App Store
Encyclopedia
The App Store is a digital application
distribution
platform for iOS developed and maintained by Apple Inc.
The service allows users to browse and download applications
from the iTunes Store
that were developed with the iOS SDK or Mac SDK and published through Apple Inc.. Depending on the application, they are available either for free or at a cost. The applications can be downloaded directly to a target device, or downloaded onto a PC
or Mac
via iTunes
. 30% of revenue from the store go to Apple, and 70% go to the producer of the app. The App Store opened on July 10, 2008 via an update to iTunes. On July 11, the iPhone 3G was launched and came pre-loaded with iOS 2.0.1 with App Store support; new iOS 2.0.1 firmware for iPhone and iPod Touch was also made available via iTunes. As of June 6, 2011, there are at least 425,000 third-party apps officially available on the App Store. As of January 18, 2011, the App Store had over 9.9 billion
downloads, which was announced via the company's "10 Billion App Countdown". At 10:26 AM GMT on Saturday, January 22, 2011, the 10 billionth app was downloaded from Apple App Store. At early July 2011, 200 million iOS users have downloaded over 15 billion apps from its App Store. The mean
revenue per application is estimated to be US$
8,700, although data is not publicly available. As of May 2011, Apple approved its 500,000th app and 37 percent of all apps are free with the average price $3.64.
The distribution of price follows a power law distribution (the Zipf–Mandelbrot law). Prices can be freely chosen by sellers at multiple of US$1 minus 1 cent (99c, $1.99, and so on).
After the success of Apple's App Store, and the launch of similar services by its competitors, the term "app store" has been adopted to refer to any similar service for mobile devices. However, Apple applied for a trademark on the term App Store in 2008
which was tentatively approved in 2011
. Later, in June 2011, U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton, who is presiding over Apple's case against Amazon, said she'll "probably" deny Apple's motion that seeks to bar the Web retailer from using the "App Store" name. Later on July 6th, Apple was denied preliminary injunction against Amazon's Appstore
by a federal judge.
The term app has become a popular buzzword
; in January 2011, app was awarded the honor of being 2010's "Word of the Year" by the American Dialect Society
. Apple does not hold a trademark on, or claim exclusive rights to the term app, which has been used as shorthand for "application" since at least 2002, for example Google Apps
(first introduced in 2006).
On October 20, 2010, Apple announced the Mac App Store
which was eventually launched on January 7, 2011. It is similar to the one for iOS devices, only it has applications designed for Mac computers. The Mac App Store is only accessible by using Mac OS X Snow Leopard or Mac OS X Lion
.
The App Store is accessible from the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad via an iOS application by the same name. It is also the only way to directly download native applications onto an iOS device without jailbreaking the device. Web applications can be installed on these devices, bypassing the App Store entirely, but they tend to have less functionality. The store is also accessible through iTunes, and then on any operating system
for which iTunes is provided (Mac OS X
and Windows
).
In February 2011, Apple announced its new subscription based service which will allow publishers to set the length and price of a subscription. Previously, new magazine or news releases would be sold on a per release basis. The new service allows publishers to sell their content through their apps allowing users to receive the new content over specified period of time. More interesting is that Apple will allow publishers not only to sell from iTunes where revenue will be shared (70% for the publisher, 30% for Apple), but they are also allowing publishers to distribute their subscriptions directly from their websites where no revenue will be shared with Apple.
The Software Development Kit for iPhone OS
was announced at the iPhone Software Roadmap event on March 6, 2008. The SDK allows developers running Mac OS X 10.5.4 or higher on an Intel Mac to create applications using Xcode
that will natively run on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. A beta version was released after the event and a final version was released in July 2008 alongside the iPhone 3G. This major Roadmap event (coupled with a large distribution program for 3rd-party developers), later became known as the iPhone Developer Program, which currently offers two distribution tracks for 3rd-party developers: Standard, and Enterprise.
Applications distributed through the standard program can be sold exclusively through the iTunes Store
on Mac and Windows, or on the App Store on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. Developers who publish their applications on the App Store will receive 70% of sales revenue, and will not have to pay any distribution costs for the application. However, an annual fee is required to use the iPhone SDK and upload applications to the store.
