Ask HN: When did the idea of an app store first come together?

I was just reading this old profile: http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2007/09/02/introducing_the_google_phone/ And this passage stuck out: Mark May, an equities analyst at Needham & Company who follows Google's stock, says he doesn't expect Google to manufacture the phone itself, but rather provide an operating system and a suite of applications that "would appeal to consumers and professionals," like the mail and word processing applications it already provides to PC users. "That's a natural extension from their core business," May says. The operating system is expected to be open not just to Google's applications, but applications developed by all sorts of other players - a real problem with many cellphones. September 2nd, 2007. Apple's store didn't come out until July of 2008. Since I wasn't following along, anyone have insight into whether this was a general trend in thought then, if rumors of Apple spurred this analyst to think about Google along similar lines, or if some other company had already launched the concept?