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While not the same thing, show me one person who's touched Linux that didn't immediately scream "Repositories!" when they first heard about the iOS App Store...

It's a Storefront for Applications. There's only so many variations of the name you can come up with before they start stepping on each others' toes.

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The App Store bears far more resemblance to Steam than to Linux distro repositories, which are primarily about resolving dependencies and being able to upgrade things without breaking dependencies. iOS and OS X Apps don't even have external dependencies other than OS-provided libraries, and most Linux package management systems don't have a standard GUI, let alone one at all like iTunes or the Mac App Store.

I disagree with your claim of their primary use. They're for installing software; the convenient upgrades and dependency management are merely a side effect of handling that task correctly.

Also, from TFA, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNR_(software)

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