Weekly Highlights: App Store, Lumia 1020, and Gen C |

This week, our site suffered some server issues, meaning we were down most of Tuesday and lost a chunk of Monday's stories into the either. It was unfortunate, but it speaks to the pace of this industry that when I came to put together this week's round up of the best stories and features, that there were still plenty to choose from.

To kick us off, a birthday: the fifth anniversary of Apple launching the App Store. David Murphy paid tribute to the store, and some of the industry's best and brightest shared their thoughts on how vital the App Store has been to the modern mobile landscape.

If you need any further proof of that - or just fancy feeling really old all of a sudden - read Kirsty Styles' account of her conversation with a couple of representatives from the younger end of Generation C.

This week also saw rumours of a budget iPhone; Weve's mobile marketing business announcing a £500,000 deal with Heineken; and a major update to Google's Maps and Offers products drawing the two closer together.

Finally, Nokia today unveiled its latest Windows Phone 8 handset, the Lumia 1020, which boasts a 41MP camera. Immediately, conversation turned to whether this could be the flagship device to turn around the fortunes of the manufacturer, and so we once again turned to a few industry experts for their opinion.

Speaking personally, I'm unconvinced how much attention consumers actually pay to specs when they're picking out a phone. If this week has had a single theme, it's been the importance of software over hardware. It's hard to imagine the aforementioned teenagers picking up a phone with such a powerful camera when - as pointed out by Ovum's Tony Cripps - it can't run Instagram.

Thanks for reading, and have a good weekend. We'll be back Monday with the latest news and features.

Alex Spencer

Online Editor