Horace's rule for distinguishing between an app and a service works only in the simplest cases. It ignores things like Facebook Connect or "Connect with Twitter". It also ignores pure-advertising based experiences such as American Idol. The American Idol app on iOS does not require you to enter a pw/username.<p>Also, both app and service tend to imply one-to-one relationships.<p>In reality the 'new world' is composed of 'apps' that are client front-ends to back-end services that are actually composed of multiple services from 3rd parties that pull content from multiple sources and are made available via multiple channels and represent and re-enforce one or more brands.<p>These are some of the reasons why I decided to use a different term than either app or service: Experience.<p><i>An end-to-end user experience is a cohesive combination of devices,people, brands, channels, services, and content that improves over time.</i><p>Or, more succinctly, Experience equals stuff over time (exp = stuff/time).<p>Oh, how I love this line:<p><i>"The lowly app coupled with cloud-based services[1] is the termite that is set to eat the foundations of the largest of the industries still standing."</i><p>The computing industry has been defined as a series of stair steps, each comprising a radical disruption, with consummate growth in the size of the industry, the profits, and advancement of technology. Mainframes → Minis → PCs → GUI → Web → Mobile.<p>What's next? I assert it is Experiences.<p><a href="http://ceklog.kindel.com/2012/04/02/experience-stuff-time/" rel="nofollow">http://ceklog.kindel.com/2012/04/02/experience-stuff-time/</a>