Get ready for an App store showdown.
There has been a lot of news recently about app stores that, I think, is going to lead to a showdown of sorts in few years. I think we’d all be a lot more entertained if they would just strap on six-shooters and get it over with a high noon like the cowboys did, but more likely this one will be fought on the battlefields of the board rooms and court rooms.
Today, Pocketgear announced that it had purchased Handango to make the largest independent app store. It’s a good move for both companies I think because with more and more heavy-weight players getting into the space, there is no way they could have survived independently. As it is, I think the independent app stores are going to have a hard road ahead against the giants in the industry which both control the platform and offer a competing service. It wouldn’t be hard for any of the device manufactures to follow Apple’s path and only allow apps to be distributed from one place and effectively put the independents out of business.
Earlier in the week we saw a story from Dante that the various carriers around the world will join forces to create one Wholesale App Community. Wow! Suddenly there is a new contender in this market that is big enough to throw it’s weight around and make something happen – if it can get all the members to get along long enough to get it done. Sounds like a jockey trying to ride a dead horse to me. I’m not even sure I like the idea even if I felt like they could make it work. Carriers need to focus on providing a channel, and not try to provide content. I don’t pay for my broadband connection to get the dorky home page with news and other stuff on it. Don’t even bother with that junk, just give me a nice fat connections at a good price.
Apple seems to be feeling pretty comfortable right about now. At the Mobile World conference Distimo showed a nice slide that showed apple ruling the roost when it comes to sheer numbers of applications in the app store. Maybe this has something to do with Apple’s recent decision to remove potentially offensive apps from the app store. Don’t worry Apple, I’m sure that for every person you stopped from being offended by an app, there is a developer who hates your guts right now.
I sure hope somebody out there figures out a way to distribute iPhone apps without using iTunes so all of those developers can thumb their noses at Apple later on. Though, there is always the army of Apple lawyers to be concerned about. No, on second thought, the best revenge a developer can have is to take that app to another platform and forget about the iPhone all together.
Okay, back to the slide. This slide is misleading as well because all of the other carriers allow apps to be distributed through third party channels such as Pocketgear, which isn’t even included in this slide. And then there is the question of quality of the applications as well. Want a piece of crap? There’s an app for that.
Lastly, there was another slide that is very interesting as well showing average price of an application in each store. Palm actually came in as the winner here with the lowest prices applications on average. Wait, winner? Since revenue is determined by sales price, I’m not sure this is a good thing, for Palm at least. BlackBerry was the real shocker with the highest price, by a lot, but does that mean the users are happier and the product is better?
With these other observations aside, I come back to my original point. I think the App Store space is set for some major shake down. For better or for worse, I see the vendor’s app stores becoming the standard and companies like Pocketgear and the Wholesale App Community losing out. The bottom line is that when you control the device and the App Store, you have an unfair advantage over a competitor who controls neither. I love to see capitalism at work though, and I hate to see iron-fisted rule like Apple has been doing for some time now. But, I have to say that I think that is the trend that will continue.
App Store, Apple, ban, handango, Pocketgear, WAC, Wholesale App Community