Which device-specific Pinterest app launched in early March 2011?

The iPhone app was the device-specific Pinterest application launched in early March 2011. Its release produced more downloads than the company expected and helped Pinterest expand beyond its original web experience.

Pinterest had begun as a website, with a prototype released in March 2010. At the time, the service centered on visual bookmarking: users saved images to themed boards and discovered ideas through other people’s collections. A dedicated iPhone app made that behavior more natural on a mobile device, especially for browsing images and saving ideas while away from a computer.

The mobile launch was followed by an iPad app and Pinterest Mobile, a version of the website intended for people using other phones. Those later products are why the timeline can be confusing: the iPhone app came first, while the iPad version followed.

This was an important early growth moment, not the launch of Pinterest itself. The web service had already debuted in closed beta in 2010, and the company continued operating from a small apartment during much of this early expansion.