It's hard not to see this as Apple looking a gift horse in the mouth, while the barn door was left open months ago for it to run out and propagate itself across every farm in the land. Apple could have voiced this concern about the Google Chrome Web App Store, the Verizon VCast App Store, the Nokia App Store, or others.

Sure, many of those are unofficial names - but everybody knows now what an app store is and just about everyone knows what The App Store is, too. Apple's being one of the very largest companies in the world and continuing to make products that millions of people love both seem likely to be more effective in protecting against brand dilution than trying to get other companies to stop calling other things App Stores now!

An app is an application, a discrete piece of software. A store is a place you can buy things. An app store is a store where you can buy apps. I must confess, I haven't looked closely at the reports about the Amazon App store yet. This sure makes me want to, though.

Now, however, thanks to an online version of the App Store which scrapes the content of the store in iTunes, you can quickly browse for applications, read reviews, and see screenshots from any computer that has access to the Internet without ever having to open iTunes.

As Amit Agarwal notes, Apple uses a rather cryptic XML format for delivering the pages in iTunes. However, the developers of the online App Store have found a way to decrypt these XML files and render them as regular HTML.

Limitations

Of course, there are some limitations to this approach. You can't, for example, install apps without using iTunes at some point. The online App Store also doesn't have a search function.

Will Apple Shut it Down?

Of course, given Apple's litigious nature, we don't know if this version of the App Store will be around for a very long time, but it's a great resource if you just want to link to an app in the store, for example, without your users having to open the desktop iTunes app (which, after all, is not available on all operating systems).

That number is far fewer than the thousands of titles that were available at the launch of Apple's App Store in January. But Amazon is already offering titles that you can't find in Apple's store - most importantly perhaps, Microsoft Office.

The rest of the selection in the new Mac Download Store focuses primarily on productivity and games titles. But despite boasting the Microsoft Office suite on its digital shelves, the Amazon store doesn't have some of the popular titles that can be found in Apple's App Store.

Much like other digital downloads from Amazon, the process requires installation of a special software downloader tool. Unlike apps purchased from the Apple App Store there are some more steps in the installation process. But as these purchases are part of your Amazon history, the titles are backed up in your Games and Software Library where you'll be able to download them an unlimited number of times for personal use.

In order to lure customers to the store, Amazon is offering a $5 discount on any Mac download through June 1. The big trick, however, may be luring Apple software developers.

Customers of the App Store will be in for a rude awakening if they try to review an app without purchasing it first. Customers intending to do so will encounter the following error message:

When checking out reviews of App Store apps, we've all seen the comments about fake reviews. The App Store's review system has helped perpetuate itself into a free for all buffet for spam and phony reviews. Users were welcome to leave any comment they wish with no consequences. Needless to say, Apple is looking to stop this from happening in the future.

A Step in the Right Direction

While, this won't quell more problematic concerns with the App Store, developers will appreciate the new restriction. Fake reviews can cause developers serious head-aches. These fake reviews are usually negative or positive depending on numerous factors such as developer popularity and overall community opinion. Developers won't have to worry about fake bad press or fake positive reviews. Apple is hopying that this new restriction will stop the App Store from being more of a popularity contest, than a useful center for information.

The store brings the iTunes app sales model to Mac apps, an effort to make it as easy to find, buy, and install apps on your Mac as it is for your Apple mobile devices.

The store is available to Snow Leopard users through a software update as part of Mac OS x v10.6.6.

"We think users are going to love this innovative new way to discover and buy their favorite apps," says Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

Developers may love the new app store too, as arguably it gives them better exposure. Developers will share the same 70%-30% split with Apple that they do for iPhone and iPad apps.

While Apple uses games from Electronic Arts and the I Am T-Pain app as examples of highly popular applications, these apps also profited from instant name recognition and a built-in fan base. For other apps, getting discovered in the Apps Store is getting increasingly hard as the competition heats up. Besides bringing a rather lackluster version of the genius feature to the App Store, Apple also hasn't made any significant improvements to the app discovery experience in iTunes and the mobile store.

And yes, if you want to pre-order the new iPhone 4, you can do that too.

In addition to serving as a online mobile storefront, the new application also lets customers find nearby Apple stores, make reservations at the Genius Bar and register for hands-on workshops and personal shopping appointments. The app offers product news, customer reviews and Q&A information for the various products and services being sold, too.

