Wednesday, January 21, 2009
I want an App Store too
There are two products topping every device manufacturer wish list:
- App Store
- MobileMe
I am not going to talk about MobileMe for now (although you know where to find it ;-), but I will focus on the App Store.
Everyone wants one. Everyone is announcing one. I might actually get one too.
First it was Apple with the App Store (congrats for being the first as usual, and thank you so much for that, we would not be here without you ;-)
Then it was Google with the Marketplace for Android, soon to accept paid applications.
Lately, Palm announced its App Catalog. Quite expected.
Now RIM is making public they have one too, called Application Storefront (they are definitely less creative than others, having just enlarged the name from Apple ;-) If you are a developer, you can actually submit your apps today.
The last one (yeah, right) to join the fray is Microsoft. But for that, it appears we need to wait until MWC in Barcelona. There, they are likely to announce the Sky services. You bet, the SkyMarket is their answer to the App Store. At least they came out with a new name. And, BTW, they will also have their MobileMe product, called SkyBox. I know, I said I did not want to talk about it, but...
In any case, having 100 app stores might turn out to be a nightmare... If you are a developer, you need to post your app on every one of those, and they are all slightly different. Then you have the app stores run by the carrier (e.g. T-Mobile). All requiring some money to post your app. You do the math and you are back to square zero. Maybe the app store is not the answer. Maybe the browser should be the main tool for app discovery. Maybe we do not need a third party between us and the user.
But we definitely need MobileMe :-))
Posted by Fabrizio Capobianco at 09:15
7 Comments:
well, the first one is definately not Apple. It is Qualcomm BDS (for BREW). It is a cross carrier app distribution system and achieved great success money-wise, comparing to J2ME, which does not have a centralized app store and billing solution. It seems to me that Apple always gets credit. It is ok if this opinion is from normal consumers.
Apple also gets the credit for the first desktop-grade webkit browser. Actually the first one I saw is from Nokia.
Comment Posted at 10:39
Fabrizio said...
Agreed. I just see BREW as an environment way too close for developers to jump on... Apple has been the first to open it up (a little) and give developers "direct" access to the users, without adding crazy business models (e.g. you can't offer a free app on the BREW deck...).
fabrizio
Comment Posted at 12:43
Andrea Trasatti said...
Maybe we need a search engine for App Stores. We could call it Gopher, then wait for a directory and then Yahoo!
I don't think the problem will be posting or searching, but developing. Are developers going to make a J2ME, Objective-c, C#, BREW, webOS version of every application? That's even more fragmentation than J2ME alone!
Comment Posted at 16:10
Nokia's Softwaremarket also goes long time back. Longer than App Store.
Comment Posted at 17:29
The reason Apple always gets the credit is that Apple puts more effort into getting it right for the user. Smoooooth, effortless and yes 'seamless'. Qulaities many thers should learn from not snipe at ;-)
Comment Posted at 11:00
GeorgeC said...
Apple was not the 1st to launch an Application Manager.
Apple launched AppStore Summer 2008.
SlideME.org with SAM app manager for the community was 1st for these type of App managers. Published as you will see April 2008. Dev work commenced from 2007.
http://bit.ly/YQ8D6
Full version from http://SlideME.org/sam
Comment Posted at 12:15
GeorgeC said...
"Five key ingredients of Mobile Application Store solutions"
http://slideme.org/blog
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