Apple's new promotional AppStore.com links debut during Super Bowl
Apple didn't have a commercial during this year's Super Bowl, but the company's new AppStore.com short link did debut in one advertisement.
Apple recently launched new short links for App Store content using the website AppStore.com. The feature was announced last week to developers, with examples including specific application or company names to search for App Store content.
On Sunday, a Super Bowl advertisement for the upcoming film "Star Trek Into Darkness" was spotted by CNet to include the url AppStore.com/StarTrekApp as a link to the official Star Trek App promoting the new movie. The new URL offers developers an easier way to allow customers to find their application, rather than asking them to search for content on the App Store.
Developers can even give customers specific links to the Mac App Store by using the URL AppStore.com/Mac/ and then including the application name or company name.
The "App Store Short Link" cannot use spaces, punctuation, ampersands, or other symbols. All URLs are accessible worldwide and direct the customer to their respective country's App Store.
Previously, Apple offered short links using the itunes.com URL. The newly launched AppStore.com Short Links replace itunes.com. Developers have been informed that itunes.com links will continue to work, but they should be updated as soon as possible.
The "App Store" trademark and AppStore.com domain name was given to late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 2008 by Salesforce Chief Executive Mark Benioff. The rights were given as a token of appreciation, as Benioff wished to thank Jobs for his personal insight and support over the years.
Apple recently launched new short links for App Store content using the website AppStore.com. The feature was announced last week to developers, with examples including specific application or company names to search for App Store content.
On Sunday, a Super Bowl advertisement for the upcoming film "Star Trek Into Darkness" was spotted by CNet to include the url AppStore.com/StarTrekApp as a link to the official Star Trek App promoting the new movie. The new URL offers developers an easier way to allow customers to find their application, rather than asking them to search for content on the App Store.
Developers can even give customers specific links to the Mac App Store by using the URL AppStore.com/Mac/ and then including the application name or company name.
The "App Store Short Link" cannot use spaces, punctuation, ampersands, or other symbols. All URLs are accessible worldwide and direct the customer to their respective country's App Store.
Previously, Apple offered short links using the itunes.com URL. The newly launched AppStore.com Short Links replace itunes.com. Developers have been informed that itunes.com links will continue to work, but they should be updated as soon as possible.
The "App Store" trademark and AppStore.com domain name was given to late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 2008 by Salesforce Chief Executive Mark Benioff. The rights were given as a token of appreciation, as Benioff wished to thank Jobs for his personal insight and support over the years.
Comments
I would have gone with a subdomain of mac so you get mac.appstore.com. I think that looks better than appstore.com/mac. Macappstore.com is taken and redirects you to macgamestore.com.
I wonder if you can bypass this so international travelers can still DL apps.
I've always felt that the combinations of app and store were too generic to disallow other combinations, like Amazon's Appstore for Android, from existing but this usage does help push it in Apple's favour.
Oh AppleInsider...
Quote:
Originally Posted by SolipsismX
I would have gone with a subdomain of mac so you get mac.appstore.com. I think that looks better than appstore.com/mac. Macappstore.com is taken and redirects you to macgamestore.com.
I wonder if you can bypass this so international travelers can still DL apps.
I'm French in the NL, and my apps download from the French app store. I'd say, it's based on your settings, since I don't get redirected to the Dutch Store if I switch to Dutch.
Apple has way less adds than before. I liked it when Apple was trying. Remember the Im a pc am a mac adds. Thats back when Apple was trying harder. Now they are just merely coasting along on the wake of Steve Jobs.
Originally Posted by tylerk36
Apple has way less adds than before. I liked it when Apple was trying. Remember the Im a pc am a mac adds. Thats back when Apple was trying harder. Now they are just merely coasting along on the wake of Steve Jobs.
"Fewer ads = not trying" in your world?
How about this actually valid variation on an old troll phrase: "They're using the money that would otherwise go to advertising… on innovation."
Originally Posted by robogobo
Seems like patents and trade marks held by Apple don't really matter anymore.
Isn't that the truth… But look on the bright side: this sets a precedent whereby no one's valid trademarks and patents are actually valid! Apple can now do anything they want with any design they want!
Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider
The "App Store" trademark and AppStore.com domain name was given to late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 2008 by Salesforce Chief Executive Mark Benioff. The rights were given as a token of appreciation, as Benioff wished to thank Jobs for his personal insight and support over the years.
Dunno about the domain registration of "appstore.com", but as far as the trademark goes...
Benioff might've offered it, but there is no USPTO record of Salesforce transferring their "AppStore" trademark to Apple.
Instead, the record shows that Apple filed an opposition to Salesforce's trademark of "AppStore" and then filed their own application for "App Store" (with a space).
A few months after the opposition was filed, Salesforce voluntarily abandoned their own trademark, which perhaps could be seen as "giving it away".
Later on, Microsoft likewise filed an opposition to Apple getting the trademark, and that's still awaiting a decision.
Quote:
Originally Posted by robogobo
Seems like patents and trade marks held by Apple don't really matter anymore.
Of course patents and trademarks still matter. They just have to be valid.
Sometimes the (in)validity is just not evident at first, especially to the general public, to whom so many things seem new when they come out of years of unpublicized development.
E.g. Apple applying for a trademark on "Multi-Touch". They almost got it, until Jeff Han opposed it because it had been a generic industry term for years.
Another example is "AppStore" itself. Both Salesforce and Apple were turned down by the USPTO at first for trying to use a term that was "merely descriptive". Both later reapplied used a claim of "secondary meaning" by association.
None of the above is information that you'll find on a tech news site, btw. Almost no reporters do real research any more. You have to do like I did, and go track down the records yourself. (Anyone can do so.)