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Apple Hits 15b App Store Downloads, But Loses "App Store" Name Skirmish
Coldeagle writes "Apple has been dealt a blow in its 'App Store' trademark case, with a federal judge denying its request for an injunction to stop Amazon from using the term." Apple probably wouldn't trade the name exclusivity it seeks, though, for the success they've found with the business model; the company announced today that the App Store has reached 15 billion downloads.
App Store was way too generic for a trademark. That's the problem with coining a term, at least xerox was the name of their company.
I thought it was generally accepted that App generally stands for Application. It was a bold move by Apple to try to secure the word, but I am glad they failed.
How come common-sense is still manifest? And so often? I've seen like 2-3 times it this year already, this must stop.
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
BTW - I just copyrighted "iStore", maybe (check in your local jurisdiction).
Also, let's burn "widget store", "got app?", "widget factory", and "buyme*".
* harkening back to simpler times when one could post a program named "playme" to wreak havoc, for the hacker fun of it (no pop-up dialogs involved.)
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
and I like Apple.
Kinda blows a hole in your theory.
Apple fans - this is a website for nerds. Not for hipsters.
True nerds love UNIX, and Apple provides an exceptional UNIX out of the box.
That's really what propelled them to start with, Apple's fortunes changed with OS X because at the core nerds had their back seeing an opportunity to bring UNIX to the masses. And you know what? It worked.
Linux for whatever reason is just not the OS you could reasonably give to your mother or grandmother without some hands-on support time involved. OS X is a fire-and-forget computer solution that means family visits are not four hour fix-a-thons.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Assuming most people have tried 50 apps (which is a very high average guess) - that means there would have been 300 million iOS devices. I really doubt it. I think 15 billion is a meaningless and false number.
So what are you doing here?
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
I still cry foul. The fanboy will download a couple hundred. Most average people will do less than 40. I would still pin it as rather unlikely that 200 million devices averaged 75 downloaded apps. 200 million people don't have the time no matter how much they foam over apple. 20 million - maybe, but not 200 million.
But i guess you can just take their word for it. I'm sure they're completely honest. Cough.
in microsoft's case, if you look closely, what they have registered as trademark is "Microsoft Windows". The whole phrase. And that's enforceable. But "windows" on its own, isn't enforceable in the market of graphic interfaces. "well, we're creating a GUI. Which uses windows. Let's call it Windows !"
And indeed there are other graphic interfaces also called with names containing "Windows". A proeminent exemple should be the unices' "X11 Windows".
when you look at their other product, Microsoft seems quit fond of creating brand name simply by slapping some word (often their own name) in front of some descriptive generic word : "Microsoft Office", "Visual Basic", "Intelli Mouse", "Internet Explorer" (here the generic comes first), etc.
this prevents them from suing because of these names (similar names like Libre-/OpenOffice, Turbo & Power Basic, Mighty Mouse, etc.)
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Apple fans - this is a website for nerds. Not for hipsters.
If you don't want them here, why are you baiting them?
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
It's too bad they had to go and declare true nerds the enemy with their iProducts.
You have no idea what the hell you are talking about. That's still a very powerful UNIX platform.
True nerds don't care about locks; they unlock them instead of whining about the existence of same. What matters is what's inside when you unlock it. Still UNIX? Yep.
What you really don't realize is that for the nerd having almost all the iPhone software written in Objective-C is a huge, huge nerd advantage - because you can inject code into existing applications with far greater ease than other platforms.
It gives the true nerd a massive amount of power over the whole platform and applications running on it.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
If you don't want them here, why are you baiting them?
He secretly desperately desires a Mac, but he cannot yet come out of the iCloset he has put himself into.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Apple users are both. PC users are niether. *nix users can be either. Due to the inferiority complex, PC users tends to build exclusivity to compensate.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
that someday, we will have real news for nerds, things that matter, instead of every fart from Jobs and Apple.
To be fair, this article is more of an Apple shart. There's the relief of the order of 15B, but something got away at the same time, something that they would have rather kept in.
If you think OSX is unix, you never used unix. Apple really went to town on the cute and innocent opensource OS like a pedo on a 4yr old and turned it into a twisted psycho vision of itself.
