Google's Red Guide to the Android App Store
As part of an industry that owes so much to Steve Jobs, we remember him on this day, the 58th anniversary of his birth, with great sadness but also with gratitude. Of Steve's many achievements, we particularly want to celebrate the Apple App Store, the venerable purveyor of iPhone software.
Introduced in 2008, the App Store was an obvious and natural descendant of iTunes. What wasn't obvious or foreseen was that the App Store would act as a catalyst for an entire market segment, that it would metamorphose the iPhone from mere smartphone to app phone. This metamorphosis provided an enormous boost to the mobile industry worldwide, a boost that has benefitted us all and Google more than most.
But despite the success of the app phone, there's no question that today's mobile application stores, our own Google Play included, are poorly curated. No one seems to be in charge, there's no responsibility for reviewing and grading apps, there's no explanation of the criteria that goes into the "Editors' Picks", app categorisation is skin deep and chaotic.