Applications developed through the enterprise program, officially the "iOS Enterprise Developer Program" (iDEP), are exclusively for institutional use and do not get published on the App Store. This allows corporations, non-profits and government agencies to develop proprietary "in-house" applications not for public release. The enterprise program was updated September 14, 2010, to allow any organization with a DUNS number
to join. Prior to this date, only organizations with 500 or more employees could join the enterprise program.
To run an application on the iPhone, the application needs to be signed. This signed certificate is only granted by Apple after the developer has first developed the software through either the US$99/year Standard package or the US$299/year Enterprise package with the iPhone SDK
.
Steve Jobs
told USA Today
that the App Store contained 500 third-party applications for the iPhone and the iPod Touch, and of these 25% were free. These third party applications range from business to game applications, entertainment to educational applications, and many more applications available for free or for sale. On July 11, 2008 the store opened, allowing users to buy applications and transfer them to an iPhone or iPod Touch with the iPhone 2.0 software update, which became available through iTunes
on the same day. Ten million applications were downloaded the first weekend.
On January 16, 2009, Apple announced on its website that 500 million applications had been downloaded. The billionth application was downloaded on April 23, 2009.
Unlike the apps that come standard on the iPhone, apps downloaded from the App Store can be removed by the user at a future date.
's over 57% of free apps. As a result, both Nokia
's Ovi Store and BlackBerry
's App World, both of which have only 26% free apps, also pull in higher revenues than Android Market despite having much lower downloading volumes.
As of July 2011, 16 months after the iPad launched, there are over 100,000 apps available at the App Store designed specifically for the device.
On the July 7, 2011, Apple announced that over 15 billion apps had been downloaded from the iOS app store. But, micro level information on the number of downloads of each ranked application has not been made available. To help app producers with their marketing effort and help researchers in better understanding the Apple's iOS app store, a recent research study has tried to estimate the model that converts the app rank to daily downloads. Researchers Garg and Telang from Carnegie Mellon University
found that the app downloads follow a Pareto distribution and can be estimated using the equations:
iPad_app_downloads = 9,525 * paid_app_rank^(-0.903)
iPhone_app_downloads = 52,511 * paid_app_rank^(-0.944)
NOTE: this claim has not been verified by Apple or any other market research organization.
At the end of November 2011, Apple advertised in holiday newsletter of online Apple Store
there are more than 140,000 iPad apps available.
Among paid apps, Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D, by Activision Publishing, was ranked first, while Facebook enjoyed the same position among free apps, followed by Google Earth. Other popular apps include Angry Birds
and apps made by Ragdoll Studios.
Whatsapp is the most popular app for messaging between BB, Android and iPhone. It works similar to the BB messenger.
launch event, the iPhone will allow blocking of objectionable apps in the iPhone's settings. The following are the ratings that Apple has detailed:
Non-disclosure agreement
s (NDA) have always forbidden developers from publishing the content of their rejection notices, but Apple has now started labeling their rejection letters with Non-Disclosure (NDA) warning THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS MESSAGE IS UNDER NON-DISCLOSURE. Apple later changed the NDA citing that "it has created too much of a burden on developers" but they did not reverse the decision to forbid publication of rejection notices. Some applications are not available outside the US App Store at the request of the developer. Since so many developers have published rejection emails Apple now most often call submitters to verbally tell them their rejection notice.
In addition, Apple has removed software licensed under the GNU General Public License
(GPL) from the App Store after complaints from one of the program's developers, claiming that the App Store's terms of service are inconsistent with the GPL.
EASE or a Mobile Device Management platform such as Sybase Afaria.
