Here’s Apple’s New Domain

During the Super Bowl on Sunday, Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) new AppStore.com domain made a sneaky debut at the end of a trailer for “Star Trek: Into Darkness,” as Paramount promoted its Star Trek app. Now developers can promote their apps with easy-to-remember vanity URLs at the aforementioned domain name. They can pick these out when they first submit the app, or tie all of their apps to a particular company name.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) CEO Marc Benioff gifted the domain name to the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs in 2008, and Apple is currently battling with Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) to be able to exclusively use the name for its store. (In other words, should “app store” be a generic term, or one that belongs to Apple only?)

Apple has also put up an official page with technical details for developers about how to create their own vanity links.

Not only will the new domain help promote developers and their apps, giving iOS devices an edge over Android products in their eyes, but it could be equally rewarding for Apple, which takes a 30 percent cut of all app purchases made in its store. And while Apple devices promote the AppStore, so too does the AppStore and the rest of the Apple ecosystem promote Apple products. If iOS is the platform of choice for developers, then consumers with the desire to have the hottest apps will be drawn to Apple products.

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