Are App Stores Evil?

So, what is the right answer here? There's only two real choices:

1) Store

2) No Store

The App store solves packaging, distribution and sales, while making it harder for apps to stand out. It looks like everybody developing for the iPhone agrees that Apple having complete control over distribution isn't the best thing. Perhaps they should let 3rd parties run stores, or perhaps they should just get out of the way and let developers package and distribute their own applications if they want to.

The more I think about it the more it seems like app developers are the new musicians with Apple being the RIAA? "Device security" is just a silly way of saying we want to keep "distribution royalty".

That being said, from a consumer perspective, having the store on my phone and not having to scour the web for apps is definitely a good thing. Perhaps, then, the right answer is to allow 3rd parties to run App Stores and allow developers to sell their own apps if they choose to do so.

Now, that's what Android is doing, and it's great. But, too bad their device sucks. However, it does seem like the pressure is mounting and something is going to give. Either Apple gets out of the way or they fix their broken approval process.

And god knows what Palm is up to, given that they should've learned from Apple's mistakes already they seem to be making all the wrong moves so far.

If it isn't obvious, convenience to customers or end users is what is more important than that of developers.having less hassle for users is far more important than having more freedom for developers. That is how it works in all other industries and that is how it is supposed to work logically based on mere # of devs VS # of users. In that perspective, I think App store is just Great! It does eliminate a lot of hassles for the end user.

I mean, how many articles have we read when a user complains about the App store. Isn't it always some developer that has issues with it?

Isn't there a huge hole in the market where there should be a quality mobile device running a completely open platform? Such a device would blow the iphone appstore away, I think.