App Store

What Does App Store Mean?

An app store refers to an online shop where customers can purchase and download various software applications. Generally speaking, the apps sold through app stores are intended for mobile devices. App stores are cloud-based in the sense that users access the content via free client software or a Web browser.

Techopedia Explains App Store

The term app store nearly ended up applying only to Apple’s App Store for the iPhone. Apple filed an injunction against Amazon in 2011, claiming that calling its online store of apps for Android devices an app store infringed on Apple’s branded App Store. The judge in the case found that the term app store was more descriptive than it was associated with Apple’s branded app store, rendering the term a generic name for any online store that sells apps.

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Margaret Rouse

Technology Specialist

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.

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