New Apps: Thinking Outside the Litter Box

There are now hundreds of thousands of apps available for mobile phones, though most estimates put the figure as high as 11 billion, if you count off-brand apps that have not yet found an app store willing to sell them. More than seven million people globally are now involved in the design, manufacture and marketing of apps, and 1.7 million journalists today make a living writing about apps.

According to a report from the Congressional Budget Office, by 2030 one-third of the U.S. population will be employed in the app industry, and the ordinary person will spend 3.5 hours a day interacting with phone apps. This is just slightly less than the 3.7 hours that will be spent removing snow.