The revenue numbers back this up. App Store grew 11% in 2025, Google Play 5%. There's still tons of unmet demand, especially for niche use cases that were never worth building before. Lower development costs mean these niches finally get served.

For apps that run locally—no servers, no cloud costs—subscriptions make no sense anymore. The only real cost is development, and that's becoming negligible.

This sucks for developers trying to make a living from apps. The competitive pressure is going to be brutal. But for users? It's great. People have been complaining about app subscription costs for years. There's that old complaint: "Why do I have to keep paying for software after I already paid $1000 for my iPhone?"