Verizon to Open App Store- Nobody Wins
GigaOM broke the news that Verizon plans to open its own app store for all the smartphones on its network. The Verizon store will carry apps for the RIM BlackBerry and Windows Mobile, as the carrier currently sells phones from both of those handset makers. Verizon is expected to carry Android phones and the Palm Pre eventually, so those platforms would likely get covered in the Verizon store, too. The carrier feels that the inclusion of its app store on all of the handsets it carries will make it easier for customers to find the apps they need, but I have to ask, why?
Those smartphone platforms already have their own app stores, which makes perfect sense. What could be easier for BlackBerry owners than to visit the BlackBerry App World to find a needed program? The App World is the only place to find the BlackBerry apps after all — at least it used to be. Now Verizon BlackBerry owners will have to visit the Verizon store, which will be stocked with apps for all of the covered platforms. That means that developers of BlackBerry apps will have to get their program certified for sale and admitted to two different app stores. Want to bet they don’t all do that?
Verizon told GigaOM that the platform app stores will not be installed on handsets sold by Verizon — only the carrier’s store will be installed. That means that customers may not see all available applications for a given platform, only the ones submitted to the Verizon store. Sure, it said that customers can download and install the original app store themselves if they wish. Talk about confusing; customers who do that will then have two app stores on the phone that they must check. While some will like that apps purchased from the Verizon store are billed to their phone account, others won’t mind paying for apps the way they always have. The convenience is overshadowed by the clumsiness the second app store inserts into the process.
...