App stores for owners: a multiple-case study of app stores

Abstract

This research aims to help app store owners translate their app store strategy into app store features and policies. At first a definition of app stores is given to scope the research. After that literature is studied to identify app store strategies. This resulted in an app store strategy model that models the app store strategy based on four dimensions. A multiple case study was performed on six app stores: Google Play, SlideMe, Apple Appstore, Binpress, Amazon appstore for Android and Intel AppUp. This study aimed to identify the features and policies used by app stores. The six sequential case studies resulted in an app store classification model with 67 features and 24 policies. The classification model is categorized based on the main influenced app store characteristic. In the last part of this research a mapping is made between the dimensions of the app store strategic model and the features and policies.