2012 Apple Design Award Winners Announced - MacRumors
Skip to Content

2012 Apple Design Award Winners Announced

by

Apple today announced the winners of its annual Apple Design Awards at WWDC. Winning developers receive a MacBook Air, an iPad, an iPod touch, and the Apple Design Award cube trophy as well as a special ADA lanyard.

For apps to be eligible for ADA nomination, they must be distributed via the Mac or iOS App Store. This year's winners come from a range of genres, encompassing everything from games to education to art to music:

iPhone

Jetpack Joyride
National Parks by National Geographic
Where’s my Water?

NewImageiPad

Paper
Bobo Explores Light
DM1 the Drum Machine

Mac

DeusEx: Human Revolution
Sketch
Limbo

Student

Little Star
daWindci

Apple has included additional information about the apps and what made them stand out on the Apple Design Awards page.

Two years ago, as part of the focus on iOS at WWDC 2010, Apple did not include Mac applications in the Apple Design Awards competition. With OS X again playing a prominent role Apple's lineup and the Mac App Store gaining momentum, Mac applications returned to the ballot in 2011.

ADA winners in 2011 included Cut the Rope, Pixelmator and djay.

Tag: Apple Design Awards

Popular Stories

Apple Intelligence Comes Under Fire Feature

Apple Will 'Watch Everything Burn' When AI Bubble Bursts - Ed Zitron

Monday July 27, 2026 7:11 am PDT by
Memory prices have doubled, Macs and iPads have gone up, and iPhones are expected to follow. Ed Zitron – who writes the Where's Your Ed At newsletter, hosts the Better Offline podcast, and has been described by Politico as the AI boom's most "acerbic gadfly" – has spent years arguing the buildout driving those costs will never pay for itself. We asked him what happens to Apple if he's...
Read Full Article • 271 comments
iPhone 18 Pro Deep Red Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Launching in Two Months With These 12 New Features

Friday July 24, 2026 7:26 pm PDT by
It is now late July, and that means the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are less than two months away. The devices are expected to look similar to the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, but there will still be many year-over-year changes, with rumored features including a smaller Dynamic Island, 5G via satellite, and more. Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro...
Read Full Article
imac video apple feature

Apple Made Its Second-Biggest Acquisition Ever This Year

Wednesday July 29, 2026 12:03 pm PDT by
Apple this year acquired Israeli startup Q.ai for close to $2 billion, according to the Financial Times. That would make this Apple's second-biggest acquisition ever, after it paid $3 billion for the popular headphone maker Beats in 2014. This is also the largest known Apple acquisition since the company purchased Intel's smartphone modem business and patents for $1 billion in 2019. Q.ai...
Read Full Article

Top Rated Comments

dejo Avatar
dejo
184 months ago
Congratulations to all the winners!
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
U
Unggoy Murderer
184 months ago
Paper absolutely deserved the award, fantastic App. Congrats to the other winners too, certainly something to be very proud of! :D
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Moonjumper Avatar
Moonjumper
184 months ago
I can't stop playing Jetpack Joyride. Nice to see it win.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Pakaku Avatar
Pakaku
184 months ago
Interesting list, but is there anything particularly Mac-like about Deus Ex? Or are the ADAs just another token gesture ceremony Apple uses to vaguely signal its intents and desires, i.e. "We want all big game developers to do stuff for the Mac [and hope it runs on Intel HD Graphics 4000 [or worse]]".

As long as it's on one of Apple's stores, I guess it's valid for the award?
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
P
PlaceofDis
184 months ago
no tweetbot? shame

i'm a little surprised by that too. but i'm glad that Jetpack Joyride is on there. fun, simple game.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
apps1991 Avatar
apps1991
184 months ago
Deus Ex: Human Revolution has won a 2012 Apple Design Award. Well-deserved.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments