Patent ID: 7831657

Claim:
An electronic apparatus system comprising: a plurality of external apparatuses connected to an electronic apparatus via a communication link, at least one of the external apparatuses serving as an application server including an application storing unit configured to store an application, and a controlling unit configured to analyze contents of an operation instruction using the application stored in said application storing unit upon receiving the operation instruction from said electronic apparatus, and to transmit a request to execute a corresponding operation to said electronic apparatus as a response to the operation instruction, and at least one of the external apparatuses serving as an application management server including an application managing unit configured to manage a plurality of applications, a first application registering unit configured to register at least one application installed in said plurality of external apparatuses as available applications according to management status of said application managing unit, an application selecting unit configured to select an application to be utilized from the at least one application registered by said application registering unit, and an application information transmitting unit configured to transmit information identifying a utilized application selected by said application selecting unit to said electronic apparatus; the electronic apparatus being configured to perform an operation using an application, the electronic apparatus including a second application registering unit configured to register the utilized application based on said information transmitted from said application information transmitting unit, a control unit configured to transmit an operation instruction to one of the external apparatuses having the utilized application registered therein in response to an entry of the operation instruction, and to perform the operation requested by a request to execute the operation upon receiving the request to execute the operation as a response to the transmitted operation instruction, and an operation unit configured to display a list of registered applications of the applications installed in the plurality of external apparatuses, the registered applications being available to be utilized by the control unit.