App Store (iOS)

App Store
Basic data
developer	Apple Inc.
Publishing year	2008
operating system	iOS ( iPhone , iPad and iPod touch ), watchOS ( Apple Watch ), tvOS ( Apple TV ), macOS ( iTunes ), Windows (iTunes)
category	App Store
License	proprietary
German speaking	Yes
www.apple.com

The App Store (from the English short form for application “application software” and store “business”) is a digital distribution platform for application software ( App Store ) from the US company Apple . The platform was launched in 2008 and offers mobile apps for iOS devices and software for tvOS and watchOS .

history

Apple was the first to develop a successful mobile app sales platform. Since the beginning of 2011, Apple has also been operating the Mac App Store to sell software for macOS.

As early as August 2008, Apple was making about $ 1 million a day in sales from software from the App Store. At the WWDC developer conference in early June 2011, Apple announced that the App Store, iTunes Store and iBooks Store together (which can all be visited with the same Apple ID) have now reached 225 million accounts. In addition, so far more than 3 billion dollars in revenue have been paid to the developers of apps.

In 2014 the App Store was already fully usable in 123 countries.

Programs offered

In June 2016, over 2 million different apps were available, with the number growing continuously.

date	Available applications	Apps optimized for the iPad	Number of downloaded applications
July 11, 2008	500	0 (iPad released in April 2010)	-
September 9, 2008	3000		100,000,000
January 16, 2009	15,000		500,000,000
April 23, 2009	35,000		1,000,000,000
September 28, 2009	> 85,000		2,000,000,000
November 4, 2009	> 100,000		> 2,000,000,000
January 22, 2011	> 350,000	> 60,000	> 10,000,000,000
March 7, 2012	> 585,000	> 200,000	> 25,000,000,000
May 15, 2013	> 850,000	> 350,000	50,000,000,000
22nd October, 2013	> 1,000,000	> 475,000	60,000,000,000
June 8, 2015	> 1,500,000	-	100,000,000,000
June 13, 2016	> 2,000,000	-	130,000,000,000
September 7, 2016	-	-	140,000,000,000

Functions

Prepaid card for purchase in the App Store and iTunes

The App Store builds on the infrastructure of the iTunes Store . The App Store or iTunes software is required to buy and manage apps . The purchase is made, for example, by credit card or prepaid cards . Functionally, the Apple App Store can be integrated into the concept of a software repository that provides a wide range of network-based software packages for a software platform (such as CPAN for the Perl programming language since 1995). Despite architectural differences , from the user's point of view the App Store serves just like For example, a package manager under Linux allows you to install complete applications on a computer or device with one command, without having to consider the irrelevant complexity of dependencies.

There are more than 20 categories for your convenience, including entertainment, finance, games , health and fitness, books, news, social networks, and utilities . A search function and the display of various hit lists are intended to facilitate orientation through the offer, as are ratings (one to five stars) and comments from other users of the programs.

The Apple Arcade game service has also been in the App Store since 2019 . Apple Arcade costs € 4.99 a month and offers a number of exclusive titles that are only available in Apple Arcade.

With direct access to the App Store via iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, the app is installed directly on the device and the program is added to the iTunes library the next time it is synchronized with the home computer . For apps with less than 100  MB , which applies to most of the offer with the exception of many games, the iPhone can be used to load the app directly via the cellular data network. For larger programs, the device needs an active internet connection via WLAN .

Up to version 12.6, the App Store could be called up via the iTunes media player , which gave users the option of buying programs for their iPhone, iPod touch or iPad with their PC . With this variant, the downloaded apps were first added to the iTunes library and then automatically transferred to the connected mobile device during the next synchronization. This function is no longer available since version 12.7 of September 2017.

Apple can delete programs on iPhone that have been downloaded from the App Store. When the user goes online, the iPhone automatically contacts an Apple server and sends a list of all installed apps. These can then be deleted by Apple remotely.

Development of apps

Most of the programs offered in the App Store do not come from Apple itself, but from third-party providers and free software developers . App developers can submit them via App Store Connect , although Apple reserves the right to reject them after review. Apple offers the iOS SDK free of charge together with the Xcode development environment , which can only be used on macOS. According to Apple, there were already over 125,000 developers at the end of 2009. To publish an app in the App Store, you need to register for a fee with the iOS Developer Program . The price for the app can be freely selected by the developer according to specified price levels. Apple withholds fees of 30 percent.

