App launch

An app launch is the dated moment a product is made publicly available, or presented to a new audience, together with the coordinated work that surrounds it: the store release, the landing page, the directory submissions, the announcement, and the first week of responses.

A launch is not the same as shipping. Software ships continuously; a launch is a deliberate concentration of attention on a specific date. That is why a product can launch more than once, on different platforms, to different audiences, or after a version significant enough to justify a relaunch.

On a launch directory the launch is also a structured event with a start and an end. A listing enters its launch window on its assigned date, competes for attention and votes for a fixed period, and then becomes a permanent listing that no longer moves in the feed. The launch is temporary. The page it leaves behind is not, and for most products that page is worth more over a year than the day was.

Note the distinction from an app launcher, which is a category of software rather than an event. The two phrases are one letter apart and mean entirely unrelated things.