Launchpad is an application launcher that was announced alongside Mac OS X Lion

Mac OS X Lion

Mac OS X Lion is the eighth and current major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers....

. It is designed to be simpler than OS X's current application launching system, the Finder.

History

Launchpad was announced on October 20, 2010 alongside Mac OS X Lion. It emulates the Home Screen in iOS, including the ability to create folders, though they do not reflect the actual filesystem. The concept is similar to the Launcher utility found in the classic Mac OS; however Launchpad only shows applications, whereas the Launcher could also show documents. Launchpad was released in July 2011 with Mac OS X Lion. On October 12, 2011, the Lion 10.7.2 update caused the Launchpad icons to increase in size.

Usage

To access Launchpad, the user clicks the icon in the dock or the F4 special function key on a keyboard, or performs a thumb and three finger pinch gesture on compatible trackpads. All of the applications installed on the computer are shown automatically, including applications downloaded from the Mac App Store. To delete an application downloaded from the Mac App Store, simply click-and-hold the icon and click the 'X' that appears in the upper left corner. Applications that were not downloaded from the Mac App Store can be accessed through Launchpad, but cannot be deleted in the same way.