Apple's wildly successful iPhone App Store is changing everything about how we interact with the Web — and how software developers make money — according to a New York Times report. What does Apple's "game changer" application distribution system mean for its competitors, its partners, and the rest of us? And what's Apple's next move? (Watch an Apple "game changer" ad)
The App Store model will be hard to match: The "sexy" iPhone and iPod Touch "played a huge role" in the App Store's success, says MG Siegler in TechCrunch. But Apple's real masterstroke was "placing the App Store on top of iTunes," its already "proven" music-selling powerhouse. By making it as easy and familiar to buy an app as a song, Apple has created a lucrative "cycle ... that will be very hard for competitors to break."
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