There is a substantial difference in that the app store is a middleman with the potential to control code between the user and the developer (intentionally expl

There is a substantial difference in that the app store is a middleman with the potential to control code between the user and the developer (intentionally explicitly ignoring the rare edge case of self-developed software). On the web, the user can use any app in the world, but the app store limits the user to a specific pre-approved list of apps - there are both advantages and disadvantages to each approach, but that difference is meaningful.