This past month, the App Store celebrated its 10th birthday. During their launch in 2008, merely 500 apps were available. Ten years later, 2 million different types of apps are at our disposal. The mobile movement has revolutionized every aspect of how we create and function -- from the way we work to the things we play and even how we socialize. Today, customers from over 150 countries are visiting the App Store more frequently, staying longer, and submitting more downloads. There were 25+ billion iOS app downloads and 90 billion Android app downloads in 2016. The tremendous growth that mobile has undergone proves that this technology is systemized into our everyday lives, and moving forward, an essential tool for every business, company, and individual in the future.

Ease of Access

Prior to 2008, mobile was a limited resource for people who could not code. However, the introduction of the App Store sparked ideas from users of all technical levels who had a vision. Now, it is easy and effortless for anyone to build the mobile app of their dreams. Chad Evans, the Senior VP of Product for MLB told Apple, “We don’t think anyone realized then the immense impact these apps would have on the ways fans experience sports. We feel fortunate to be part of the historic growth of the App Store these last 10 years. It’s exciting to think what opportunities the next 10 will bring as we continue working with Apple to connect fans more closely to their favorite teams and the game of baseball.” Maybe in the not-so-distant past, it would have been unimaginable to think that mobile technology could impact the way in which fans watched their favorite sports team. Mobile has altered almost every part of how people have experiences.

Mobile-First Business Practices

A majority of emails are almost always read first via mobile. According to Adobe’s Email Use Report, 81% of those surveyed used their phone to regularly check their email and 21% used a tablet device. In 2016, 52% of Internet users browsed websites from their smartphone. So what does this mean? That means that half of your website traffic could be coming from mobile devices. This demonstrates how detrimental it is to have your content on mobile. Mobile technology and its unprecedented expansion has transformed the way that we do business. Apple explained that both new businesses and traditional ones embraced apps to reach and better serve their consumers. In celebration of the App Store’s birthday, they explained that “start-ups including Instagram, Calm, Uber and Instacart embraced features like the iPhone camera, Apple Pay, GPS and Location Services to deliver on-demand and personalized experiences, with many creating billion dollar businesses that started with apps in the App Store,” while traditional companies such as eBay, Yelp, Airbnb and Amazon also “began building apps to meet changing customer behavior.” Businesses of all types have matured with mobile technology, changing the ways we travel to where we find places to eat and how we shop.

The Lessons We Learn

Mobile has even revolutionized education, and touched the way that we learn and teach. There are 200,000 educational apps present in the app store, meaning that there are so many new ways for children and adults to learn, collaborate, and express creativity. Learning doesn’t stop when we leave the classroom; we have to power to learn from anywhere about almost anything with our smartphones. Yan Lin, CEO of Dr. Panda, developer of an education kids games told Apple, “Dr. Panda has transformed from a small Chinese startup to a global kids brand loved by both children and parents with 50 million downloads around the world in only six years.”

How You Can Go Mobile Too

With mobile integrated into our everyday lives, it’s easier now more than ever to create the app of your wildest dreams. You no longer need to break the bank and hire a whole team to build your app from scratch or bog down your IT team to make your website more mobile-friendly. There are many modern resources to allow anyone with a vision to create an elegant, powerful app. Guidebook’s mobile app-building platform provides a simple solution for anyone to build a robust mobile guide without any technical knowledge. From medical events, to campus organizations, to innovative training -- there’s almost everything that you can do more effectively on mobile. If you don’t know where to start, we have a few different templates to help you get started. Thousands of organizations have deployed their mobile apps with Guidebook’s world-class platform. From annual trainings to weddings, Guidebook powers apps for a variety of use cases and offers different plans that cater to every budget and size of audience. Some of our customers include Amazon, Coca-Cola, Google, Major League Baseball, and Johnson & Johnson. What will you create? Click the button below to start building!