OSX is not Unix. Go ahead and use it, you will find many many things changed to accomodate the single (active) user nature of OSX.
Oh and Apple provides an exceptional UNIX out of the box?
Really? Where is the cli on the iPhone? On the iPad? On the iPod? Oh, just on their PC's... well that is actually just a small section then of their total market.
OSX is Lindows on more expensive hardware.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
No, we care about locks. Which is, partly, why we appreciate open source.
Few people care as much about open source as I do. I contribute to the FSF every year, do you?
One of the great things about the iPhone as a platform is there is a TON of open source to do things, and it's built on top of a lot of open source technologies (like Webkit and GCD).
All the major players in mobile are locked down to some degree, so I focus on what I can DO with a platform. And there the iPhone excels.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Isn't that a cop-out? Software patents aren't a matter of pro or con in regards to a specific organization.
No, because a true shill would defend a company regardless of rightness or wrongness of specific patent uses.
I have said when I think Apple is using the leverage of patents in an unfair manner.
Just because patents are not a matter of pro or con on their own does not mean attitudes toward them cannot help show intent.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
btw, quirks against a platform don't really count as political disagreements. Why not mention an official position of Apple which you object to?
Like what? Generally I support Apple because a large majority of "positions" Apple holds I agree with, including protecting the security of end users and making computing easier and more accessible being a priority. What exactly am I supposed to be disagreeing with here, since obviously you have something in mind. Spit it out.
I've said in the past when I thought Apple held stupid positions, and I will continue to do so in the future. But by and large they are I think making mostly good choices for the computer industry and computer users.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
"App Store has reached 15 billion downloads."
And how many of those were the weekly 'updates'? I've noticed that certain companies publish frequent updates to their freeware which are actually reminders to buy the paid version. A single App may be downloaded several times in a month or a year due to these 'updates'. I suppose Apple is counting them as unique downloads.
...omphaloskepsis often...
And you know as well as I that the hostility doesn't extend to OS X (yet.) Apple sees mobile as the future of computing (hence the "post-PC era" comments from Jobs),
Post PC doesn't mean SANS PC. It means getting past the point of the PC being the PRIMARY platform, and to a world where it is one of many platforms as equals. Mobile is only where computing has to go to extend further than it has, and is ONE future, not all of it.
They were even ready to try and apply US Federal laws against people creating jailbreaks.
Really? When? I never read a single thing that said that, and now of course the point is moot since the law is clear that jailbreaking is fine.
They've gone 180 from where I saw them when I got my MacBook.
They continue to do what they always have tried to do, bring computing to the masses while still giving technical users excellent systems. Any change is you misinterpretation of direction, not an about-course.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
When any web page that has Flash apps on it requires an App because the devices don't have Flash on them, the numbers are flawed, even if accurate. If you take every web page that has a Flash application on it, including Speedtest.net, you could argue that each of these web pages are considered an app on devices that DO support Flash, since you can make a link to those pages to run the Flash version.
So, how many thousands of Flash apps are there on web pages out there? Can we now add them to the total number of apps available on other platforms?
I didn't think I needed to make a point about those. Also, the bit in your topic is a non-sequitor (I don't recall GE ever attacking people publicly over microwave microntroller hacking.)
Rather, you've bought into Apple's mantra that mobile devices are somehow "special" and "need" to be locked down. They are exactly what I think they are, just crippled. Apparently others agree, otherwise Jailbreaks wouldn't exist.
Using flash right now on Android.to play a game.
Guess you dont have a point.
Or else Apple wouldn't have sold that many iOS devices.
Why can't you live with the fact that there are a lot of people out there who like the walled garden when it comes to the intrinsically limited device that they carry around in their pocket? Why can't you understand that making it easy to load untrusted code onto an iOS device would also make it easy to have the same problems with crappy spyware/spamware/viruses/etc. that PCs suffer from? It's not like there aren't alternatives. Go buy one.
Have you ever heard an Apple customer complaining that the Android option shouldn't exist? or that Google should be somehow forced to lock up their devices?
Yet you continue to complain that the iOS walled garden model shouldn't exist despite the millions of people that are perfectly happy with it. And somehow this leads to more "choice"?
