swelled to 1.75 million apps by the end of 2015. There are more than 2 million apps on the App Store as of now. Sensor Tower predicts that the App Store will have 2.93 million apps before the year’s end and that around 2.13 million apps will be added from the end of 2016 until the end of 2020. This will expand the figure to 5.06 million apps.
Sensor Tower further analyzed the number of apps being added every month. It discovered that games alone made up 43% with around 21,000 new apps of the 48,231 new apps released in May being games. The other top categories were entertainment, lifestyle, business and education. However, even if all these four categories are combined, the total did not reach even 50% of the number of apps released under the games category.
Challenges for Apple and developers
With the App Store growing, the challenge for both Apple and developers is to ensure that their users are able to find the apps they are searching for. The Cupertino-based giant has started tending to the issue with a “For You” tab, which will be added to the App Store. This new feature will recommend apps to users based on what they have purchased and downloaded from the App Store.
However, Sensor Tower notes that to bring a stable foundation to an ecosystem that will double in size in just four years, more noteworthy updates are needed to the navigation, curation and general presentation of Apple’s App Store.
Recently, Apple was involved in a controversy over the App Store after music streaming app Spotify blamed the iPhone maker for denying it upgrades on the App Store in order to end competition for its Apple Music.
Photo by Cristiano Betta
