Apple receives much of the credit for standardizing the means in which applications are purchased and downloaded through their vastly successful App Store and obviously, wishing to capitalize on this success, just about every other smartphone brand on the market followed suit with an app store of their own. The inherent problem of course is exclusivity. Many great apps exist out there but the only way to purchase them is to by using the phone/ software exclusive to the app store.

One of the hot topics at this year's Consumer Electronics Show was the concept of application download stores that would allow any device, regardless of who made it, to download software. Much in the way downloading PC software cares little for whether Dell, Sony, or HP built the actual hardware itself, this new potential app store would not discriminate between brands.

The bigger issue of course in the mobile software wars is the abundance of popular operating systems. Android, Windows Mobile, Apple, and RIM products each support a unique OS so any hope for a "Global App Store" to succeed would require applications designed to run on a wide variety of operating systems.