From Wired News
February 15, 2008
Want iPhone Apps? Get Ready to Shop in iTunes
By Bryan Gardiner
Apple's upcoming iPhone software development kit will do more than enable programmers to create new software for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It will also turn iTunes into a software store, because Apple will probably use iTunes as the primary distribution vehicle for what's likely to be a massive community of iPhone software developers....
... Expanding the store's offerings to include iPhone and iPod Touch software is, in many ways, a natural extension of Apple's current distribution channel, says John Chuang, an expert in economics and distributed systems and an associate professor at the University of California at Berkeley School of Information....
... For software purchases, Chuang says, Apple will be effectively acting as an editor, providing a unified platform, vetting offerings and highlighting choices from among a diverse and numerous field of developers.
"From a consumer perspective, the experience of looking for and purchasing software for their devices will come from this one unified and familiar platform, and that adds a lot of value," Chuang says....