Get this!

Microsoft has filed an appeal with the US Patent and Trademark office to block Apple's trademark for "App Store" claiming it's too generic.

If that's not the most balls-out-funny claim of the century, I don't know what is.

Mr. Pot, say hello to Mr. Kettle.

Windows indeed.

Just to be straight, I think the term *is* too descriptive to warrant trademark protection, so in that sense I agree with MS. However, I do recognize that Apple, and Apple alone, popularized the term "app" to mean computer software. Absolutely no one other than some computer geeks had ever used the word "app" to mean anything software related. Maybe MS should lose the Windows trademark - it would certainly be fair.

MS may get more media play from this than their Windows Phone product, which by all accounts is currently dead in the water with no signs of ever making it to shore and relevance. That's why the frantic swings of this appeal. It's a shame, because I think WP is the most innovative mobile product since the iPhone - and really the only thing available right now that isn't still copying the iPhone and iOS on a daily basis.

I posted this so quickly yesterday I forgot about the other beauty. "Office"

No one used the word "app" to mean software before Apple popularized it.

Interestingly it seems to have been Microsoft internal slang much, much earlier. I used to work for a company that brought out an animation package for schools that we somehow got tied in to the Windows 95 launch. The boss got to visit Microsoft Redmond in summer 1995, and, while he was there, got his copy of one of the classic Windows programming books signed by its author. Petzold, possibly. In it, this luminary wrote "Nice app, guys". It was the first time any of us had seen that contraction used, other than in Win32 function names.

Peter

Yeah, geeks have been using it for a long time. I can't recall whenI started using it, but it must have been prior to 2000. As far as the general public is concerned however...

Jobs has been using it since his NeXT days, probably from the NeXTstep .app extension.



For those that haven't seen this video before, it's worth a watch if your interested in computer history. The work NeXT had done was really a precursor to a lot of modern concepts we use daily in an office. NeXTstep even had Microsoft running scared for a bit, and that resulted in Cairo. (Very anti MS slanted article, but it covers most of the history decently)

This particular video demos NeXTstep 3, released in 1992. An era when Windows 3.1 was just starting to get some networking and collaboration support via Workgroups, and years before Exchange appeared. OS/2 was advancing, but Microsoft was already 3 years divorced from the IBM partnership. NT was still in development, and Novell Netware was the common server for IBM compatible PCs.

"Killer app" has been in use since at least '89 (upper right paragraph). Merriam-Webster says "app" has been in use since '87, but doesn't provide a reference.

And I think a large number of non-geeks know that phrase. Perhaps not as many as know the word "app" these days, and Apple is indeed responsible for that, but what's the cut-off value of public recognition? And how would we measure that?

People in the restaurant industry have also used "app" for a long time to mean appetizer, which itself has gained some public traction. But click on that link I posted earlier for a Google profile on the term used in search.

Interestingly, the first reference I can find to use of the word "app" in that context is "Mac App", which was apparently a CASE or RAD tool for MacOS around 1985, which is prior to the MacOS numbering system of "System 6", etc. There were still original-style Macs that hadn't been released yet at that point.

Bitt, I always thought that VisiCalc was the program that originated the term "Killer App." I don't know when it was described as such, but it looks like the first stable release was '83...


I'm pretty sure I've never heard that, and would ignore it if I did. I don't know why it sounds so much dumber as an abbreviation for appetizer than it does for application, but it does to me...

I use "app" for appetizer when I'm at a restaurant. I'm not sure if I picked it up when I worked at a restaurant in 1988 or later.

Must be some sort of weird Canadian slang

But seriously, I've never heard anyone I've dined with use that abbreviation. I'm not saying nobody says it, I'm just telling you that I've never heard it. Perhaps it's a regional thing, like soda/pop.

No. You mean "Tonic"

OK, non-sequitur time. Not really a joke, but close. "Mike" works in a department at my university. A hard science department (think chem, physics, biology) and gets a call from an otherwise brilliant young professor (so many of these are urban legends, but Mike has cred...but feel free to send me UL URL!)

Prof: "I am having this strange problem with application (fil_in_the_blank) on my PC!"

Mike: "Okay, I can use remote desktop to take a look."

Prof: "OK..."

[Mike connects w RDP, Prof watches mouse cursor move around, various menus and dialogs popping up]

Prof: (paraphrased) "Any luck?"

Mike: "I don't know. Still looking."

Prof: "Would it help if I turned the lights off?"

I could find a bunch of earlier references to "killer application" far earlier, including for VisiCalc, but I couldn't find "killer app" any earlier than that. Still, it significantly predates the NeXT usage.