Apps published with Apple's iOS Developer Enterprise Program are still subject to Apple's control via the controversial kill switch, where Apple can revoke a publisher's digital certificate and thereby "kill" the app on user devices. However, there is no evidence that this has been done in the enterprise environment.
for webOS on the Palm Pre
that was released on June 6, 2009. Another platform, Android Market
is used in conjunction with Google's
Android operating system. Microsoft
has released Windows Phone Marketplace
, an application store for their Windows Phone
platform. Nokia
has released The "Ovi Store" (which replaced its earlier "Download!" application, which predated Apple's App Store) for its S60
and S40 based mobile devices. Samsung
has created Samsung Apps
, primarily to cater for its own Bada OS, but also with support for certain other Samsung devices. RIM
also launched its application store BlackBerry App World
. The Nintendo DSi
is able to connect to an online store called the "DSi Shop", along with Sony's
PlayStation Portable
(PSP) being able to connect to PlayStation Store
to download games, etc. The Nintendo 3DS
also has its own application distribution platform, called the Nintendo eShop
.
Application software
Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software and media players. Many application programs deal principally with...
distribution
Digital distribution
Online distribution, digital distribution, or electronic software distribution is the practice of delivering content without the use of physical media, typically by downloading via the internet directly to a consumer's device. Online distribution bypasses conventional physical distribution media,...
platform for iOS developed and maintained by Apple Inc.
The service allows users to browse and download applications
Mobile apps
Mobile apps, also called mobile applications, are software applications, usually designed to run on smartphones and tablet computers. They are available through application distribution platforms which are typically operated by the owner of the mobile operating system, such as the App Store,...
from the iTunes Store
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
that were developed with the iOS SDK or Mac SDK and published through Apple Inc.. Depending on the application, they are available either for free or at a cost. The applications can be downloaded directly to a target device, or downloaded onto a PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
or Mac
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
via iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
. 30% of revenue from the store go to Apple, and 70% go to the producer of the app. The App Store opened on July 10, 2008 via an update to iTunes. On July 11, the iPhone 3G was launched and came pre-loaded with iOS 2.0.1 with App Store support; new iOS 2.0.1 firmware for iPhone and iPod Touch was also made available via iTunes. As of June 6, 2011, there are at least 425,000 third-party apps officially available on the App Store. As of January 18, 2011, the App Store had over 9.9 billion
1000000000 (number)
1,000,000,000 is the natural number following 999,999,999 and preceding 1,000,000,001.In scientific notation, it is written as 109....
downloads, which was announced via the company's "10 Billion App Countdown". At 10:26 AM GMT on Saturday, January 22, 2011, the 10 billionth app was downloaded from Apple App Store. At early July 2011, 200 million iOS users have downloaded over 15 billion apps from its App Store. The mean
Mean
In statistics, mean has two related meanings:* the arithmetic mean .* the expected value of a random variable, which is also called the population mean....
revenue per application is estimated to be US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
8,700, although data is not publicly available. As of May 2011, Apple approved its 500,000th app and 37 percent of all apps are free with the average price $3.64.
The distribution of price follows a power law distribution (the Zipf–Mandelbrot law). Prices can be freely chosen by sellers at multiple of US$1 minus 1 cent (99c, $1.99, and so on).
After the success of Apple's App Store, and the launch of similar services by its competitors, the term "app store" has been adopted to refer to any similar service for mobile devices. However, Apple applied for a trademark on the term App Store in 2008
which was tentatively approved in 2011
. Later, in June 2011, U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton, who is presiding over Apple's case against Amazon, said she'll "probably" deny Apple's motion that seeks to bar the Web retailer from using the "App Store" name. Later on July 6th, Apple was denied preliminary injunction against Amazon's Appstore
Amazon Appstore
The Amazon Appstore is a mobile application store for the Google Android operating system and was opened on March 22, 2011. It was launched with around 3,800 applications both free or paid. Developers are paid either 70% of the sale price or 20% of the developer's list price, whichever one is...
by a federal judge.
The term app has become a popular buzzword
Buzzword
A buzzword is a term of art, salesmanship, politics, or technical jargon that is used in the media and wider society outside of its originally narrow technical context....
; in January 2011, app was awarded the honor of being 2010's "Word of the Year" by the American Dialect Society
American Dialect Society
The American Dialect Society, founded in 1889, is a learned society "dedicated to the study of the English language in North America, and of other languages, or dialects of other languages, influencing it or influenced by it." The Society publishes the academic journal, American Speech...
