What's in store for the stores? Or how will all these App stores evolve?
Last week pictures of Microsoft's coming App Store leaked. The line that stood out for me in this TechCrunch commentary was It looks almost as if Microsoft is ripping off Google ripping off Apple The commentary is both accurate and a little unfair . On the surface, the claims seems valid. You could probably throw the Amazon App Store for Android into the mix as well. The stores have similar elements. A rotating, image-rich banner on the top to promote new/notable/preferred/interesting apps. Lists and modules to show the right slices of apps - a mix of curated and generated collections Individual detailed pages for the apps. The ability to dive into categories Most have reviews and ratings Some support evangelizing/sharing (i.e. tweet/share on facebook etc.) The differences right now are mostly cosmetic (icon design, font sizes, banner designs, graphic elements, consistency with existing products etc.) The comparison that keeps coming to my mind is the similarity to stores in the...