The golden App Store era
2009–2015
A cultural moment captured, one home screen at a time.
- 2009
The site launches
First & 20 opens in late summer 2009. iPhone 3GS, iOS 3, no folders - your first twenty apps were a statement. Early profiles arrive weekly.
- 2010
The golden year
The archive grows past 50 profiles. Tweetie dominates the scoreboard, Instapaper and Simplenote define the era. The iPad appears and reading apps surge.
- 2011
The unfinished redesign
A cleaner v2 goes live marked 'A Work in Progress' - six new profiles with dates and prev/next navigation. iOS 4 brings folders; the twenty-app constraint begins to fade.
- 2012
The freeze
Updates stop. The archive stands at more than 60 people and 141 apps - a complete photograph of the era just as it ends.
- 2013
Flat design arrives
iOS 7 erases the skeuomorphic world these screens lived in. The archive becomes a period piece overnight.
- 2014
Still online, frozen
The site remains reachable, unchanged - copyright line still reading 2009-2011.
- 2015
Lights out
The last good captures. The domain later lapses, and the archive survives only in the Wayback Machine - until this restoration.