. Apple does not hold a trademark on, or claim exclusive rights to the term app, which has been used as shorthand for "application" since at least 2002, for example Google Apps
Google Apps
Google Apps is a service from Google providing independently customizable versions of several Google products under a custom domain name. It features several Web applications with similar functionality to traditional office suites, including: Gmail, Google Groups, Google Calendar, Talk, Docs and...
(first introduced in 2006).
On October 20, 2010, Apple announced the Mac App Store
Mac App Store
The Mac App Store is a digital distribution platform for Mac OS X applications developed by Apple Inc.. The platform was announced on October 20, 2010 at Apple's "Back to the Mac" event. Apple began accepting app submissions from registered developers on November 3, 2010 in preparation for its launch...
which was eventually launched on January 7, 2011. It is similar to the one for iOS devices, only it has applications designed for Mac computers. The Mac App Store is only accessible by using Mac OS X Snow Leopard or 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....
.
The App Store is accessible from the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad via an iOS application by the same name. It is also the only way to directly download native applications onto an iOS device without jailbreaking the device. Web applications can be installed on these devices, bypassing the App Store entirely, but they tend to have less functionality. The store is also accessible through iTunes, and then on any operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
for which iTunes is provided (Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
and Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
).
In February 2011, Apple announced its new subscription based service which will allow publishers to set the length and price of a subscription. Previously, new magazine or news releases would be sold on a per release basis. The new service allows publishers to sell their content through their apps allowing users to receive the new content over specified period of time. More interesting is that Apple will allow publishers not only to sell from iTunes where revenue will be shared (70% for the publisher, 30% for Apple), but they are also allowing publishers to distribute their subscriptions directly from their websites where no revenue will be shared with Apple.
iPhone SDK
The Software Development Kit for iPhone OS
IPhone SDK
The iOS SDK is a software development kit developed by Apple Inc. and released in February 2008 to develop native applications for iOS.-History:...
was announced at the iPhone Software Roadmap event on March 6, 2008. The SDK allows developers running Mac OS X 10.5.4 or higher on an Intel Mac to create applications using Xcode
Xcode
Xcode is a suite of tools, developed by Apple, for developing software for Mac OS X and iOS. Xcode 4.2, the latest major version, is available on the Mac App Store for free for Mac OS X 10.7 , and on the Apple Developer Connection website for free to registered developers Xcode is a suite of tools,...
that will natively run on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. A beta version was released after the event and a final version was released in July 2008 alongside the iPhone 3G. This major Roadmap event (coupled with a large distribution program for 3rd-party developers), later became known as the iPhone Developer Program, which currently offers two distribution tracks for 3rd-party developers: Standard, and Enterprise.
Applications distributed through the standard program can be sold exclusively through the iTunes Store
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
on Mac and Windows, or on the App Store on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. Developers who publish their applications on the App Store will receive 70% of sales revenue, and will not have to pay any distribution costs for the application. However, an annual fee is required to use the iPhone SDK and upload applications to the store.
Applications developed through the enterprise program, officially the "iOS Enterprise Developer Program" (iDEP), are exclusively for institutional use and do not get published on the App Store. This allows corporations, non-profits and government agencies to develop proprietary "in-house" applications not for public release. The enterprise program was updated September 14, 2010, to allow any organization with a DUNS number
Data Universal Numbering System
The Data Universal Numbering System, abbreviated as DUNS or D-U-N-S, is a system developed and regulated by Dun & Bradstreet , that assigns a unique numeric identifier, referred to as a "DUNS number" to a single business entity. It was introduced in 1963 to support D&B's credit reporting practice....
to join. Prior to this date, only organizations with 500 or more employees could join the enterprise program.
To run an application on the iPhone, the application needs to be signed. This signed certificate is only granted by Apple after the developer has first developed the software through either the US$99/year Standard package or the US$299/year Enterprise package with the iPhone SDK
IPhone SDK
The iOS SDK is a software development kit developed by Apple Inc. and released in February 2008 to develop native applications for iOS.-History:...
.
