The article is relatively clear that it is an assumption that the apps are vibe-coded based on the jump being so large. I guess they could’ve tried to cross-correlate that with sales of books or courses on app development that vibe-coders wouldn’t need.

There are a few examples of the types of apps people are making in the comments on this page and it sounds like a lot of the time it’s custom apps for a personal itch that might appeal to very few other people.

Similar to how I have Python scripts on my computer that I won’t publish. They’re not production quality, but I know how to deal with their quirks. I suspect a lot of the apps mentioned in the comments are similar and maybe that’s fine.

I imagine some of the rise is people using AI to clone existing apps too.