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What was the earliest prior art resembling the Apple App Store? (Eg curation, 3rd party publishing with royalty cuts, one-click install.) Was it Steam? Which f
by bredren 6y ago
What was the earliest prior art resembling the Apple App Store? (Eg curation, 3rd party publishing with royalty cuts, one-click install.)
Was it Steam? Which first launched in 2003?
Did Apple debut objectively novel behavior that made the App Store a thing? Perhaps the install flow, or maybe the developer submission flow? (Which was admittedly awful for a number of years)
- numpad0 6y agoSymbian had mandatory signature checks and Nokia Signed/Symbian Signed program for privileged APIs, i-mode phones had “carrier official sites” program and Java app players to use with... That said, the idea of iOS and App Store that you don’t ever sideload, browse from PC or web browser, or handle .ipa directly, as an integrated whole, do feel novel to me.
- nitrogen 6y agoSomething similar but for music existed in pre-Vivendi MP3.com (whose founder later started Lindows which had an app store for Linux PCs in 2002), and a real world analog might be something like a consignment store.
- sergeykish 6y agoApp Store was obvious as Linux user. In Windows and Symbian users has to search for installer. Out of commercial looks like Valve was first. I've never seen Windows Marketplace. Nokia took so long to make obvious thing - you have to review and sign application by Nokia (Symbian 9.1, 2005 [0]), but host by yourself. Valve Steam - announced on March 22, 2002, released for beta testing the same day. [1] Windows Marketplace - announced on July 12, 2004, launched on October 12, 2004 [2]. Nokia Ovi - announced on 29 August 2007, public beta on 28 August 2008 [3]. iPhone App Store - opened on July 10, 2008 [4]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbian [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_(service) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_(service) [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Marketplace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Marketplace [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovi_(Nokia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovi_(Nokia) [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/App_Store_(iOS) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/App_Store_(iOS)
- zzapplezz 6y agoHow could you forget the first? Brew! Sept 2001 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_Runtime_Environment_for_Wireless https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_Runtime_Environment_for... "an application development platform created by Qualcomm, originally for code division multiple access (CDMA) mobile phones, featuring third-party applications such as mobile games. It is offered in some feature phones (mostly with the similar specifications of a mid to high-end mobile phones) but not in smartphones. Developed in 1999, as a platform for wireless applications on CDMA-based mobile phones, it debuted in September 2001."
- sergeykish 6y agoWow, code signing. Not much CDMA in my country, J2ME here. Why limit to manufacturer? Third party store is even cooler, found one portal [1]: > Downloads: > Since Mar.31, 2004: 4,189,079 > Last week: 209,952 Possible trace: > On-Device Portal technology emerged in 2000 [2] [1] http://web.archive.org/web/20050429230232/http://www.getjar.com/software/ http://web.archive.org/web/20050429230232/http://www.getjar.... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-Device_Portal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-Device_Portal
- bredren 6y agoWow, I completely forgot about this one. I remember this on my flip phone. While a nice bit of nostalgia, IIRC the fees and royalties were very high and the administration to get something submitted was not in the same ballpark of the earliest Apple App Store.
- folmar 6y agoWikipedia lists PocketGear from 1999: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mobile_app_distribution_platforms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mobile_app_distributio... If you drop the money a BBS is an old-man's appstore.
- forgotmypw17 6y agoIsn't app store just a package repository with added friction? Wouldn't something like the BSD ports tree or slackware be earliest?
- nailer 6y agoClick and run was an app store in 2002.