When the applicants for new gTLD’s were announced by ICANN in what was called the “big reveal” one of the biggest surprises we noted was the absence of an Apple application for .App.
Now it seems we know why Apple passed on applying for the new gTLD .App, the are going to let developers use Vanity Domains off of its AppStore.com
According to Cnet.com and Techcrunch.com, Apple’s plan was revealed in a Super Bowl for the new Star Trek:
“”At the end of the commercial for the upcoming “Star Trek: Into Darkness” film, Paramount flashed a quick promotion for its iOS app, complete with an AppStore.com link that takes people right to it. In function it’s identical to what Apple already uses through its iTunes links, but this one’s designed so that people can quickly type it into a mobile device or remember it for later”.
“AppStore.com can be changed by developers, which in this case is AppStore.com/StarTrekApp. Developers can pick this out when submitting an app, or plug their company name into it to do a search for multiple apps on the App Store”.
“The late Apple CEO Steve Jobs famously acquired AppStore.com as a personal gift from Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff following the introduction of the digital store during a keynote in 2008″.
As TechCrunch.com noted:
Developers can now choose to pick out their preferred vanity URL name when submitting their app to either the iTunes App Store or the Mac App Store, according to Apple Developer documentation on the matter, which was updated on January 31st with info about the new URLs:You can also create easy-to-read links to your app using App Store Short Links, which use the AppStore.com base URL plus a specific form of your app or company name. This provides a simple way for users to find your apps on the App Store directly from your website or marketing campaigns. These short links are ideal for use in offline communications materials like print ads, TV spots, app trailers, radio ads and billboards.
“Domain names can also be configured to point to either the company itself (e.g. http://appstore.com/gameloft) or the app (e.g. http://appstore.com/wheresmyperry)”.
“These new vanity URLs could quickly turn into a land grab in the crowded App Store, which now has some 800,000 mobile applications available in the iOS App Store alone”.
“That competition is something which Apple has prepared for, though. The company says that in the case of name conflicts or other errors, URLs with multiple results like appstore.com/airhockey, will direct users to a search page.
…
