Apple App Sharing Patent Application Makes Try-&-Buy Personal
A new Apple patent application tips a system of app sharing that would allow iOS users to wirelessly lend or recommend App Store downloads to other users. Application 20100312817 describes a system whereby apps on an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad could use peer-to-peer connections with other iOS devices to push across apps; these could be time- or feature-limited, and app developers could reward users for sharing if their friends later buy a full copy of the title.
The bulk of the patent application details the system by which users would select apps – either one at a time, or by dragging them into a "sharing area" and sending them all at once – together with the limitations developers could build into their software. For instance, apps could be greyed out to show they could not be shared at all, or use an "L" symbol to show that functionality would be limited. Meanwhile limits of either time or use could be placed on the previewed app, locking it down after a period of either hours/days/weeks or a certain number of loads.
If the developer so wished it, the person sharing the app could receive "money, store credit, coupons, promotional items (real or digital), an improved status" or other rewards if someone subsequently buys the full version on their recommendation. Another potential use would be leaving an app recommendation behind at a certain location:
"A fixed-location sharing device is incorporated into a wireless access point in a cafe so cafe customers can share applications from their mobile devices to the wireless access point which in turn can share the application with future customers after the original mobile device leaves" Apple patent application
Apps could be shared as if fresh from the App Store or complete with a set of user data from the user's own device. Although Apple doesn't mention it specifically in the application, NFC could well be a wireless sharing option for short-range P2P transfers. The system is reminiscent of ebook-sharing functionality on B&N's NOOK, or perhaps the rudimentary App Sharing tool HTC launched on the Wildfire, which sends links to the Android Market but not the full app itself.
