Distributed friction

The future of the app store is install free apps.

On demand streaming of apps that require no download and partial app downloads with smart caching (Only store the parts of an app locally that you use regularly, remove those locally stored parts of an app that you haven’t used in a while) will be the new way that users download, consume and interact with apps.

Eventually users won’t install anything through the app store, they will just install a link when they click on it in a web browser.

The “app store” as we know it, a place to search for and download new software, will go away for about 90% of the useful utilities that we use on a daily basis.

When a friend shares a link with us on our smartphone, we won’t be directed to the app store to download and install the app.

Instead the app (or at least the parts we need) will stream to us automatically.

And then we will be given the option of saving an icon (a link) to the app on our home screen after we have interacted with the app for a while.

This will reduce user acquisition friction, but it also means that the saying “there’s an app for that” will ring even more true.