Number of launched applications
On July 10, 2008, Apple CEOChief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc...
told USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
that the App Store contained 500 third-party applications for the iPhone and the iPod Touch, and of these 25% were free. These third party applications range from business to game applications, entertainment to educational applications, and many more applications available for free or for sale. On July 11, 2008 the store opened, allowing users to buy applications and transfer them to an iPhone or iPod Touch with the iPhone 2.0 software update, which became available through iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
on the same day. Ten million applications were downloaded the first weekend.
On January 16, 2009, Apple announced on its website that 500 million applications had been downloaded. The billionth application was downloaded on April 23, 2009.
Unlike the apps that come standard on the iPhone, apps downloaded from the App Store can be removed by the user at a future date.
Revenue Share
Besides downloading volumes, the App Store's relatively high revenue of US$1782 million in 2010 may be attributed to it having only 28% of free apps, in comparison to Android MarketAndroid Market
Android Market is an online software store developed by Google for Android OS devices. Its gateway is an application program called "Market", preinstalled on most Android devices, allows users to browse and download mobile apps published by third-party developers...
's over 57% of free apps. As a result, both Nokia
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
's Ovi Store and BlackBerry
BlackBerry
BlackBerry is a line of mobile email and smartphone devices developed and designed by Canadian company Research In Motion since 1999.BlackBerry devices are smartphones, designed to function as personal digital assistants, portable media players, internet browsers, gaming devices, and much more...
's App World, both of which have only 26% free apps, also pull in higher revenues than Android Market despite having much lower downloading volumes.
Milestones
| Date | Available apps | Downloads to date |
|---|---|---|
| July 11, 2008 | 500 | 0 |
| July 14, 2008 | 800 | 10,000,000 |
| September 9, 2008 | 3,000 | 55,000,000 |
| October 22, 2008 | 7,500 | 200,000,000 |
| January 16, 2009 | 15,000 | 500,000,000 |
| March 17, 2009 | 25,000 | 800,000,000 |
| April 23, 2009 | 35,000 | 1,000,000,000 |
| June 8, 2009 | 50,000 | 1,000,000,000+ |
| July 11, 2009 | 55,000 | 1,000,000,000+ |
| July 14, 2009 | 65,000 | 1,500,000,000 |
| September 9, 2009 | 75,000 | 1,800,000,000 |
| September 28, 2009 | 85,000 | 2,000,000,000 |
| November 4, 2009 | 100,000 | 2,000,000,000+ |
| January 5, 2010 | 120,000 | 3,000,000,000+ |
| March 20, 2010 | 150,000+ | 3,000,000,000+ |
| April 8, 2010 | 185,000+ | 4,000,000,000+ |
| April 29, 2010 | 200,000+ | 4,500,000,000+ |
| June 7, 2010 | 225,000+ | 5,000,000,000+ |
| September 1, 2010 | 250,000+ | 6,500,000,000+ |
| October 20, 2010 | 300,000+ | 7,000,000,000 |
| Jan 22, 2011 | 350,000+ | 10,000,000,000+ |
| June 6, 2011 | 425,000+ | 14,000,000,000+ |
| July 7, 2011 | 425,000+ | 15,000,000,000+ |
| October 4, 2011 | 500,000+ | 18,000,000,000+ |
iPad Applications
The iPad launched in April 2010 with over 3000 applications designed for the iPad. By December 2010, just eight months after the release of the iPad, over 50,000 apps were available for the device.As of July 2011, 16 months after the iPad launched, there are over 100,000 apps available at the App Store designed specifically for the device.
On the July 7, 2011, Apple announced that over 15 billion apps had been downloaded from the iOS app store. But, micro level information on the number of downloads of each ranked application has not been made available. To help app producers with their marketing effort and help researchers in better understanding the Apple's iOS app store, a recent research study has tried to estimate the model that converts the app rank to daily downloads. Researchers Garg and Telang from Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
found that the app downloads follow a Pareto distribution and can be estimated using the equations:
iPad_app_downloads = 9,525 * paid_app_rank^(-0.903)
iPhone_app_downloads = 52,511 * paid_app_rank^(-0.944)
NOTE: this claim has not been verified by Apple or any other market research organization.
