A legal stay on Amazon’s use of “app store” is being imposed by Apple, when describing their Android software collection, though Steve Jobs has described Amazon’s offering as an app store. Apple has recently maintained that the term is not a generic one. Amazon has been skirting the issue by eliminating the space and calling it an “app store”, but that’s clearly not enough to keep Apple at bay.
Due to similarity in naming the developers and consumers will get confused about which service and manufacturer they’re dealing with, is their main concern. That’s understandable, and they can hardly be blamed for not knowing that every other smartphone manufacturer would be imitating their model when they first named the thing.
We gotta give Apple credit for popularizing the term “app” through their
iPhone application storefront, but for them to claim exclusive dominion over the term “app store” seems a little far-fetched. What do you guys think; should other manufacturers find more original naming conventions, or has Apple shot themselves in the foot by trying to coin a phrase that was too generic?
