The reasons are simple, but not obvious. Let’s brake it down:

1. Developers had been writing apps for OS X for over 9 years before the App Store even arrived!

2. The iPhone/iPod Touch development tools are some of the smartest, easiest and cheapest in the computing industry.

3. Apple, the Mac and OS X have a rich heritage in the print and design industry. Apple users like everything to look appealing. Hardware and software that doesn’t come up to Apple’s lofty standard rarely gets a look in. This raises the bar for the UI and general look of all OS X applications, whether that be for the Mac or the iPhone.

4. iTunes. Apple’s experience with media distribution, promotion and purchasing is paying massive dividends for them with the App Store.

5. There are now 50 million customers. Those 50 million devices have the exact same screen resolution, user input method and broadly similar computing hardware.

6. Apple have a world class network of Apple Stores and a mature and easy to use online Store.

7. Steve Jobs

To create something as appealing as the App Store, Nokia (and everyone else) will need a similar set of skills, advantages and circumstances.

Right now, the only company that might be able to loosely replicate these is Microsoft, which is why I think we’ll see a Zune Phone and Zune Store before the end of next year.

You’d think that Google should be able to achieve something similar with their Android platform but progress has been aching slow… And let’s be honest, trying to organise the open source bunch is like trying to herd cats!

RIM, Palm, and the rest have no chance.

So what about Nokia? They have massive amount of devices in use, they have a well loved global brand, they’ve got many, many talented people, they have their experience with the Music Store and N-Gage… But that’s really about it.

It’s depressing to think that Microsoft might end up being Apple’s only true competitor in the App Store space, but part of me thinks this might be the most likely scenario.

The smartest thing the Microsoft could do right now would be to offer to distribute their competitors applications. In other words, alongside Zune Phone apps, offer a store for Symbian, Maemo, Blackberry, Android and Palm apps. The more I think about it, the more this makes sense.

Z. “I’d rather pay £8 for a great app (e.g. Gravity) and know that the developer’s getting his rent paid.”
Agree with you there. Again, with pricing, I probably didn’t make myself totally clear. I don’t want everything to be cheap (not that I’d mind), I want everything to match their value. Like I said above, “£1.50, £3 or even £6 is a lot for an app that I may just use on a rare occasion, but more than worth it for apps I’d be using frequently, maybe on a daily basis like Gravity”
…………
£6/£8 which ever Gravity is priced at, is worth it because it’s a quality app I’d be using on a daily basis. A lot of after support and effort to update goes with that app so it’s more than worth that price. (Pricing down to make it even more attractive to other new users is another issue, which I think won’t happen as Jan said somewhere that he doesn’t want to annoy others who paid in full.)
I’d be more than prepared to pay more for apps which are good value for what they deliver to the consumer (value, i.e. either in the productivity I get, the frequency of use, the sheer brilliance of the app or maybe even all three).
…………
+Sims 3 for iPhone – 3.99 – looks absolutely stunning, and gameplay (minus bugs) is really good.
+ Crash NitroCart – £1.79
+ Copilot live UK & Ireland £25.99
…Ovi Store also has Sims 3, priced at £4 but that looks like it came out in the 90s.Oddly, Sims 3 is priced at £6 at N-gage. N-Gage also has Crash NitroCart, but priced at £6, £4.21 more than the iPhone variant. I don’t even want to begin ranting on N-gage…btw N-Gage titles still aren’t on Ovi Store, right? Not that I could find them with the crappy search function.
…………
So basically, I just want value for money apps. There are many ‘cheap’ £1/£1.50 apps on Ovi store, but I wouldn’t say they were woth £1 (not to me anyway). Especially not considering what kind of quality apps I can get for £1 on App Store. and see something uberly basic for that amount on Ovi Store.
…………
In terms of making sufficient income that perhaps more than offsets the development of the app, (possibly even make a living from it): If you make a quality app that’s priced attractively too, couldn’t you make a lot of money by selling for less but at much higher volumes, than selling for more and push people away because of the high price? Again an over simplification that doesn’t take into account the (difficulty of) development involved and the smaller user base possible with a fragmented ecosystem.
……….
Y. “I do believe that Nokia can turn things around – they’re a big company.”
I really, really do hope so. Although I don’t know how they’re going to manage it when they’re dividing their attention now on making Maemo Apps. What happens next when they have Symbian^4 when S60 compatibility is broken? Will S60 apps be ported? A lot of S60 1st/2nd edition never made it up to 3rd/5th. QT may help with the whole cross platform thing…I don’t understand it entirely… my simple mind just wants one simple platform for developers to latch their teeth onto and get Nokia Apps, and Ovi Store where they should be. At number 1.

Disagree over pricing though. I’d rather pay £8 for a great app (e.g. Gravity) and know that the developer’s getting his rent paid.