Apple Recreated the App Store on the Web with No Way to Download or Buy Apps ⇥ macstories.net

John Voorhees, MacStories:

Today, Apple launched a web version of the App Store, with a twist. I’ll admit that this wasn’t on my “things Apple will do this fall” bingo card. I’ve wondered since the earliest days of the App Store why there wasn’t a web version and concluded long ago that it just wasn’t something Apple wanted to do. But here we are, so let’s take a look.

I hoped one thing this store might correct — finally — is that app links opened from Safari would no longer automatically open the App Store app. Sadly, in my testing, app links continue to behave as they previously did. That is, if you visit an app listing’s URL directly or from within the App Store on the web, your experience will remain in the browser, but if you click on an app link from a third-party website, the App Store app will be opened.

You could argue this makes sense because, as Voorhees points out, it is not really a “store” so much as it is a catalogue:

An even bigger difference from the native App Stores is that you can’t buy anything on the web. That’s right: there’s no way to log into your Apple account to download or buy anything. It’s a browse-only experience.

I still have not owned an Android device, but I believe it has long been possible to install an app to your phone (or tablet, or whatever) from the Google Play Store on the web.