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Key Takeaways
- Entrepreneurs are tapping into vibe coding and flooding the App Store with AI-generated apps.
- Vibe coding is the process of describing an idea to an AI tool in plain English and watching it create a custom app.
- It remains unclear if vibe coding is revitalizing the App Store ecosystem or simply adding to its noise.
Marco Perez, a 27-year-old software engineer based in Chicago, had never created a mobile app before. Over the winter, he didn’t let his lack of experience hold him back.
According to a recent report from The New York Times, Perez used AI tools to create an app for him, a practice known as vibe coding. Over the course of seven weeks, he generated an app called InfoDrizzle, which consolidated news from interesting sources into one place. Since its release, InfoDrizzle has crossed 1,300 downloads and $500 in profit.
Perez kept going. Armed with the experience of creating InfoDrizzle, he was able to release another app in May after just one week of work. The app was called Stampa; it transforms pictures into digital postage stamps. The app reached a wider audience than InfoDrizzle, achieving 20,000 downloads and $3,000 in profit.
These two apps have recently joined a surge of new offerings on Apple’s App Store. The rise of vibe coding has enabled entrepreneurs who don’t know how to code or who have never created apps to bring their ideas to life with little technical knowledge. AI fills in the gaps in their understanding and enables them to profit from their ideas. With vibe coding, AI users can describe an idea to an AI tool in plain English and watch it build a custom app or website on their behalf.
Perez’s future plans
Perez isn’t done yet. He plans on leaving his software engineering job at JPMorgan Chase next month to create apps full-time.
“I’m talking to these people all the time who are way, way, way ahead of me,” Perez said. “It’s crazy how much money they’re making and the opportunities that are there and how fast you can move. Some of these people have failed, have made five apps, and their sixth app blows up.”
Perez said that the mobile app space “was really hot 10 years ago,” but then cooled down and “kind of got boring.” Now the field is “the hottest thing again” due to AI and vibe coding eliminating the technical barrier, he said.
New apps are on the rise
Even though AI makes it easier to create new apps, it doesn’t necessarily guarantee meaningful adoption. It remains uncertain if vibe coding is revitalizing the App Store ecosystem or simply adding to its noise.
Recent data suggests a surge in activity. New app releases climbed 30% last year to about 600,000, according to estimates by app analytics firm Sensor Tower. That acceleration has continued, with approximately 560,000 apps launched in just the first half of this year alone.
Meanwhile, App Store downloads haven’t grown at the same pace. Sensor Tower found that downloads grew 3% last year to 35.4 billion and 2% in the first half of this year to 17.6 billion.
Apple first introduced the App Store in 2008, prompting developers to rush in with new apps. The number of new apps that debuted on the App Store reached a record high of 890,000 in 2016.
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