Do We Really Need More Mobile App Stores?
Is it just me or is anyone else starting to get tired of all of these different mobile application stores popping up? I get that different platforms might need different stores, but one per phone platform is enough for me. After LG’s, the latest entry is Samsung’s, which Engadget says will launch on September 14th — but only for two specific Samsung handsets in the UK, France and Italy to start. The two handsets are both Windows Mobile devices and in fairness to Samsung, Microsoft hasn’t outed its Windows Mobile software storefront just yet. But what happens when they do? Why the redundancy and fragmentation? All of these mobile marketplaces are bound to confuse the consumer in the long run.
Aside from the operating system and handset makers getting in on the app store action, the carriers are doing it too. They’ve actually done this for a long time, but some — like Verizon Wireless — are renewing their efforts, based on what I read in Colin Gibbs’s 33-page GigaOm PRO briefing (subscription required) this week. In Colin’s survey of the mobile app landscape, the market looks more diluted than I originally realized. Colin offers a detailed overview of the competitive advantages and disadvantages each player faces, along with the challenges each individual app store is up against for consumer and brand awareness. I still say one platform should equal one app store tops, but then again, I like a neat and tidy space. ;)
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.
The idea of a monopolistic app store I still find shocking after spending years buying software for my computers in a variety of places, through a variety of means, as well as for my Palm devices for a decade. I would say, yes, we need more app stores, but flat out controlled, single company ones like the Apple app store is still shocking to me.
The convenience is that it’s a single venue with a basic standard. The downside is that no one can offer up an app without Apple taking a cut, or controlling the presentation, etc.
By controlling the total experience, though, even someone who knows nothing about software can feel safe loading something on an iPhone. That’s probably okay for a lot of people.
i favor 1 single totally free-to-the-developer app store for all platforms. it must be easy to search, sort, and organize, so that we can sort out all the useless apps.
another solution: sell apps through normal vendors, such as amazon, just like regular software.
another solution: no centralized app store. the developer must host their own buying solution.
One per platform is fine, btu when phoen manufacturers, carriers etc start making them it just gets confusing. Especially since those will most likely be less integrated into any device.
Let’s say I buy a Samsung WM phone. I can easily end up with three different stores – one for carrier, one for Samsung and finally one for WM itself. So, if I need some application, what is the proper solution? Correct: give up all those stores and find the application on the web and buy it there.
And from developers’ perspective, it is even worse: can you imagine trying to push your application to zillions of (Microsoft, carriers, manufacturers) stores? Eh… I would just give it up and offer my application (being a developer, which I am not) via web and old-fashioned e-shop.
it is free trades like anything else! anyone can come up with new stores new products new platforms and it is up to the consumer to select from.
Regarding apple playing the monopoly part on app store I kinda like it for only one reason. I can purchase any app and install feeling safe that nothing will harm my device or my confidential data.
and I hate apple by the way!
One store per platform = monopoly. I don’t understand, jk. Why do you want monopolies? Do you own stock in a mobile-phone company?
One store per platform doesn’t equal a monopoly. One phone brand on one carrier with one application store would be a monopoly. As it stands now, if folks don’t like the Apple app store, they can switch handsets (and app stores), so it’s not a monopoly in terms of the phone market itself.
Having said that: do you believe that the Apple App Store and the Google Android Market are the same, or are they different? And no, I own no stock in any mobile-phone company. In fact, I don’t own stock directly in any company, be it tech or otherwise. ;)
Do we really need more than one gadget blog. We should get our information from just on source.
As long as it’s jkOnTheRun, that would work. :)
So what you’re saying is that if I have a Google myTouch (which I do) and if I app A but it isn’t sold at the Android Marketplace but is sold in an iPhone version and in an Android version at some other outlet, I should buy an iPhone just for the apps that Android Marketplace doesn’t sell, and carry two or three smartphones with me (and pay for two or three plans) just so I can get all the apps I like?
How would that work with music? Most of the MP3 files I download are from Amazon.com, but now and then there’s music that Amazon doesn’t carry but I can get at cdbaby or elsewhere. Should I do without that music? Am I married to Amazon.com?
How about cooking–should there be only one store for food to cook on a GE stove, and if that store doesn’t carry the food you want, get a Frigidaire to cook it on?