App Store adds new Catalogs top level category

Apple has added a new Catalogs category to the App Store. The news comes via the CEO of Catalog Spree (free), Joaquin Ruiz.

The category was showing no entries as of Tuesday night (see screenshot above), so I'd expect to see all of the catalog apps that are sprinkled throughout the App Store moved into this new category on Wednesday. Ruiz had a few comments to make about the appearance of the new category:

The impact of the iPad in the shopping and publication industries has been massive. Many thousands of apps have been added over the last 2 years to address the consumers need to interact with their favorite books, magazines and brands within an iPad optimized experience. Catalog Spree has been the leader in the catalog shopping app space since first launched in late April 2011. Until today (the day before the "iPad 3" launch), Catalog Spree and dozens of other shopping entertainment apps have been categorized in the "Lifestyle" category in the Apple App Store. Today, Apple has added a new top level category called "Catalogs" to the App Store. As of yet, there are no listed apps in that category but we expect that to change tomorrow after Apple's "iPad 3" announcement. Adding an app category is not something that Apple does lightly and we believe Apple's decision reflects the importance of this use case in the Apple App Store ecosystem.

It will be interesting to see if Apple highlights the new category during the demos later today. Be sure to join our liveblog beginning at 9:45 AM PT (12:45 PM ET) today.