With the aim of satisfying app developers and adding new so-called augmented reality apps, significant changes to its marketplace for third-party software have bene introduced by Apple Inc’s newest operating system for iPhones and iPads.

Even as the its two newest phone handsets, the iPhone 8 and iPhone X, set to start shipping to customers on Friday and Nov. 3, respectively, the new system, called iOS 11, was released on Tuesday ahead of the launch of the new iPhones.

The App Store will see the most visible changes. Noting a 19 percent increase over the previous year and a bright spot as overall sales grew only 5 percent, the App Store brought in $21.5 billion in revenue for Apple in the past nine months and it has grown to become the backbone of Apple’s services segment.

More space for images and text to describe their software have been allocated for app developers through the redesigning of the App Store. unless users type in the precise name of the app or follow a link to it, software posted by developers is hard to find in Apple’s store and this has been the grudge for long about the App Store of Apple.

“The redesign make it much cleaner and speaks to the pain point of the store: You had so many apps that if you didn’t know exactly what you were looking for, it was really hard to find anything,” said Carolina Milanesi, an analyst with Creative Strategies.

Prominent display to games is also being given in the new store. According to App Annie, which collects and analyzes market data on mobile apps, games are expected to make up 75 percent of all revenue for Apple’s App Store.

The purchases of tokens, gems and other digital items to unlock new parts of the game made by gamers is the sources of most of that revenue and it is described in the form of so-called in-app purchases. “It’s really the gift that keep on giving from the developer perspective,” Milanesi said.

But the debut of augmented reality apps, or AR, in which digital images float over the real word, would perhaps be the biggest change in iOS 11 with respect to the App Store. An ostensibly minor feature may help AR apps spread: Screen recording, even though Apple has made much of those capabilities.

Surprised at how enthusiastically users took to sharing screen recordings of AR apps like his whilel testing the app was Adam Debreczeni, maker of an app that lets users see a three-dimensional map of a fitness activity like a bicycle ride or run they’ve gone on.

“I think that’s going to help AR games go viral and get better distribution,” he said

(Adapted from Reuters)