

Ask HN: When did the idea of an app store first come together? - robg

I was just reading this old profile:
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2007/09/02/introducing_the_google_phone/<p>And this passage stuck out:<p><i>Mark May, an equities analyst at Needham &#38; Company who follows Google's stock, says he doesn't expect Google to manufacture the phone itself, but rather provide an operating system and a suite of applications that "would appeal to consumers and professionals," like the mail and word processing applications it already provides to PC users.<p>"That's a natural extension from their core business," May says. The operating system is expected to be open not just to Google's applications, but applications developed by all sorts of other players - a real problem with many cellphones.</i><p>September 2nd, 2007. Apple's store didn't come out until July of 2008.<p>Since I wasn't following along, anyone have insight into whether this was a general trend in thought then, if rumors of Apple spurred this analyst to think about Google along similar lines, or if some other company had already launched the concept?
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andymoe
Valve comes to mind. Game makers were already doing this kind of centrailzed
distribution long before it went mainstream but it was clear this would be the
direction as broadband began to pick up around 2002-2003 as comcast and other
cable providers started to gain real traction.

