The Buzz from International CTIA Wireless 2009 – Part 1
App Stores in high gear!!
The big story line we saw at this year’s CTIA is the rise of App Stores with yet another App store being launched, this time from Blackberry. In response to the competition, RIM has launched the Blackberry App World, the support for which will be rolled out to all Blackberry phones in the US, UK & Canada. With this launch, nearly every OS maker has launched or has announced the launch of such application marketplaces.
Unlike last year where the focus was primarily on devices like iPhone and Android, this year was more about the applications for these devices. The fact that the consumer appetite to download applications from these storefronts is growing manifold is good news both for the development community and the wireless carriers. These Application Marketplaces are driving higher data revenues for the Wireless carriers who are seeing stagnation, if not decline, in their traditional voice revenues.
What remains to be seen is the ease of search and discovery of relevant applications that the App Stores are going to enable for the consumers in the increasingly crowded marketplace for mobile applications. Also, what will be interesting to see is the process and checks these App Stores will put in place to maintain the quality of the applications that are made available to the consumers in a marketplace that is becoming increasingly “open”.
And the real opportunity will remain open for the Operators to launch their own application marketplaces across their devices (some of them like T-Mobile and China Mobile have announced their plans) as the device-specific 3rd party app stores will eventually drive revenues from App sales away from the carriers themselves as the carriers start losing their control over what users can purchase and download over their networks.
Comments
Apple store now has policy that in case of end customer seeking refund, then Apple would still retain its commission.
Full story here on TechCrunch:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/25/apples-iphone-app-refund-policies-could-bankrupt-developers/
This clearly means that developers can't really put any junk up there and Apple has just upped the stake for them.
Commented by: Ankur Bhan | April 9, 2009 11:19 PM
Ankur, Thanks for adding to the thread of this pretty interesting update on Apple's App Store policy. This is one way of giving consumers the freedom and at the same time ensuring that developers maintain the quality. On the other side, Blackberry App world has tried to ensure quality of the Apps by making the minimum pricing of Apps at $2.99 so that developers can submit only those apps that are worth the price.It will be interesting to see what other quality control methods are pursued by the existing (and soon to come) App Stores and at the same time ensuring that the developers are not made unhappy and that they continue to contribute to the success of these App Stores.
Commented by: Sandeep Chandrasekar Seshadri | April 12, 2009 2:49 AM