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Comment by mandeepj | Hacker News Reader

if you can install an app from google play store's website to your android phone then why can't apple provide the same feature?

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I would imagine Apple's intent would be to potentially allow that on pinterest.com, or perhaps on any site which pays a hefty fee.

The closer we can get to selling apps directly on websites, the more the app store becomes irrelevant. You still have to go through review to get the file signatures, but perhaps you can pull the binaries from a different source.

That would be a really interesting vertical.

I think they were referring to the feature on the Play store which allows you to request an app be installed on another device from the web interface, rather than being able to download APKs from the internet.

I find it a really nice touch when I've been linked to an app from another site to be able to instantly get it installed on my mobile without having to fish it out of my pocket and do something silly like take a photo of a QR code.

I agree on its usefulness. On a couple of recent occasions I've read about an interesting Android app while at work, logged into my Google account, gone to the Play Store web interface and told it to install the apps on my tablet at home. When I got home the apps were already installed and there were notifications reminding me to try them.

I'm surprised that the App Store doesn't have a similar feature.

It does, you just have to do it from iTunes.

If you have to use iTunes, that doesn't sound similar at all. There's a huge gap between virtually any browser you're willing to log into and a computer that you can run iTunes on.

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