Preview iTunes Apps Via Web Browser

Apple has slowly been moving the functionality of the iTunes Store to the web. First, Apple introduced iTunes Preview, allowing people to read browse and read about albums and sings in the iTunes Store from the web in any modern web browser. Then Apple added the ability to actually listen to :30 second previews of songs from the web.

This week, Apple introduced webpages featuring information about iPhone apps and games. These look just like the pages you’d see in the iTunes Store, but again, you access them from any modern web browser. In my opinion, it’s somewhat easier to read about various apps in full-screen web browser than it in the standard iTunes Store interface.

Interestingly, when you’re reading about an app online, iTunes will simultaneously launch on your computer, directing you to the app you’re reading about.

Check it out at Apple.com/itunes. At the bottom of the page you’ll see a window called “iTunes preview.”

Back in December Apple acquired a streaming music service called Lala. Perhaps iTunes preview is simply a preview of a future, web-based iTunes experience, based partly on IP from the Lala acquisition.