App store

[2] An app store is any digital storefront intended to allow search and review of software titles or other media offered for sale electronically.

Some app stores may also include a system to automatically remove an installed program from devices under certain conditions, with the goal of protecting the user against malicious software.

Some app stores provide feedback to developers: number of installations, issues in the field (latency, crash, etc.).

Commercial Bulletin board services appeared in the early 1980s, such as Micronet 800 (1983), that permitted registered subscribers to browse, purchase, and download software for a variety of proprietary operating systems, then offered by manufacturers such as Acorn, Apple, Commodore, Dragon, IBM, RML, Sinclair and Tandy.

[4][5] The Electronic AppWrapper[6] was the first commercial electronic software distribution catalog to collectively manage encryption and provide digital rights for apps and digital media[7] (issue #3 was the app store originally demonstrated to Steve Jobs at NeXTWorld EXPO).

[8] While a Senior Editor at NeXTWORLD Magazine, Simson Garfinkel, rated The Electronic AppWrapper 4 3/4 Cubes (out of 5), in his formal review.

New software (and the other packages required for its proper operation, called dependencies) can be retrieved from local or remote mirrors, and automatically installed, in a single process.

In 1997, BeDepot a third-party app store and package manager (Software Valet) for BeOS was launched, which operated until 2001.

DoCoMo used a revenue-sharing business model, allowing content creators and app providers to keep up to 91% of revenue.

[18] In 2002, the commercial Linux distribution Linspire (then known as LindowsOS—which was founded by Michael Robertson, founder of MP3.com) introduced an app store known as Click'N'Run (CNR).

For an annual subscription fee, users could perform one-click installation of free and paid apps through the CNR software.

Doc Searls believed that the ease-of-use of CNR could help make desktop Linux a feasible reality.

In October 2003, Handango introduced an on-device app store for finding, installing and buying software for Sony Ericsson P800 and P900 devices.

[36] Microsoft filed multiple objections against Apple's attempt to register the name as a trademark, considering it to already be a generic term.