Eh, we'd have always written software that small if we could have managed to get paid for it.<p>The reason apps are special is <i>that you can get payment for them</i> without credit card and support fees blowing you out of the water. That wasn't a possibility before.
During the 90s there was a popular new development process called Rapid Application Development (RAD). Sort of a predecessor to agile methods.<p>Now it seems we have Rapid Application Consumption. Funny how things change.