Artificial Intelligence Previous predictions that AI would make mobile applications obsolete are gradually being reversed. The new reality shows that AI is helping to create a wave of resurgence in app stores, especially the App Store.
According to data from mobile application market data and analytics firm Appfigures, the number of applications released worldwide in the first quarter of 2026 increased by 60% compared to the same period last year on both the App Store and Google Play.
The iOS ecosystem alone saw an even more impressive increase of up to 80%. As of April 2026, the total number of new applications increased by 104% year over year.
Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of global marketing, said in response to previous concerns that predictions about the “death” of the App Store in the age of AI may have been exaggerated.
In the past, many voices in the technology industry, including Nothing’s founder and current CEO Carl Pei, have asked whether chatbots and virtual assistants will drive users away from traditional applications.
Along with this, trends such as smart wearable devices and environmental computing are also expected to replace the role of smartphones.
OpenAI is also collaborating with legendary designer Jony Ive to develop AI hardware devices, demonstrating its ambition to pioneer entirely new computing platforms.
However, a different scenario is emerging, where AI does not eliminate applications, but rather makes them easier to create.
AI-supported programming tools like Claude Code and Replit allow people without a technical background to develop mobile applications.
This has greatly expanded the creative community and contributed to an increase in the number of applications.
Structurally, mobile games still account for the largest share of new applications. However, the group of utility, lifestyle, productivity and health-fitness applications is growing strongly, reflecting the increasingly diverse needs of users.
But this explosion also poses major censorship challenges. Recently, Apple had to remove the Freecash application from the App Store due to regulatory violations after it once topped the rankings for a long time.
In some cases, fake crypto applications have cost users millions of dollars.
According to previous statistics, Apple has rejected more than 320,000 applications as spam or misleading and blocked tens of thousands of fraudulent applications.
But many technology experts, including John Gruber, a well-known technology analyst who specializes in Apple’s ecosystem, believe the App Store needs a dedicated force to combat increasingly sophisticated rogue applications.
In fact, AI poses a paradox: it is both a growth engine and a management challenge. The market continues to grow as the barriers to application development lower, but it also requires greater platform control to protect users.