Alternative distribution platforms

The App Store is the only official way to transfer programs and games from third parties to the iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Apple thus promises protection against malware . Software that does not come from the App Store can only be installed after a modification of the operating system (so-called jailbreak ). The installed installation programs, the most common being Cydia , allow access to other software platforms, especially the so-called app repository . The proportion of users who have installed such alternative programs is relatively low. According to a study by a private company, the proportion of iPhones modified in this way was around 9 percent in August 2009.

App Store as a generic term

Other mobile platforms such as Android or Windows 10 also use this concept, as a result of which the term `` App Store '', coined by Apple, tended to become a generic term for a commercial, network-based repository of software packages .

There is still legal dispute about the trademark protection of this term. Microsoft claims that the word "App Store" is too generic to be protected as a trademark. This is roughly comparable to a bookstore that is given the brand name “Der Buchladen”.

Amazon calls its manufacturer or cross-operating system offer Amazon Appstore and was sued by Apple for this.

criticism

Examination of apps

Apple grants or denies approval of software for inclusion in the App Store based on criteria that were not initially disclosed and were often described as arbitrary. This earned the company continuous, sometimes fierce, criticism from both the trade press and developer circles. It is still criticized that applications are often rejected - according to critics out of pure business interests - that represent a good or improved alternative to the pre-installed applications from Apple, including WhatsApp, or that could affect the business interests of Apple's marketing partners from the mobile communications sector, especially AT&T in the USA. In the meantime, Apple has published the guidelines for the approval of software. They can be viewed on the Apple developer site.

In July 2009, the company reaped real abuse from technically oriented Internet news sites ( “Apple is growing rotten to the core” - for example: Apple is now rotten to the core ) for the decision to buy a number of apps from Google that are already listed in the App Store to withdraw again. The programs known as Google Voice provide free SMS and inexpensive telephony services , among other things, and were expected euphorically in some cases. They were personally approved by Apple's Senior Vice President Phil Schiller and, according to insider sources, were then withdrawn on direct intervention by AT&T. The Google Voice app was only approved in the US App Store 16 months after submission.

Likewise, the cartoon app by cartoonist Mike Keefe was initially not approved by Apple for publication in the App Store because it caricatures public figures. However, after Keefe was awarded the Pulitzer Prize , his cartoon app was added to the App Store's portfolio.

Manipulated Xcode

In September 2015, it became known that an Xcode version manipulated by hackers had entered the App Store with various applications containing malicious code. Developers in China had apparently downloaded third-party Xcode instead of using the official version from Apple's servers to program the applications. The information on the number of infected apps is between 40 and 350. The majority of these apps are Chinese apps. A spokeswoman for Apple said that most of these apps have now been removed from the App Store and that they are working with the developers to bring these apps back to the App Store without malware.

Removal of apps

Since September 2016, apps have been checked and removed from the App Store if they violate current guidelines, are out of date or do not work as expected.

Terms of Service

In July 2011, Stiftung Warentest rated the App Store as “sufficient”. Above all, clear deficiencies in the general terms and conditions were criticized . In August 2012, the Federation of German Consumer Organizations filed a lawsuit against Apple because they failed to respond to several warnings. The company is accused, among other things, of deliberately misleading customers through excessive general terms and conditions.

privacy

On February 23, 2012 it was announced that the six largest providers of app stores, including Apple, had agreed on a data protection cooperation. Apps should therefore no longer be allowed to collect data in an uncontrolled manner.

literature

• Tom Sadowski: App Store Confidential. A personal look behind the scenes of Apple's most important business. Murmann, Hamburg 2020, ISBN 978-3-86774-642-7 .

