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The Apple App Store is a service for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad offered by Apple Inc. which allows users to browse and download applications from the iTunes Store that were developed with the iPhone SDK and published through Apple. Depending on the application, they are available either free, or at a cost. The applications can be downloaded directly to target device, or downloaded onto a computer via iTunes. Apple allows 70% of revenues from the store to instantly go to the seller of the app, and 30% go to Apple. The App Store opened on July 10, 2008 via an update to iTunes. On July 11, the iPhone 3G was launched and came pre-loaded with iOS 2.0 with App Store support; new iOS 2.0 firmware for iPhone and iPod Touch was also made available via iTunes. As of October 20, 2010, there are at least 300,000 third-party applications officially available on the App Store, with over 7 billion total downloads. The median revenue per developed application however is estimated to be at 700$ while the average costs range from $15,000 to $50,000.
After the success of Apple's App Store, and the launch of similar services by its competitors, the term "app store" has been used to refer to any similar service for mobile devices. However, Apple claims "App Store" as a trademark.
On October 20, 2010, Apple announced the Mac App Store. It is similar to the one for iOS devices, only it has apps designed for Mac computers.
The App Store is accessible from the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad via an iOS application by the same name. It is also the only way to directly download native applications onto an iOS device without voiding the warranty. Web applications can be installed on these devices, bypassing the App Store entirely but they tend to have less functionality. The store is also accessible on computers running Mac OS X and Windows through iTunes.
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