The total number of apps in Apple’s App Store declined for the first time last year, according to new data from the analytics company Appfigures.

Over the course of the year, the number of apps in the store declined from 2.2 million to 2.1 million, marking the first time the store had fewer apps at the end of the year than it did in the beginning.

The reason for that change is likely Apple’s decision to remove older apps from the store that were not being updated regularly, The Verge notes.

Last year, Apple removed apps that were not built on 64-bit architecture, something necessary for them to work on newer iPhone models.

That meant that a number of abandoned apps were cleared out from the store, including past favorites such as Flappy Bird. Apple also removed a number of other low-quality apps from the App Store in 2017, including those that were clones of other apps that already existed in the store.

However, the removal of old apps wasn’t the only reason for the decline. Appfigures notes that just 755,000 apps were released for iOS last year, a 29% drop from 2016. In contrast, 1.5 million apps were released for Android last year, marking a 17% year-over-year increase.

分析公司Appfigures统计的最新数字显示，去年苹果商店里应用数第一次出现下降。

去年苹果商店内应用数由220万减至210万，也是按年计算第一次出现下降。

科技博客The Verge称，应用减少可能是苹果决定删除不常更新的老应用。

去年苹果已经删除没有适配64位系统的应用，这也是为了用户能在新款iPhone上享受更流畅的体验。

不过数字也显示有不少应用已废弃，其中包括曾流行一时的游戏Flappy Bird。2017年，苹果也从应用商店中删除了一些低质量的应用，包括存在抄袭行为的应用。

不过，删除老应用并非总数下降的唯一原因。Appfigures指出，去年新推出的应用仅为75.5万个，较2016年减少了29%。与此同时，去年安卓平台推出新应用达150万个，同比增加了17%。（财富中文网）

译者：Charlie

审稿：夏林