Web links

• Official website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Apple's Mac App Store opened. Apple, January 6, 2011, accessed August 10, 2016 . 
2. ↑ iPhone software brings Apple a million dollars in sales a day. In: pressetext.de. August 11, 2008, accessed August 10, 2016 . 
3. ^ Michael Grothaus: More than 18 billion apps downloaded from the App Store. Engadget , April 10, 2011, accessed on August 10, 2016 . 
4. ↑ Stephan Griesenbrock: The billion market with apps: Study on the global development of mobile applications . Diplomica Verlag, Hamburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-8428-9564-5 .
5. ↑ iPhone 3G will go on sale tomorrow. Apple, July 10, 2008, accessed December 14, 2013 . 
6. ↑ Over 100 million downloads worldwide via the App Store. Apple, September 9, 2008, accessed August 10, 2016 . 
7. ↑ 1000 million thanks. Archived from the original on July 17, 2012 ; accessed on August 9, 2016 . 
8. ↑ App Store: 'A thousand million' downloads of 35,000 programs. In: iphoneblog.de. April 24, 2009, accessed August 10, 2016 . 
9. ↑ ^{a b} Apple's App Store exceeds 2 billion downloads. Apple, September 28, 2009, accessed August 10, 2016 . 
10. ↑ Apple announces availability of over 100,000 apps in the App Store. Apple, November 4, 2009, accessed August 10, 2016 . 
11. ↑ Downloaded over 10 billion apps from Apple's App Store. Apple, January 22, 2011, accessed August 10, 2016 . 
12. ↑ Eric Slivka: Live Coverage of Apple's iPad 3 Media Event. In: macrumors.com. March 7, 2012, accessed September 10, 2016 . 
13. ↑ Everything for good entertainment. Apple, archived from the original on June 28, 2013 ; Retrieved December 14, 2013 . 
14. ^ Nathan Ingraham: Apple announces 1 million apps in the App Store, more than 1 billion songs played on iTunes radio. The Verge , October 22, 2013, accessed August 10, 2016 . 
15. ^ The App Effect. In: YouTube . Retrieved June 12, 2015 . 
16. ↑ No more app store: Apple starts a complete overhaul of iTunes. heise.de, September 13, 2017, accessed on February 1, 2018 . 
17. ↑ Apple has remote access to all iPhones. In: 20min.ch. July 12, 2008, accessed August 10, 2016 . 
18. ↑ Ingo Pakalski: Apple can delete programs on the iPhone (update). Golem.de , August 7, 2008, accessed December 14, 2013 . 
19. ^ MG Siegler: Analyst: There's a great future in iPhone apps. In: venturebeat.com. June 11, 2008, accessed August 10, 2016 . 
20. ↑ Jailbreak on almost every tenth iPhone. In: macnotes.de. Retrieved August 10, 2016 . 
21. ↑ Todd Bishop: Microsoft escalates fight vs apples. In: bizjournals.com. January 11, 2011, accessed August 10, 2016 . 
22. ↑ Stefan Schultz: Name dispute: Microsoft sues against "App Store" trademark protection. Spiegel Online , January 12, 2011, accessed August 10, 2016 . 
23. ↑ Kit Eaton: Apple sues Amazon over 'app store' name. CNN , March 22, 2011, accessed August 10, 2016 . 
24. ↑ Matthias Kremp: Software store: Amazon opens Appstore - Apple complains. Spiegel Online, March 22, 2011, accessed August 10, 2016 . 
25. ↑ Ben Schwan: Programmers criticize Apple's App Store. Heise online , September 15, 2008, accessed on August 10, 2016 . 
26. ↑ App Store Review Guidelines. Apple, accessed August 10, 2016 . 
27. ↑ ^{a b} Jason Kincaid: Apple Is Growing Rotten To The Core: Official Google Voice App Blocked From App Store. TechCrunch , July 27, 2009, accessed August 10, 2016 . 
28. ↑ Jason Kincaid: Rotten Apple? Google Voice App Blocked from App Store. In: seekingalpha.com. July 28, 2009, accessed August 10, 2016 . 
29. ^ Seth Weintraub: Google's official Voice client hits the iPhone. In: 9to5mac.com. November 16, 2010, accessed August 10, 2016 . 
30. ↑ Marco Engelien: XcodeGhost: Everything you need to know about the App Store hack. curved.de, September 21, 2015, accessed on August 10, 2016 . 
31. ↑ App Store Improvements - Support - Apple Developer . Retrieved September 3, 2016.
32. ↑ Florian Kalenda: Apple is cleaning up the App Store . In: ZDNet.de . September 2, 2016. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
33. ↑ App stores - nobody is "good". In: test.de . Stiftung Warentest, accessed on December 14, 2013 . 
34. ↑ Annika Demgen: App stores: consumer organization sued Google and Apple. Netzwelt , August 20, 2012, accessed on August 10, 2016 . 
35. ↑ Lisa Bruness: Data protection requirements for apps. Netzwelt, February 23, 2013, accessed on August 10, 2016 .