Apple's App Store Turns 5: A Look Back at the Most-Popular Business Apps To mark Apple's big day, we checked the numbers to revisit several of the most downloaded apps for business.
By Jason Fell
For some it might be hard to believe that it hasn't been around longer, but Apple's App Store is celebrating its fifth anniversary today. It launched in July 2008 with just 500 apps. Now there are more than 850,000 apps for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch available in more than 150 countries, and users have downloaded more than 50 billion apps.
While Apple's apps come in a variety of categories, including games, news, sports and magazines, some of the store's most downloaded apps are those aimed at business users. Here are some of the all-time most downloaded iPad and iPhone apps for business as of May, when the store reached the 50 billion download mark:
Related: 15 Hidden iOS 7 Features Apple Didn't Tell You About
Skype: This was the all-time most downloaded free app for iPad. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Skype allows users to make free video calls, which can be useful for telecommuting and holding conferences with clients.
Pages: This one came in as Apple's all-time most downloaded paid app for the iPad. For $9.99, Pages is a word-processing app that allows users to create, edit and view documents on-the-go.
Camera+: Among an army of popular games like Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja, Camera+ was the seventh most-downloaded paid app for the iPhone. With a $1.99 price tag, Camera+ is a filter for the iPhone that, as it says, "adds pro-camera crispness to almost any shot."
Bump: If you've ever wanted a quick way to exchange contact information, documents, photos or other files with colleagues and business partners, Bump can help you do it. It placed No. 21 on the list of most downloaded free apps for the iPhone.
Apple says other business-related apps that have been among the most downloaded in the App Store include:
- Dropbox (free)
- Calculator Pro for iPad (free)
- Adobe Reader (free)
- Notability ($1.99)
- TurboScan ($1.99)
- Keynote ($9.99)
Related: Apple to Take on Google Docs With New iWork in the Cloud
