MacStories Team

3450 posts on MacStories since July 2011

Articles by the MacStories team. Founded by Federico Viticci in April 2009, MacStories attracts millions of readers every month thanks to in-depth, personal, and informed coverage that offers a balanced mix of Apple news, app reviews, and opinion.
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The App Store at 10: The Next Decade

The App Store has changed the world. Over the last decade society as we know it has been irrevocably shaped by the App Store and its products.

Just as no one 10 years ago could have predicted where the App Store would have brought us today, so is it impossible to guess what the next decade might bring. There’s no stopping us from trying though.

As we close out our App Store anniversary week coverage, here are our hopes and expectations for the next 10 years.

Federico

Apple predictions often age badly because the company has a tendency to not directly follow the latest market trends; at the very least, they offer their unique twist on ideas others have been experimenting with for some time. However, based on how the App Store has evolved for the past 10 years, I see some interesting signs in its trajectory that are pointing to obvious changes coming down the road. So, even though I may turn out to be dramatically wrong in 10 years, here’s my list of App Store changes I believe will occur over the course of the next decade.

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Personal App Store Stories from the MacStories Team

Over the past week we’ve released articles and podcast episodes documenting the stories of Apple and third-party developers during the App Store’s decade of life, but as our celebration week nears its end, we wanted to shift gears and share our own stories.

The story of the App Store doesn’t just belong to Apple, nor is it limited to the developers who have made the App Store such a vibrant marketplace. Everyone who has ever downloaded an app on their iPhone, iPad, or even iPod Touch has their own story of the App Store’s impact on their life. In that vein, here are the MacStories team’s personal stories of what the Store and its products have meant to us.

Federico

I told the story of how MacStories came to be before. After dropping out of university (where I thought I was going to study Philosophy – it’s funny to imagine another timeline where I ended up a Philosophy professor), I got a full-time job as a seller at a physical eBay store. Those stores, which were quite common before the smartphone era and the mobile-marketplace app boom, helped folks who didn’t know how or didn’t have the patience to sell old items on eBay. My job consisted of assisting customers who came into the store with boxes full of stuff, explaining to them how eBay and our fees worked, putting items up for sale, monitoring the auction, and taking care of shipments. It was a fun job, but it was also repetitive and somewhat boring after a while, yet it allowed me to save money toward the first computer I wanted to buy entirely with my own money. I wanted to buy a 15” MacBook Pro.

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Interesting Links

Michael Steeber of 9to5Mac takes an illustrated look at the evolution of a selection of apps and app icons that have been on the App Store for the past 10 years. (Link) What happens if you try to use a Macintosh IIsi as your main computer for a while? Read Chris Wilkinson’s story at Ars...

Home Screen: Mike Schmitz

Twitter: @bobbleheadjoe. Host of several podcasts, including The Productivity Show, Free Agents, and Bookworm. Because I work in the productivity space, I’m well aware of how addicted people can get to their technology. To combat this, I try to include things on my Home screen that serve a specific purpose. Technology is great, but I...

In This Issue

Linea Sketch, a collection of noteworthy games from the App Store’s first decade, Mike Schmitz’s Home screen, an interview with Where To? developer Ortwin Gentz, plus the usualWeekly Q&A, Links, App Debuts, a recap of MacStories articles, and a preview of next Monday’s episode of AppStories....

Interview: Ortwin Gentz

Twitter: @ortwingentz. Founder of FutureTap, lead developer of Where To? and Streets. What’s the origin story of Where To? I can’t speak for the first few months of the app’s existence, since I acquired the app at the end of 2008 from tap tap tap, the original developers. But it was a perfect fit for...

Up Next on MacStories’ Podcasts

Next week on AppStories, Federico and John discuss the apps they use to manage large projects like the MacStories and AppStories coverage of the App Store’s 10th anniversary and Apple’s fall OS releases....

Previously, On MacStories

The Decade-Long Road to Trism 2 Celebrating the App Store’s 10th Anniversary with a Week of Special Coverage Before the App Store: the “Sweet Solution” of Web Apps and Developers’ Relentless Passion New Videos Highlight the iPad’s Power and Flexibility in Common Situations App Store 10th Anniversary: The AppStories Interview Series A Decade on the...

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