Picture an iPhone in your mind. OK, now picture any other smartphone out there. Visualize this other smartphone until you have a really clear image of it. Got it? OK, good.

My guess is that whichever smartphone you pictured—regardless of the brand or manufacturer—it has a touchscreen, a built-in accelerometer, and rows of glassy-looking icons with a wallpaper photo behind them. I also bet that you flick the screen with your finger to move through your photos, right? Even though it’s not an iPhone, it still works and even looks like an iPhone.

Apple did it so right when they introduced the original iPhone that nearly every new smartphone or tablet that comes out today is just another copy of what Apple has already done. But there’s an excitement around the iPhone and iPad that no other smartphone or tablet manufacturer has been able to capture.

What sets iOS apart is the apps. Apps are it. They’re “it.” And while other smartphones and tablets now have some apps, too, they’re not iOS apps, and neither the developers nor the end users of those other apps are rewarded like the people who design, and use, iOS apps. The iPhone itself is a beautifully designed piece of technology. So is the iPad. Hold either of them in your hand and you can’t help but like it. But it’s the apps that make you fall in love. Everybody’s iPhone or iPad has basic apps on it—Calendar, Maps, Weather, Calculator, and so on—but once you start adding third-party apps, it becomes your iPhone.

Your iPad. It’s personal because your apps reflect your life, your personality, and your passions. Apps have changed how we live our lives, how we run our businesses, and what we do in our free time. Imagine how powerful you would be if you could create apps that touch people, empower them, engage them, let them create and communicate in ways they never knew before.