Store-brand Mobile Marketplace Planning Coup De App
24 telecommunications companies announced an historic international alliance at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, today. The industry giants have tired of platform-specific development burdens and App approval tyranny and plan to establish the "Wholesale Applications Community" as a universal mobile marketplace. With the blessing of device manufacturers and the GSMA, their democratic vision will be realized through utilization of existing technical standards to ensure widespread compatibility without multiple software versions.
The high-minded rhetoric that accompanies this marketing release echoes that of the "Open Handset Alliance" recently formed in support of Google's Android OS. Application support for a variety of handsets from a single digital distribution platform is an ambitious goal, but the egalitarian message is a little disingenuous. Alliance members have been watching greedily as Apple's installed base spent an estimated $1 million per day in the App store, and the international customers this alliance is courting are roughly 20 times more numerous than the iPhone community. All mobile users deserve Apps and all Developers deserve customers, but less stringent approval protocols flooding the market will mean huge telecom profits on top of your monthly bill.
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- 1 year ago
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