You can call it crippled if you want. I guess it is in the same way that a car is crippled because it doesn't expose an easy way to manually deploy the airbag. I call it good engineering. I suspect you wouldn't know good engineering if it slapped you in the face.
This app seems to support webm as well...
Another Apple hater argument discredited, crying in his beer no doubt.
I was also going to bring up that anyone so technically inclined could add WebM into Safari if they had jailbroken it.
But I doubt he'd listen to that either, since as noted Apple Haters have no interest in facts or what you can actually do.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
You do.
I'm not sure why you make this assertion when it is so plainly false. As a developer, I can compile and run any application with Apple's blessing.
Last I checked, you had to sign these with developer certificates that had a limited runtime and limited redistribution abilities.
That's partly correct but it doesn't change the FACT that I can run any software I care to build. Restrictions on distribution are not the same as restrictions on individual freedom.
Now as for distribution, if you have a D&B number you can register as an enterprise developer and then you have unlimited distribution.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Yet you do. You buy into Apple's locked down mobile space.
I buy into Apple's mobile space. The choice to lock it down or not is left to the user; I choose to unlock it. Normal users are safer with it locked so that is the default; anyone who cares to can unlock it.
Except that in the mobile space they explicitly deny that to you, and require you jump through hoops and pay for access.
Jailbreaking is free and always has been.
I choose to go through Apple so I can have access to distribution on the App Store. If I didn't care about that I could simply create and sell stuff on Cydia, never paying Apple a dime for access...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
As much of an Apple fan as I am, I have to agree that since the abbreviation "App" has been around for decades to refer to applications, Apple overreached their bounds here.
DRM'd Systems
I didn't think I needed to make a point about those.
No? Apple supports them for general user software so they can remain secure. APple has taken away DRM from things like music so plainly they only use it as a tool, not a weapon.
Rather, you've bought into Apple's mantra that mobile devices are somehow "special" and "need" to be locked down.
No, Apple devices are not "special" in any way. The truth is that EVERY COMPUTING DEVICE should be locked down and secure, so that general computer users could not screw themselves over as badly as we have seen with Windows.
You are the one that wants to keep computing devices "special" so that only technical users can really use them with any degree of confidence. YOU are the one that wants to keep the high priesthood of the computer alive and lording over the masses. That is all YOU man, some of us want to see the real computer revolution we were promised that really encompasses everyone, not just the technically inclined. That means same changes are needed for default system configuration that are more locked down, but it never means they have to remain that way. Jailbreaking is obvious and natural for any locked down device so to complain about it seems absurd.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
1. Passing the "Re: Try this!" test: If Apple made it easy for you to install homebrew software on your device, they also would be making it easy for the casual nontechnical user to do this unintentionally. Warning dialogs or switches under Settings don't work, the test is whether someone can write an email to easily trick a nontechnical user into putting their device into a non-safe state.
2. It costs more for Apple to support customers when they are running non-curated software. They're a business and they have every right to restrict their focus to whatever audience they think will (in the end) make them more money.
3. Controlling the user experience: If there exists a substantial software base available outside of the walled garden--then this creates demand even amongst nontechnical users to access those applications. If enough iOS devices are 'Jailbroken' then the user experience becomes compromised. The nontechnical users won't associate the flakiness/insecurity of their devices with their direct actions which led them to circumvent the walled garden--instead they'll blame Apple. Apple's entire business model is based on controlling the user experience.
Given all 3 above, Apple's current approach seems pretty reasonable to me: non-curated free & open development using HTML5 and curated development for native apps, some extra cost to write non-curated apps to run on your iPhone (or within your Enterprise setup), and more or less tolerating the existence of Jailbreakers but cutting off Apple support for them (of course, always allowing them a way back into the walled garden).
At some point you just need to deal with the reality that Apple is not building general purpose mobile computers with their iOS platform, they are building appliances. The OSX platform is general-purpose. If iOS isn't your cup of tea, then buy an Android.
The hyperbole about having access to the thing that you bought is just fucking retarded and you sound more like a moron everytime you spot that nonsense. You don't have full access to your microwave, or your car, or most any other electronic device you buy.