Pre-Order a New iPhone from your Old One

Of course, the most notable feature - for now at least - in the new application is the ability to pre-order the iPhone 4. From the app's homescreen, tap the top item ("Reserve your iPhone 4") and the app will locate your nearest store and then walk you through the necessary steps to place your pre-order.

Unfortunately, due to overwhelming demand (or poor planning?), the application has suffered some outages this morning as the crush of Apple early adopters simultaneously launched the app and placed their orders. Some customers were left with an error page and the "we'll be back soon" message that always appears when the App Store goes down. (At the time of writing, however, the application was again functional).

Also of note, numerous sources are reporting that the white iPhone 4 is not available for pre-order via the Apple Store app, nor AT&T's or Apple's website. As the day progresses, however, we should find out if trips to local stores allow people to pre-order this oddly scarce color or if it's not available at all, anywhere.

The Apple Store application is available as a free download from here.

Opera Software, the Norway-based browser maker, announced the opening of its Mobile App Store today. The store, which the company launched in conjunction with Appia, the "largest open application marketplace in the world," will provide apps to Opera's mobile browser users across a number of platforms.

According to the company, the store has already been a hit and its placement in its popular mobile browsers should ensure that it continues with this success.

The store is available in more than 200 countries and during its pre-launch phase it was accessed by 15 million users, hitting 700,000 downloads per day.

Opera uses data compression to increase performance on slower phones and mobile networks, so much of its use is seen on feature phones. According to one recent report, the mobile phone market's nearly 20% growth in the fourth quarter of 2010 was not solely a result of smartphone sales. Both Opera, and its Mobile App Store, could benefit from the continued growth in lower-cost feature phones in emerging markets.

Apple hopes to bridge the gap between these digital and physical worlds. The company just released an update to its Apple Store app for iOS. Using the application, customers can not only purchase Apple products like they can on the Apple website, but they can now opt to pick them up in person at one of the company's many retail locations.

The app can also be used as a sort of self check-out scanner for certain accessories in Apple stores. Need a new case for your iPhone or a power adaptor for your MacBook? Now you can scan the item with your phone's camera, pay for it in the app and be on your way.

This model offers a glimpse of one version of what the future of commerce may look like. E-commerce is infinitely more convenient for certain things, but sometimes consumers still need to see and try a product in person, whether it's a MacBook Air or a pair of jeans.

For retailers, offering a mobile app that alleviates some of the pain of real world, bricks-and-mortar shopping can provide a competitive advantage on digital platforms without cannibalizing physical in-store sales. Mix in location-based offers and coupons and the incentive for consumers to swing by the store is even greater.

No surprise, the Apple App Store still dominates, fueled primarily by the number of apps available for iPhone. However, when you separate that store into two - iPhone apps and iPad apps - you get a different picture. Despite being the largest store, the Apple App Store for iPhone was among the slowest growing stores in terms of relative growth. Even so, that growth was still second only to the Google Android Market in terms of absolutely growth.

The Google Android Market is now the clear leader in terms of free apps. As of March 2011, the total number of free apps there exceeded that in the Apple App Store for iPhone by more than 10,000. However, the number of paid apps in the Android Market is barely a third of the number of paid apps in the Apple App Store.

Distimo predicts however, that the Android Market will catch up with Apple iPhone's App Store by July. It also predicts that the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace will be larger than the Nokia Ovi Store and BlackBerry App World, prior to the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace being available for even a full year.

The report also assesses how the introduction of more tablets may change the make-up of these app stores. Will other tablets follow the same pattern as the iPad did in terms of app sales? According to Distimo, iPads apps have become more expensive over time, while other stores seem to follow the opposite trend.

Regardless of the platform, the report does point out that many of the top app developers publish across platforms. 58% of the 50 most popular publishers have already developed applications for non-Apple platforms.

The Mac App Store will offer an iTunes-like experience for finding apps that run on Apple computers running Mac OS X Snow Leopard, the latest version of Apple's desktop operating system.

In addition, the Mac App Store will offer sections highlighting "new and noteworthy" apps, "hot" apps, staff favorites and will offer search, customer ratings and reviews, again, very much like iTunes does now. It will also offer the same integrated checkout experience, where you can click once to download the app and then begin using it immediately, says Apple.

