There are some obvious reasons for Apple's success. Quality control is one: by keeping a tight rein on both the smartphone hardware and the operating system, and vetting the apps before they are allowed into the store, Apple could create a roster of high-quality, well integrated apps.
For developers, access to the iPhone's premium audience is extremely attractive, especially as Apple isn't much interested in making much money off the apps, unlike mobile operators who had been the gatekeepers, deciding how apps were distributed and sold at that point.
"This is the best deal going to distribute applications to mobile platforms," Jobs said when he unveiled the App Store. Developers keep 70 percent of the sales of their apps through the App Store, Apple keeps the other 30 percent. That might sound like a hefty slice, but developers don't have to pay credit card fees or for hosting, which is covered by Apple.
Apple has paid out $25bn to developers over the last six and a half years. That means Apple's cut is somewhere around $10bn - a significant sum but tiny compared to what Apple makes from selling mobile phones: the company reported revenue of nearly $24bn from iPhone sales in its last financial quarter alone. However, the limited revenue that Apple generates from the App Store doesn't imply that it's irrelevant - rather, analysts argue the App Store and the apps inside are an essential element of Apple's offering.
"Apple makes margin mostly by selling hardware, but apps are really what creates the loyalty to the ecosystem, be it from a consumer standpoint or for developers," said Thomas Husson, principal analyst at Forrester. "To me [apps] are the glue that sticks the whole ecosystem together because they offer brands and developers a direct opportunity to connect with their customers."
Apple was the first to make a commerical success of smartphone apps and Jobs was right to predict it would be hard for rivals to catch up. None of the rivals which were around when the Apple App Store launched managed it, even when they matched Apple's deal for developers, as iOS had already generated the necessary critical mass.
It took a new challenger in the form of Android to finally provide a genuine rival.
Apple has been surprisingly open with data about its android application development App Store, and the data it shares helps us to understand the sorts of stories it wants to tell. At first the narrative was about the number of apps and downloads as it wooed consumers: now the emphasis is on developers and how much they make from working with Apple as it tries to prevent any defecting to archrival Android - which has, in a number of ways, already overtaken Apple on apps.
According to app analytics company App Annie, in the third quarter of last year Apple's App Store's revenue was around 60 percent higher than Google Play's.
But Google Play's worldwide downloads were 60 percent higher than iOS App Store downloads - and much of that growth is coming in emerging markets (this doesn't take into account the variety of other Android app stores that exist).
Apple leads on revenue because it still holds onto the premium market: richer consumers who can afford iPhones and are willing to pay out for apps or in-app purchases. Android has a vast consumer base but one that stretches from cheap smartphones up to high-end devices.
That's not all - according to data from AppFigures, Google Play has now overtaken Apple's App Store in terms of the number of apps it hosts, and also the number of developers working on the platform.
None of this of course takes into account the quality of the apps inside those app stores: Android is often criticised for the poorer quality of its apps. But it shows that Apple no longer commands the app world.