Why the iTunes store should be web-based

I think that the iTunes Store (apps, video, audio, ebooks) should be web-based, in a manner similar to Amazon’s Kindle store: Buy on the web, sync with your player app later.

Advantages for users:

• Linking: Link sharing via blogs, Facebook or Twitter is becoming more and more important for the visibility of a product. With iTunes, the linking experience is horrible.
• Bookmarking: With the web, if you want to remember something, you keep a bookmark. The iTunes store only has limited means for doing so.
• Faster user interface: iTunes is sometimes slow, especially when using the history.
• History works properly: e.g. sorting by release date on “New to rent or own” (movies) is not remembered when going back. When paging on the iPad, the current page is not always remembered, either.
• Improved navigation: In web browsers, you can open links in new tabs etc. The Store has no such capabilities and feels limited, as a power user.

Advantages for Apple:

• A single implementation across all operating systems (desktop, mobile). It probably not impossible to do this with Cocoa, but it’s easier with a webapp.
• It makes the user interface of the store even more malleable. The UI has already changed from an XML-based engine to an HTML-based engine.

[Expanded from a previous post.]

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