Appstem Turns 7!

The mobile app design company Appstem is proud to announce we are celebrating our seven year anniversary, wow how time flies by! Thank you to all of our amazing clients, partners, and employees for all your support over the years.

Ten years ago, on 2007 Apple released the iPhone, which would change everything. In early 2008 Apple released the iOS SDK to third party developers enabling developers to make applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch, the iPad wouldn’t be released for another 2 years. That summer Apple opened the App Store, creating an industry that would revolutionize how consumers interact with the digital world.

Shortly after this, Appstem co-founder Hart Woolery downloaded the iOS SDK and created his first App, a game called “Microfight,” a turn-based online strategy game inspired by the web based game, DiceWars. Hart had the vision to see how mobile apps would revolutionize everything we do and saw the need for businesses and brands to create their own mobile apps. Knowing they would need help with this, Appstem was born.

Appstem’s first client project was an iPhone app called Begade, a music collaboration app for a startup in San Diego. After this Hart continued to work with small companies in Southern California creating a Pashto Dictionary app and an app for BlackBoard Eats, a service for restaurant deals and reviews. Appstem officially became a California Limited Liability Company in March 2010. iTunes wouldn’t have it’s 500,000th app approved for more then a year later in May 2011.

Shortly after Robert Armstrong join Hart to help grown the company. With Robert focusing on sales the projects grew in size and Appstem started working with larger companies including house-hold names like Hearst’s Road & Track Magazine, Gold’s Gym, and the large pharmaceutical company Genentech all by the end of our first year.

When we started Appstem many companies didn’t have a mobile strategy. It was hard to even figure out which group would own the mobile product IT or marketing. Now companies have huge mobile teams, regular releases schedules, and in some cases a Mobile Center of Excellence. In the early days of the iPad you would have to create a separate app for iPad and iPhone, you couldn’t create a universal app. Instagram wouldn’t be released until October 2010 and Snapchat a year after in September 2011. There we’re only a few companies like Appstem that focused exclusively on mobile apps, we would find ourselves competing against traditional ad agencies or large software implementation companies both of which didn’t have a lot of mobile experience or resources in-house.

Over the past 7 years Appstem has created over 200 mobile apps for every major industry. We’ve worked with early stage startups, helping them release their first product to Fortune 500 companies and everything in between. We prides ourselves on our long term relationship with many of our clients including Enterprise Holdings that we’ve been working with for almost 6 years, Tesla Motors, 4 years and Cambia Health that we’ve been working with for over 3 years. Appstem continues to be recognized in the industry as a leading design and development company and is still one of the few companies that does all our work in the United States.

Since Appstem’s early days we’ve seen mobile apps transform everything we do from how brands engage with their customers, to reinventing internal business processes, and modernizing healthcare. The mobile app interface has created the emergence of wifi and Bluetooth connected hardware devices creating the internet of things (IoT) revolution.

In the coming years, mobile apps are going to continue to change our lives. More and more users across the globe are getting connected. The IoT craze will continue to connect physical devices to our smartphones. Did you hear they launched a smart toaster and hairbrush at CES last month? We’ll continue to see advances with mobile devices controlling our homes, cars, and re-imagining healthcare. As new technologies and interfaces become available like we’ve seen with Apple watchOS, tvOS, and other wearable technology, Appstem will continue to evolve as the technology landscape changes to make sure we’re continuing to create next generation products.

We’re particular excited with possibilities augmented reality and virtual reality will create and how these technologies will be used in the future. We look forward to working with AR & VR as they become more popular and the enterprise. Today, there are more then 2.2 Million Apps available for download in iTunes.