At the end of November 2011, Apple advertised in holiday newsletter of online Apple Store
Apple Store (online)
The Apple Store is the online store of Apple Inc.. All of Apple's product lines are carried as well as select brands of accessories for its products. It is owned and operated by Apple in Cupertino, California...
there are more than 140,000 iPad apps available.
Most popular apps
In April 2009, Apple announced the apps which had the most number of downloads since the store was launched.Among paid apps, Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D, by Activision Publishing, was ranked first, while Facebook enjoyed the same position among free apps, followed by Google Earth. Other popular apps include Angry Birds
Angry Birds
Angry Birds is a puzzle video game developed by Finnish computer game developer Rovio Mobile. Inspired primarily by a sketch of stylized wingless birds, the game was first released for Apple's iOS in December 2009...
and apps made by Ragdoll Studios.
Whatsapp is the most popular app for messaging between BB, Android and iPhone. It works similar to the BB messenger.
Application ratings
Apple rates applications worldwide based on their content, and determines what age group each is appropriate for. According to the iPhone OS 3.0IPhone OS version history
Apple provides updates to the operating system for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch system through iTunes, similar to the way that other iPods are updated, and touts this as an advantage compared to other mobile phones and devices...
launch event, the iPhone will allow blocking of objectionable apps in the iPhone's settings. The following are the ratings that Apple has detailed:
| Rating | Description |
|---|---|
| 4+ | Contains no objectionable material. |
| 9+ | May contain mild or infrequent occurrences of cartoon, fantasy or realistic violence, and infrequent or mild mature, suggestive, or horror-themed content which may not be suitable for children under the age of 9. |
| 12+ | May also contain infrequent mild language, frequent or intense cartoon, fantasy or realistic violence, and mild or infrequent mature or suggestive themes, and simulated gambling which may not be suitable for children under the age of 12. |
| 17+ | May also contain frequent and intense mature, horror, and suggestive themes; plus strong sexual content, nudity, strong language, alcohol, tobacco, and drugs which may not be suitable for children under the age of 17. Also, if the app accesses the internet it is rated 17+. Consumers must be at least 17 years old to purchase apps with this rating. Whenever an app of this rating is requested for download, a message will appear, verifying if a user is 17 or older, and asking to confirm the purchase for this reason. |
App approval process
Applications are subject to approval by Apple, as outlined in the SDK agreement, for basic reliability testing and other analysis. Applications may still be distributed "ad-hoc" if they are rejected, by the author manually submitting a request to Apple to license the application to individual iPhones, although Apple may withdraw the ability for authors to do this at a later date.Non-disclosure agreement
Non-disclosure agreement
A non-disclosure agreement , also known as a confidentiality agreement , confidential disclosure agreement , proprietary information agreement , or secrecy agreement, is a legal contract between at least two parties that outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties...
s (NDA) have always forbidden developers from publishing the content of their rejection notices, but Apple has now started labeling their rejection letters with Non-Disclosure (NDA) warning THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS MESSAGE IS UNDER NON-DISCLOSURE. Apple later changed the NDA citing that "it has created too much of a burden on developers" but they did not reverse the decision to forbid publication of rejection notices. Some applications are not available outside the US App Store at the request of the developer. Since so many developers have published rejection emails Apple now most often call submitters to verbally tell them their rejection notice.
In addition, Apple has removed software licensed under the GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
(GPL) from the App Store after complaints from one of the program's developers, claiming that the App Store's terms of service are inconsistent with the GPL.
Enterprise App Stores
Because Apple's App Store is for consumers, companies are unable to distribute in-house apps on the App Store. Under Apple's iOS Developer Enterprise Program companies can publish in-house apps using an Enterprise App Store with systems such as ApperianApperian
Apperian, Inc., is an American software company that develops and markets a cloud computing-based mobile application management software development kit for developers who create and IT professionals who deploy, provision, update and manage mobile apps in the enterprise.Apperian’s web-based...
EASE or a Mobile Device Management platform such as Sybase Afaria.
