By all accounts Apple's App Store, which offers add-on software for the iPhone and iPod touch through iTunes, has been a success. Despite the ongoing low-intensity warfare between Apple and some app developers, new applications continue to appear and sales are brisk. In September, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that the App Store had served up more than 100 million apps in its first 60 days, and an earlier Wall Street Journal report quoted Jobs as saying that the store had generated $30 million in sales in its first 30 days of existence. Jobs even mused that the App Store could be a $1 billion market someday.

But despite all that, some users, analysts, and developers are critical of Apple's decision to shoehorn the App store inside of iTunes, using many of the same features that were designed to be used for music, not software.

Mismatched media?

Claremont McKenna College freshman George Posner says he noticed the differences between shopping for music and for iPhone apps right away.

"They do different things," Posner says. Although Posner professes to like the App Store, he says it isn't always his first stop when looking for applications for his new phone. That seems strange, considering the App Store is the only place a user can legally download third-party software. But Posner says he relies instead on other sites, such as Facebook, and word-of-mouth from friends to give him suggestions for apps to buy when he visits the App Store.

"Apple let the App Store get away from them," says Rob Frankel, a Los Angeles-based branding guru. "They did such a great job of building the entire iTunes empire. They thought they could just clone the structure. It doesn't work." Frankel says the store looks and feels like "a bolt on" to the iTunes Music Store, rather than a unique retail outlet selling unique products.

"Music is music and apps are apps," Frankel says. What works for selling the former, he explains, may not work selling the latter. The problem, Frankel argues, is that the App Store isn't doing what the iTunes Music Store did--making the experience of art and technology seamless.

And that's not all.

A tough slog

Browsing the App Store isn't easy. There are broad categories of apps, but they're tough to sort through. Go to the App Store, click on "Entertainment" or "Games." Up pop hundreds of products, some $1, some free, some are $10 or more. It's a mish-mash of stuff. Who can make sense of it all?

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