Unlike apps sold on the Web by individual developers, those who host their apps in the Mac App Store won't receive 100% of the revenue for apps they sell. Instead, the standard 70/30 split (developer/Apple) will apply. However, for many developers, that split is actually a bargain - not only will getting into the Mac App Store offer increased visibility, they will no longer have to worry with website hosting, bandwidth, billing and all the other sorts of issues that come with traditional DIY solutions... unless, of course, they plan to sell their apps both in the store and on the Web. (It will be interesting to watch how many developers actually shutter their websites entirely in favor of the store - if you're a developer, let us know what your plans are!)

Developers can learn more at http://developer.apple.com/programs/mac.

Meanwhile, Jay Freeman, creator of the Cydia App Store for jailbroken iOS devices, recently announced plans for a jailbreak Mac App Store. There are few details about the store, reportedly available within weeks, but it's likely to be a place where developers won't be required to follow Apple's list of restrictions (see examples here). Like Cydia for iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad, it will offer a chance for developers to have a place where unapproved apps can reside.

Still, if you are looking for free recipe apps launched or updated in the last month, you would have a hard time finding these in iTunes. In uQuery, however, all it takes is two clicks to filter out older or more expensive apps. While search on uQuery is great, however, the service does not (yet?) provide users with a good way to simply browse the store. You can't, for example, just look at all the new games published in the last week that are available for $0.99 or less.

Earlier this year we wrote about App Engine, another web-based alternative to the App Store. App Engine, however, is currently offline. App Engine basically recreated the App Store on the web - including Apple's layout. App Engine is now offline, making uQuery one of the best web-based alternatives to iTunes, though other alternatives like iphonexe.com are also worth a look.

Tip of the hat to AppScout for bringing uQuery to our attention.

Windows 8 is being developed in two flavors: one for desktop computers and one for tablets and phones, with consistencies across both versions. This brings Windows closer to the model that Apple has adopted with its Mac OS X operating system, the desktop version of which has slowly been adopting similarities with the experience iOS offers on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Think Windows 7 meets Windows Phone 7.

This isn't the first app store Microsoft has made available, but if they are in fact going with the name "App Store" it will be the first time it's called that, Apple's trademark wishes be damned.

The first glimpses the world has seen of Windows 8 have shown hints of a Windows Phone 7 influence, complete with tiled widgets and other mobile-inspired UI elements.

Windows 8 is expected to be available next year.

In July, Google launched their API for in-app payments in apps delivered through the Chrome Web Store. The transaction incurs a flat 5% fee.

Mozilla, maker of the Firefox browser, has challenged Google's concept of Web apps, though, contending that because Chrome Web apps can be made "installable," using some local storage and computing, they're not true Web apps, which should be fully accessible via any Web browser. Google may envision a world where all software lives on the Web, but as it monetizes the Chrome Web Store worldwide, it clearly has a motivation to make its own browser the user's privileged point of access.

iPhone users have installed an average of 37 applications on their devices - more than the users on any other smartphone platform - while Blackberry users only use 10 apps on their phones. Android users have around 22 apps on their phones, followed by Palm users (14) and Windows Mobile users (13). Unsurprisingly, feature phone users don't install a lot of apps on their devices. Only 12% of cell phone users with feature phones downloaded an app in the last 30 days. In contrast to this, about 46% of smartphone owners installed an app in the last month.

App Stores

With regards to the popularity of different app stores, Nielsen's data isn't that interesting, as most users don't really have a choice. Apple's App Store is the most used mobile app store and has captured 25% of the market, followed by Blackberry's App World Store (16%). Carrier stores run by AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon are also still very popular and have a market share between 8% (T-Mobile) and 15% (Verizon). The Android Market only had about a 2% market share by the end of 2009, but given the small number of devices on the market at that time, this number will surely grow in 2010 as more device manufactures add Android devices to their lineup.

Customer Satisfaction

When it comes to customer satisfaction, Apple's App Store and the Android Market are far ahead of their competitors. 84% of Apple's users are satisfied with the user experience in the iTunes store and 81% of Android users are happy about their experience. All the other stores, however, still have a lot of catching up to do. In Nielsen's survey, the Windows Marketplace ranked the lowest (56%), followed by the Blackberry App World store (58%).