User:Santakrooz/AppWave

AppWave is an Enterprise "App Store" platform for Windows applications developed and maintained by Embarcadero Technologies. AppWave presents users with a self-service Enterprise application distribution model utilizing familiar Mobile-like "App Store" concepts. Unlike public App Stores, AppWave is an "on-site" technology designed to host the software titles an organization already owns or has developed internally. AppWave utilizes what Embarcadero calls "app isolation" and "smart app streaming" to deliver Windows software to users.

AppWave users can also download additional software titles from the AppWave Store, a public app store based on the same AppWave technology. The AppWave store currently hosts over 1000 Windows Apps for free download.

History
AppWave was initially introduced in Embarcadero's All-Access and ToolCloud products available only to Embarcadero customers and supporting only Embarcadero's own software titles. Beginning in version 2 released in June 2011, AppWave introduced the ability for customers to upload any Windows software title into their AppWaves to make available to their users.

After the success of Apple's App Store, and the launch of similar services by its competitors, the term "app store" has been adopted to refer to any similar service for mobile devices. However, Apple applied for a trademark on the term App Store in 2008 which was tentatively approved in 2011. Later, in June 2011, U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton, who is presiding over Apple's case against Amazon, said she'll "probably" deny Apple's motion that seeks to bar the Web retailer from using the "App Store" name. Later on July 6th, Apple was denied preliminary injunction against Amazon's Appstore by a federal judge.

The term app has become a popular buzzword; in January 2011, app was awarded the honor of being 2010's "Word of the Year" by the American Dialect Society. Apple does not hold a trademark on, or claim exclusive rights to the term app, which has been used as shorthand for "application" since at least 2002, for example Google Apps (first introduced in 2006).

iPad applications
The iPad launched in April 2010 with over 3000 applications designed for the iPad. By December 2010, just eight months after the release of the iPad, over 50,000 apps were available for the device.

As of July 2011, 16 months after the iPad launched, there are over 100,000 apps available at the App Store designed specifically for the device.

On the July 7, 2011, Apple announced that over 15 billion apps had been downloaded from the iOS app store. But, micro level information on the number of downloads of each ranked application has not been made available. To help app producers with their marketing effort and help researchers in better understanding the Apple's iOS app store, a recent research study has tried to estimate the model that converts the app rank to daily downloads. Researchers Garg and Telang from Carnegie Mellon University found that the app downloads follow a Pareto distribution and can be estimated using the equations:

''iPad_app_downloads = 9,525 * paid_app_rank^(-0.903)

iPhone_app_downloads = 52,511 * paid_app_rank^(-0.944)''

NOTE: this claim has not been verified by Apple or any other market research organization.

At the end of November 2011, Apple advertised in holiday newsletter of online Apple Store there are more than 140,000 iPad apps available.

Most popular apps
In April 2009, Apple announced the apps which had the most number of downloads since the store was launched. Among paid apps, Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D, by Activision Publishing, was ranked first, while Facebook enjoyed the same position among free apps, followed by Google Earth. Other popular apps include Angry Birds and apps made by Ragdoll Studios. Whatsapp is the most popular app for messaging between BB, Android and iPhone. It works similar to the BB messenger.

Application ratings
Apple rates applications worldwide based on their content, and determines the age group for which each is appropriate. According to the iPhone OS 3.0 launch event, the iPhone will allow blocking of objectionable apps in the iPhone's settings. The following are the ratings that Apple has detailed:

App approval process
Applications are subject to approval by Apple, as outlined in the SDK agreement, for basic reliability testing and other analysis. Applications may still be distributed "ad-hoc" if they are rejected, by the author manually submitting a request to Apple to license the application to individual iPhones, although Apple may withdraw the ability for authors to do this at a later date.

Non-disclosure agreements (NDA) have always forbidden developers from publishing the content of their rejection notices, but Apple has now started labeling their rejection letters with an NDA warning THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS MESSAGE IS UNDER NON-DISCLOSURE. Apple later changed the NDA citing that "it has created too much of a burden on developers" but they did not reverse the decision to forbid publication of rejection notices. Some applications are not available outside the US App Store at the request of the developer. Since so many developers have published rejection emails Apple now most often call submitters to verbally tell them their rejection notice.

In addition, Apple has removed software licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) from the App Store after complaints from one of the program's developers, claiming that the App Store's terms of service are incompatible with the GPL.

Enterprise App Stores
Because Apple's App Store is for consumers, companies are unable to distribute in-house apps on the App Store. Under Apple's iOS Developer Enterprise Program companies can publish in-house apps using an Enterprise App Store with systems such as AppWave, AppCentral, Apperian EASE, Appaloosa Store Partnerpedia or a Mobile Device Management platform such as Sybase Afaria.

Apps published with Apple's iOS Developer Enterprise Program are still subject to Apple's control via the controversial kill switch, where Apple can revoke a publisher's digital certificate and thereby "kill" the app on user devices. However, there is no evidence that this has been done in the enterprise environment.

Similar services for other devices
Competitors also have their own stores for mobile applications. Palm Inc. published an application store similar to the App Store for Palm devices and announced the App Catalog for webOS on the Palm Pre that was released on June 6, 2009. Another platform, Google Play ( former Android Market ) is used in conjunction with Google's Android operating system. Microsoft has released Windows Phone Marketplace, an application store for their Windows Phone platform.

Nokia has released The "Ovi Store" (which replaced its earlier "Download!" application, which predated Apple's App Store) for its S60 and S40 based mobile devices. Samsung has created Samsung Apps, primarily to cater for its own Bada OS, but also with support for certain other Samsung devices. Research in Motion (RIM) also launched its application store BlackBerry App World.

The Nintendo DSi is able to connect to an online store called the "DSi Shop", along with Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) and Playstation Vita being able to connect to PlayStation Store to download games, etc. The Nintendo 3DS also has its own application distribution platform, called the Nintendo eShop.