Apps published with Apple's iOS Developer Enterprise Program are still subject to Apple's control via the controversial kill switch, where Apple can revoke a publisher's digital certificate and thereby "kill" the app on user devices. However, there is no evidence that this has been done in the enterprise environment.
Similar services for other devices
Competitors also have their own stores for mobile applications. Palm Inc. published an application store similar to the App Store for Palm devices and announced the App CatalogPalm App Catalog
The Palm App Catalog is an online marketplace for applications for Palm mobile devices running webOS but not Palm OS.The App Catalog is similar to Apple's App Store for iOS, Google's Android Market for Android, and Nokia's Ovi Store for Nokia devices...
for webOS on the Palm Pre
Palm Pre
The Palm Pre is a multimedia smartphone designed and marketed by Palm with a multi-touch screen and a sliding keyboard. The smartphone was the first to use Palm's Linux based mobile operating system, webOS...
that was released on June 6, 2009. Another platform, Android Market
Android Market
Android Market is an online software store developed by Google for Android OS devices. Its gateway is an application program called "Market", preinstalled on most Android devices, allows users to browse and download mobile apps published by third-party developers...
is used in conjunction with Google's
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
Android operating system. Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
has released Windows Phone Marketplace
Windows Phone Marketplace
Windows Phone Marketplace is a service by Microsoft for its Windows Phone 7 platform that allows users to browse and download applications that have been developed by third-parties...
, an application store for their Windows Phone
Windows Phone
Windows Phone is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft, and is the successor to its Windows Mobile platform, although incompatible with it. Unlike its predecessor, it is primarily aimed at the consumer market rather than the enterprise market...
platform. Nokia
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
has released The "Ovi Store" (which replaced its earlier "Download!" application, which predated Apple's App Store) for its S60
S60
S60 is used to refer to many items including:* S60 , a software platform for mobile devices based on Symbian OS* S60, the FAA airport code for Kenmore Air Harbor* S60...
and S40 based mobile devices. Samsung
Samsung
The Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea...
has created Samsung Apps
Samsung Apps
Samsung Apps, is an application store for Samsung mobile & TV users. The store first opened in June 2010, after the company released its Samsung Wave smartphone...
, primarily to cater for its own Bada OS, but also with support for certain other Samsung devices. RIM
Research In Motion
Research In Motion Limited or RIM is a Canadian multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada that designs, manufactures and markets wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market...
also launched its application store BlackBerry App World
BlackBerry App World
BlackBerry App World is an application distribution service and application by Research In Motion for a majority of BlackBerry devices. The service provides BlackBerry users with an environment to browse, download, and update third-party applications. The service went live on April 1, 2009...
. The Nintendo DSi
Nintendo DSi
The is a handheld game system created by Nintendo and launched in 2008 and 2009 in Japan, North America, PAL territories, and other regions. It is the third iteration of the Nintendo DS, and its primary market rival is Sony's PlayStation Portable...
is able to connect to an online store called the "DSi Shop", along with Sony's
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
PlayStation Portable
PlayStation Portable
The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...
(PSP) being able to connect to PlayStation Store
PlayStation Store
The PlayStation Store is an online virtual market available to users of Sony's PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable game consoles via the PlayStation Network. The Store offers a range of downloadable content both for purchase and available free of charge. Available content includes full games,...
to download games, etc. The Nintendo 3DS
Nintendo 3DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo. The autostereoscopic device is able to project stereoscopic 3D effects without the use of 3D glasses or any additional accessories. The Nintendo 3DS features backward compatibility with Nintendo DS series software, including Nintendo DSi software...
also has its own application distribution platform, called the Nintendo eShop
Nintendo eShop
The Nintendo eShop is an online service for the Nintendo 3DS handheld gaming system. Launched on June 6, 2011 in North America and June 7, 2011 in Europe and Japan, the eShop was enabled by the release of a system update that added the functionality to the 3DS' Home Menu...
.
External links
- The App Store on iTunes (requires iTunes)
- App Store Downloads (iTunes not needed)
- Official website on Apple.com
- Official iPhone developer site
- Realtime App Store Stats by country, genre and segment
- iOS Jailbreak