Galaxy Store

Galaxy Store
The Galaxy Store is an app store offering apps, games and exclusive themes and other customizations for mobile devices manufactured by Samsung Electronics. The service is primarily supplied pre-installed on Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablets, and Galaxy Watch wearables. It requires a Samsung account to be used.
History
The Galaxy Store has its origins in a mobile developer program launched in 2008, Samsung Mobile Innovator. Samsung Mobile Applications, an app store powered by PocketGear launched at Mobile World Congress 2009 providing software for Windows Mobile, Symbian, and (from August) Java ME. The services had been established in China and several European countries by the third quarter of 2009.
On 14 September 2009, Samsung Apps launched initially in western Europe, providing software for the Samsung Omnia (i900) and Samsung Omnia HD (i8910) smartphones with more devices added later. In 2010 it started offering apps for the Bada platform, which the Samsung Wave runs on. There were 10 million app downloads by September 2010 in Europe, made up of Java, Windows Mobile and Bada apps.
There was also a Samsung Apps TV for smart TVs, which had gotten 10 million downloads by October 2011. Samsung also held a developer challenge called Free the TV Challenge, which was won by WeDraw in 2010, an application that could draw on mobile and display on the TV screen.
In March 2011 Samsung Apps was launched for the Galaxy line, running Android. Samsung Apps had 40,000 applications by its second anniversary in 2011. The store was also offered on Samsung Gear wearables and Samsung REX feature phones.
A feature called S Suggest (app and www.ssuggest.com) was launched in 2013 that would suggest apps from the store to users. This service was closed in 2014.
In July 2014, with the Galaxy line mostly consolidating Samsung's mobile offerings, Samsung Apps was rebranded to Galaxy Apps.
In 2018, Samsung began an annual award for the best developers, called Best of Galaxy Store Awards. At the inaugural award at the Samsung Developer Ceremony, Booking.com was awarded 'Best App' and Wrist Camera the 'Best Watch App', amongst others.In early 2019, soon after the introduction of One UI, Galaxy Apps was rebranded to Galaxy Store. The store was redesigned in October 2020 with an increased focus on games.
Games rewards
The Galaxy Store features reward points given to users who purchase games.
Best of Galaxy Store Awards
The awards of the latest edition of 2022 were given to:
Best Theme Collection: Pengtai Interactive Advertising Co.
Best Wallpaper Collection: Bergen
Best Icon Pack Collection: Cogul Planet
Best Music App: Sirius XM Streaming by Sirius XM Radio Inc.
Best Entertainment App: Vudu by Fandango Media
Best Podcast: SOLAR by CurtCo Media
Game of the Year: Catalyst Black by Super Evil Megacorp
Samsung apps provided
The following is a list of apps and utilities provided by Samsung itself on the Galaxy Store. (as of September 2023)
Third-parties
Some third-party apps are also available on the Galaxy Store, despite Galaxy devices running on the Google Mobile Services platform which features the Play Store. These apps include the likes of Firefox, Microsoft 365, Wikipedia, and Clip Studio Paint. Some Android games have been exclusive on the Galaxy Store, such as Fortnite for users in the US.
See also
List of Android app stores
App store
List of mobile app distribution platforms
Google Play Store
App Store (iOS/iPadOS)
Ovi Store
BlackBerry World
References
Mobile software distribution platforms
Android (operating system) software
Bada software
2009 software