I know the iPhone app store has been very successful, but I wouldn't completely discount other ones. What makes the iPhone's app store so great?
Is it the humongous supply of apps? Androlib [1] suggests that the Android Market is approaching 30K apps. Many of them may be crap, but then again, I think many of the iPhone ones are too.
Is it the exclusive iPhone only apps? Yes, there are a lot of them (considering app store sizes alone), but I'm guessing most "popular" apps exist in both stores. Anecdotal evidence: When my dad got a Droid, he asked me about all the apps I used on my iPhone. Most of them were on the Android store too. In the few cases where the apps didn't exist, there was usually a comparable replacement app from some other app maker. Now that doesn't necessarily translate to games, but I don't really play many games on my iPhone (and can't comment on the store differences there).
Now, the Apple App store has been a huge success. If I was a mobile app developer, I wouldn't hesitate to develop for the iPhone (even being aware of the sometimes unpredictable approval process). I also don't like the idea of a network owned app store and the complications and restrictions it will probably bring, but we'll see what their announcement entails. I just don't think that Apple's app store is the only viable one, and certainly isn't the best fit for all people (nothing ever is).
Human nature is to focus on the negative. Say whatever you want about draconian App Store policies but Apple does a reasonably good job in promoting third party apps. They get featured in TV ads, writeups etc. And third party review sites serve a niche in reviewing and recommending. So an entire industry forms up around it.
It is humorous that the article mentions the "fragmentation" of app stores... Apple is unilaterally dominating the app store concept, maybe the others are fragmented, but Apple owns it.
I think it's kind of stupid to talk about 'fragmentation' of stores in general. If this was just generic retail space, would all this talk about 'confusing' the customer still sound smart or just laughable?
The idea that we need a single supplier of something or a single marketplace from which to purchase things is laughable -- to me, at least. To carry this analogy outside of the 'phone app' space, should we just give up on all generic retail space so that consumers just go to Wal-mart for everything but furniture (Ikea for furniture). Then consumers won't be so confused about where they should go to buy their furniture or groceries.
Competition is great in any market, but the declaration that this consortium of followers is creating another app store indicates that everyone is playing catchup. The other mobile manufacturers have seen the dollar signs and all want a piece of the pie. Fair game, but Apple will always be Apple, and with some tweaks to the store, their adherence to a solid framework, gorgeous hardware and a lovely OS will see them retain their fanbase regardless of what anyone else comes up.
So, um... how the hell is this going to work? This isn't a plan, it's the combination of NFI and too much scotch (or cognac or whatever these people drink)
I love so much when people "believe" something, test it, doesn't work,the market fails, and repeat it because they are right.
Apple let's devs to code in low level(Objective C).IMO is the single factor that makes it so powerful(if you want high level, use web tech). Even Apple didn't wanted to do it at first, letting other people control the device as fast as they do.
Now I can't see any real competitors in sight, as an Iphone app store developer, I would love some competition that "get it".
What a pain, for both users and developers. New ideas are great and everything, but it's just a pain to have to support iPhone, Android, WebOS, Blackberry, Symbian, and Windows Mobile. Didn't J2ME used to provide a common API for all platforms? What was the problem with that (other than that all phones sucked back when that was popular)?
J2ME sucks because the API is not always implemented correctly on all the devices. It seems up to the handset maker to ensure compatibility. It is certainly not write once, run anywhere...and the API is limited. The GUI library really sucks, you have to hand roll everything if you want anything interesting.
I dare them to announce that it's based on Java. So long as Apple isn't involved then it will an insignificant platform. Even the other app store clones combined will be tiny compared to Apple's.
