Happy birthday App Store? Just three and a half years ago, our iPhones and iPod Touches only had the stock apps and was completely boring. There was no such thing as Angry Birds, Shazam, Tiny Wings or Fruit Ninja. The extent of our fun on your iOS devices was pressing plus 1 on our calculators and playing music on the iPod apps. And now just three years ago, Apple introduced the App Store.

Before the App Store, our smart phones had a small array of apps to choose from for our smart phones. And now thanks to Apple, our smart phones have become very functional and the abilities of our smart phones have gone beyond our wildest dreams. One year from the date that Apple released the App Store, there were 56,000 apps and over a billion downloads in the App Store. And as of today, the App Store has over 425,000 apps with over 100,000 iPad apps.

The App Store grows every day, with Apple making the process much easier for apps to be approved in the App Store. Apps have become the new way for companies to connect to consumers. A new way for people to receive their news via apps like the Official New York Times app. Apps have changed the way we use our phones.

How has the App Store affected you?