Apple's 2015 apps of the year include Periscope for iPhone, Robot Factory for iPad, HBO Now for Apple TV, Dark Sky for Apple Watch, and Affinity Photo for Mac
Apple Publishes Best of 2015 App Store Lists for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV — Early this morning …
Context & Ripple Effects
The 2015 picks close out a year in which Apple's newest platform got its own storefront: the Watch App Store went live in April, and Dark Sky taking the watchOS crown is the payoff of that launch. The list also reads as a snapshot of mid-decade app economics — Periscope for live video, HBO Now as the first big cable-free streaming bet, and Affinity Photo challenging Adobe on the desktop.
First-order effects
- Periscope, Dark Sky, HBO Now, and Affinity Photo get an Apple-endorsed marketing boost at holiday buying season, with featured placement across five storefronts rather than one.
- HBO Now's win validates Apple TV as a streaming-first device rather than an iTunes accessory, just as standalone subscription services were arriving on it.
Second-order effects
- Rival platforms and publishers now treat the annual Best-of lists as a distribution prize worth designing for — a pattern the later editions confirm, from Wakeout! and Disney+ in 2020 to the cross-platform games categories added by 2021.
- Desktop creative tools face a pricing and positioning question when an Apple-curated challenger to the established subscription suites gets the Mac slot.
Third-order effects
- A decade on, the franchise has become an editorial barometer of where apps are heading — the 2025 edition crowned Tiimo with most winners carrying AI features, a far cry from 2015's live-streaming novelty.
- Curation itself has become the product: with hundreds of millions visiting weekly, Apple's editorial picks shape which categories developers invest in, from watch utilities to AI planners.
The trend: Apple's yearly App Store Awards have evolved from a holiday merchandising list into a decade-spanning record of platform shifts, tracking each era's defining category from live video to AI.