8 Ways Apple's App Store Can Stay on Top
Apple's taken some heat for setting the bar too high for admission to its iPhone App Store, as well as for making the App Store the exclusive source for downloadable software. The fact that Apple is judging quality and safety at all, instead of just providing an online catalog, is being swung as a marketing hook for mobile platforms that fancy themselves more open, but a cynic would wonder whether they're really tearing down the empire that they simply didn't think to build first.
The App Store is transforming the way software is conceived, developed, sold, and supported, and this high-margin, low-effort, iTunes-inspired model that favors selling lots of cheap apps over a few costly ones will spread. But even when the day comes that the App Store is no longer unique in concept or penetration, the standards to which Apple holds its App Store contenders will set it, and the iPhone platform, apart. Apple signs off on everything the App Store sells for security and compatibility. The App Store isn't just 50,000 apps; it's 50,000 apps that work on your phone and don't ship your contacts to a .ru site. That continuous, voluminous vetting is heavier lifting than any of Apple's competitors is willing to commit to. That's why there's no genuine App Store rival yet.
