The Best Smartphone Apps for 2015 and Most Desired New Apps for 2016

Regardless which smartphone you own or are choosing to buy, the apps that are available for it can have an enormous influence on whether you're ultimately happy with your phone. For every app store across every phone and mobile operating system, there are plenty of excellent apps that we recommend people download.

And among that superb selection, there's always a remarkable sub-selection of apps that are totally free. A list of the top 100 free apps for your phone covers four of the most popular operating systems: Apple's iOS (iPhone), Google's Android, Research in Motion's BlackBerry OS, and Microsoft's Windows Phone 7. While the iPhone has the lion's share of the market, with more apps in its app store than any other competitor, phone running Google's Android are catching up. BlackBerry doesn't make up quite as large a percentage of the mobile market as it used to, but anyone still loyal to the once-business-focused suite of phones and operating system will testify that some great, free apps are still being supported (although you may have to visit several different marketplaces, from the official BlackBerry App World to indie store GetJar, or even the developer's own website before finding them). Windows Phone 7—an impressive successor to the rather awful Windows Mobile platform—is estimated to have around 25,000 apps, which sounds like a big number, though it’s a scant five percent of the more than 500,000 apps in Apple's App Store. Which apps have been most valuable to you in 2015? And furthermore, which apps would you like to see come to market in 2016? Send your comments to the Smartphone and Tablet Zone.