[lwhi]

I'd heard that there are ways to circumvent the AppStore - but are these alternative AppStores economically viable?

A couple of questions;

1. Could an application developer make a living by selling their Apps via the alternative mechanisms - and would a regular (non-technical) user, be able to obtain these Apps without much effort?

2. Could Apple decide to 'outlaw' these alternatives if it chose to?

[zaphar]

You don't have to circumvent the app store. You can choose a different platform. Saying that the iOS platform is the only market worth mentioning in this debate is a needless restriction. They can choose instead to go the android route or move off of Mobile completely and do something else.

iOS and the AppStore are popular for many reasons some of which have a lot to do with the Content Creators who are publishing there. It is not however the only marketplace and Creators have other choices.

[lwhi]

So my original point still stands;

There is only one marketplace [for iOS applications] ...

2. The products that are created for the iOS AppStore cannot be sold anywhere else.

--

There are multiple commercial marketplaces available for Android - so I don't think highlighting the Apple AppStore is necessarily a needless restriction.