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Apple Announces App Store

Submitted by Michael Johnston on March 6, 2008 - 1:15pm.
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Today during the iPhone SDK Event, Apple announced a new application called "App Store". The application allows users to wirelessly download applications to their iPhone, much like Installer.app of today. App Store resembles the iTunes Store found on the iPhone today.

According to Steve Jobs,

"The App Store is going to be the exclusive way to distribute iPhone applications," Jobs says. "We think we've got a great business deal for developers." Developer picks the price. Developer gets 70% of the revenues right off the top. We keep 30%. No credit card fees for developers. No hosting fees. No marketing fees. "And it's paid monthly," Jobs says. "This is the best deal going to distribute applications in the mobile space."

Most importantly, free applications will be available without charge (yay!). Limitations for the App Store, as stated by a slide presented by Jobs, are "Porn, privacy, bandwidth hog, unforeseen, malicious, illegal".

[image via Gizmodo]

installer.app

Submitted by madscientest on March 6, 2008 - 2:19pm.
so what is going to stop people from hacking and putting installer.app on their iphone. now the incentive is even greater than ever...free apps! i will not pay for apps unless they are a must have. i can see apple charging for apps that should be on the iphone already, like mms and A2DP. all the more reason to hack and put installer.app on the iphone.

Submitted by garyb on March 6, 2008 - 8:01pm.
Quote:
Originally Posted by madscientest View Post
so what is going to stop people from hacking and putting installer.app on their iphone. now the incentive is even greater than ever...free apps! i will not pay for apps unless they are a must have. i can see apple charging for apps that should be on the iphone already, like mms and A2DP. all the more reason to hack and put installer.app on the iphone.
Exactly... definitely not paying for apps. I am very happy with the current Installer.app feature set.

Submitted by chr1s60 on March 7, 2008 - 1:46am.
Quote:
Originally Posted by madscientest View Post
so what is going to stop people from hacking and putting installer.app on their iphone. now the incentive is even greater than ever...free apps! i will not pay for apps unless they are a must have. i can see apple charging for apps that should be on the iphone already, like mms and A2DP. all the more reason to hack and put installer.app on the iphone.
If you saw the presentation, Jobs said that it is 100% up to the developer when it comes to making a price for the app, Apple has no say. Installer.app is nice, but the quality of the apps made with the SDK and distributed through the installer store are going to blow away installer.app. I am guessing 2.0 will probably take a shot at the hackers too and make it more difficult to jailbreak. It seems like Apple has been quiet and not really cared about the hacking lately, that silence tells me they have been working on something. Many developers currently using installer.app will probably make the switch to the installer store in order to develop with the SDK and make better apps. Jailbreaking an iPhone will be pretty much pointless after 2.0 is released.

we can only wait and see

Submitted by madscientest on March 7, 2008 - 11:49am.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chr1s60 View Post
If you saw the presentation, Jobs said that it is 100% up to the developer when it comes to making a price for the app, Apple has no say. Installer.app is nice, but the quality of the apps made with the SDK and distributed through the installer store are going to blow away installer.app. I am guessing 2.0 will probably take a shot at the hackers too and make it more difficult to jailbreak. It seems like Apple has been quiet and not really cared about the hacking lately, that silence tells me they have been working on something. Many developers currently using installer.app will probably make the switch to the installer store in order to develop with the SDK and make better apps. Jailbreaking an iPhone will be pretty much pointless after 2.0 is released.
Well, we will just have to wait and see. My personal opinion is I would rather support the developers than apple.

Submitted by BiG™ on March 27, 2008 - 5:49pm.
Quote:
Originally Posted by madscientest View Post
Well, we will just have to wait and see. My personal opinion is I would rather support the developers than apple.
I don't quite understand why iPhone 2.0 and apps sold through Apple's store dictates a lack of support for the developer. The developer dictates how much the application should sell for, and therefor dictates how much they will make. All Apple sees is the cost from selling a development package, which in turn allows the developer a huge public market, far greater in size to anything which installer.app currently reaches. I love installer.app, and installed it as soon as I learned I was going to have to wait another three months before I could start doing anything with my iPhone; but installer offers me no different a selection of products as I was installing on my Nokia N73 two years ago - and some of the applications are far less developed. With the open access developers will have, along with the corporate support from apparently (only time will tell) dozens of companies, I think that the toolkit and store will revolutionize the mobile phone industry, turning profit in a way no other phone maker has been able to do, ever. Every company wants in on the mobile market, but the lack of standards and the variety of carriers across the world has inhibited true corporate entrance into the market. Apple will turn that on it's head in the way the iTunes music store and the iPod did with MP3's. And all along, the people bankrolling this will be the developers, some corporate, but others just a guy who paid Apple $100 and made a great product. So yeah, support your developers, but support them with some sense, and not just in antiapplefanboy blindness.