Today, the App Store is a part of every iPhone owner’s life — but it almost didn’t happen. Get the story behind that near-miss, plus some other fascinating App Store factoids, in this week’s issue of Cult of Mac Magazine.

It’s free, and it also packs the latest Apple news and how-tos. Plus, this week we’ve got reviews of three new Apple TV+ offerings, including Tom Hanks’ World War II movie, Greyhound.

Download it now and enjoy it on your favorite iOS device. (Or use the links below to read in your browser.)

July 11, 2008: The iPhone 3G goes on sale. Expectations for the smartphone sequel run high, and Apple delivers with the addition of GPS, 3G data and a higher-quality build.

To make things even better, Apple’s second smartphone runs on a new mobile operating system. iPhone OS 2 introduces a better Mail app, turn-by-turn navigation and a little something called the App Store.

Do you remember the world of software distribution before the App Store? It was a fragmented nightmare that made it very difficult for many companies, particularly smaller ones, to get their products out. The App Store changed all that, while also showing the world that the iPhone could have a different “killer app” depending on the user.

With today marking the App Store’s birthday, here are 10 factoids you (probably) didn’t know about Apple’s mobile app marketplace.

July 10, 2008: Apple launches the App Store, an online hub that lets iPhone owners browse and download apps made by third-party developers.

Transforming the iPhone from a locked-down platform to a generative one, the App Store means that every iPhone user can have his or her own “killer app” depending on the software they want — from social networking to composing music to playing games.

One of the most significant launches in Apple history, the App Store opens up a whole new revenue stream for Cupertino. It’s hard to believe that Steve Jobs was originally dead-set against it!

TikTok enjoyed another month at the top of the App Store charts in June, becoming the most downloaded non-gaming iOS app, according to a new report from Sensor Tower.

The leading app analytics firm says the Chinese social video app was installed more than 87 million times last month on iOS and Android. That represents an impressive 52.7% increase from June 2019.

Reddit is fixing its iOS app after an iOS 14 beta tester discovered that the app was copying the contents from users’ clipboards.

The clipboard copying appears to have been an accident. In a statement to The Verge, a Reddit spokesperson blamed the problem on a dodgy line of code:

Classic Nintendo DS puzzle game series Professor Layton continues to make its way to iOS slowly but surely.

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, the last installment in the original trilogy, which launched on DS a decade ago, is coming to the App Store July 13. Complete with some swanky updated HD graphics for your troubles!

Total App Store spending surged to a massive $32.8 billion in the first half of 2020, combining money spent on premium downloads, subscriptions, and in-app purchases, a recent blog post from app analytics firm Sensor Tower suggests.

Not only is that an enormous amount of cash, but it’s also close to double the estimated gross revenue spent in the Google Play store, despite the bigger market share enjoyed by Android. User spending on Google Play reportedly hit $17.3 billion in the first half of the year.

Another developer is speaking out about Apple’s controlling behavior in the App Store by saying it had an app update rejected because it refused to auto-charge users for its service following a free trial.

“[Apple] can choose to steal from their customers who forget to cancel, but we won’t do the same to ours,” yoga app Down Dog wrote in a recent tweet, saying that this is a line it would not cross.

Apple is running another awesome promotion that offers shoppers free money when they top up their Apple ID. Simply add funds to your account before July 10 and you’ll get 10% extra. Here’s how.