A few reasons that Apple's AppStore is the biggest one: 1. It's the first of its kind (headstart, most well known) 2. It still has the most paying customers (payment system on hand, credit check ok, willing to part with their monies) 3. It still has the highest 'prestige' among the appstores (whatever that means) 4. It's on Steve Jobs' marketing boat. Has a much higher chance of (free) publicity than other competing app stores. As long as these are not trumped by other app stores, then anyone making a mobile app will still -have- to consider Apple's AppStore in their target list. PS: Stop comparing or trying to make sense of these app stores with the logic of an oss repository. They work under a different logic.