"Using a 3rd party website (or your own), you are unlikely to get the exposure of an app store or a telco portal."
I don't agree with that either as most app store-published applications get next to no exposure anyway. That privilege is reserved for a very few that either pay for promotion or go viral. So you're back to the old model of users either searching for a specific application to suit their needs (search engines existed before app stores) or "word of mouth" (which these days include forums / blogs and all of those existed prior to app stores as well).
There is this misconception among some (and I'm by no means saying that you're under the same illusion) that developers only need to upload to Apples App Store or Google Play and they'll see thousands of downloads and "PROFIT" (to quote a meme). The reality is the vast majority of apps do not make any money and uploading to central repositories does not mean people will stumble across your application or game. And what's more, anything you do upload is not only subject to the same limitations of users stumbling upon your product as before, but with the influx of new developers sold on this rose-tinted vision, you're now competing with significantly more software than ever before. So just the additional signal-to-noise ratio alone makes it harder than ever to make your application visible.
So I really don't believe the notion that app stores increase exposure for the average developer.
Where app stores excel is making content easier to find and install for the average user; one search interface with inbuilt download and install functions. That's a huge step up from Googling from your PC, downloading then either manually copying the .jar to your phone or installing an EXE locally on your PC with your handset connected via activesync. However I wouldn't say that user convenience guarantees developer visibility.
I don't agree with that either as most app store-published applications get next to no exposure anyway. That privilege is reserved for a very few that either pay for promotion or go viral. So you're back to the old model of users either searching for a specific application to suit their needs (search engines existed before app stores) or "word of mouth" (which these days include forums / blogs and all of those existed prior to app stores as well).
There is this misconception among some (and I'm by no means saying that you're under the same illusion) that developers only need to upload to Apples App Store or Google Play and they'll see thousands of downloads and "PROFIT" (to quote a meme). The reality is the vast majority of apps do not make any money and uploading to central repositories does not mean people will stumble across your application or game. And what's more, anything you do upload is not only subject to the same limitations of users stumbling upon your product as before, but with the influx of new developers sold on this rose-tinted vision, you're now competing with significantly more software than ever before. So just the additional signal-to-noise ratio alone makes it harder than ever to make your application visible.
So I really don't believe the notion that app stores increase exposure for the average developer.
Where app stores excel is making content easier to find and install for the average user; one search interface with inbuilt download and install functions. That's a huge step up from Googling from your PC, downloading then either manually copying the .jar to your phone or installing an EXE locally on your PC with your handset connected via activesync. However I wouldn't say that user convenience guarantees developer visibility.