Back in 1983 something extraordinary happened. Motorola revealed a piece of futuristic tech they’d be working on in their labs – it was a mobile phone. Weighing in at 2.5 lbs it wasn’t really all that mobile by today’s standards though.
With the first mobile phone came the first app. It was a simple but effective contacts app that came embedded with the phone. All it did was let you save your friends numbers in a contact list.
Even though back in the 80s mobiles were pretty crude devices, it wasn’t their basic tech power that stopped them from holding other basic apps. Instead corporate fear was to blame. Back then it was the handset manufactures alone who developed and designed their handsets and because competition was vicious and companies were suspicious or even paranoid about their secrets getting out, they wouldn’t let anyone else in on software development.
Later in the 90s apps like calendars and ringtone editors came with phones. It’s fair to say that all of us who can remember it still hold a special place in our hearts for Nokia’s addictive Snake game!
The app market explodes
Fast forward to 2013 and there are now over 900,000 apps available. It seems our hunger for apps is almost endless – we’ve downloaded over 50 billion of them worldwide. And right now 800 apps are being installed onto phones every second.
Play anywhere
With the rise of apps came a unique opportunity for casino and gambling fans – now they could play anywhere they wanted, at any time they liked.
Seeing as online gaming had already proved popular, it made sense that people would want to take their play to the next level. The demand was there so masses of gambling apps were released for both Android and iOS.
There are now whole sites dedicated to rating and reviewing the large number of Android apps that are out there. There’s a bewildering amount of gambling apps to choose from, including apps where you can play for real money, ones where you can play for fun and even poker and blackjack apps that teach you the tactics of how to play a winning game.
Just how big is really big?
Recent estimates show that the app market is worth over $25 billion and it’s easy to see why when you take a look at just how well the top apps are selling.
The biggest grossing app of all time is Candy Crush. It’s a relative new comer to the app world but it already boasts 5 million active users a day and makes $866,000 every 24 hours.
Another big money maker is Draw Something. Created by a team at a tiny company called OMGPOP, the app makes $250,000 per day. OMGPOP was also bought by Zynga after the success of its game – Zynga paid over $180 million for the once little game studio.
There are other even more surprising stories, bound to put a smile on your face or make you green with envy, depending on how you look at it! Take GreatApps for example; they were another small, good but fairly insignificant, game development company. Then they had the brainwave of creating an app called iSteam which makes your iPhone look like your mirror after you have a long hot shower and it steams up. That app was downloaded 3 million times and earned the guys behind it $5 million.
Gambling apps: The best on the table
It’s not just apps about collecting sweets or touching an imaginary mirror that become blockbusters either.
Gambling apps have become big business in the UK too. According to a mobile data company called Onavo, 4.3% of British iPhone owners have at least one sports betting app on their phone. William Hill is the most popular amongst those sports fans with 38% of them choosing to bet with it.
Then there’s the Texas Poker App. It features in a list of the top grossing iPhone apps of all time and has apparently raked in over $20 million for its developers.
Money Maker?
With all those downloads going on and all that money flying around it’s easy to see why people are starting to see apps as the Holy Grail. If you can develop just one successful app, you may never have to worry about paying the bills again.
Just like apps can make money for the people who create them, they can also make money for the people who play them.
There is a huge selection of real money casino and betting apps available meaning the opportunity to score a win is never far away. Mobile prizes and jackpots can be absolutely massive.
People win on their phones regularly but last August the record was smashed for the biggest ever mobile jackpot win – $1,448,150 went to one player on PartyCasino mobile. That’s just one jackpot, there are literally thousands out there waiting to be snapped up by bored commuters playing on their way to work or players taking a spin during the advert breaks at home!
