It's an 'app store' world for smartphones

Enough customers, software developers?
Is there room — and enough customers — for everyone to hang out a mobile store shingle? Even if there is, finding enough software developers willing to invest time, energy and money may be a different matter.

With heavyweight RIM having an app store, along with Apple and Google’s, “developers will be in short supply and may not be able to cover all three platforms,” said Rob Enderle, president of The Enderle Group, a consulting firm that studies technology trends.

“When you add Symbian and LiMo both going down likely similar paths, we have too many people who want (software) developers, but not enough commonality between platforms for good groupings.”

“This suggests that some consolidation is very likely in this group shortly.”

Meanwhile, the smartphone market continues to increase, with growth rates around 40 percent “year-over-year, while the rest of the (wireless) industry is growing at roughly 10 percent,” IDC Research said in report last summer.

And being able to personalize devices with software programs, as well as phone features, is becoming more important to consumers, according to Mformation Technologies, Inc., which recently analyzed survey findings of 4,000 mobile users in the United States and Britain.

“Consumers want to use more applications and services, but these need to be tailored to the needs of each user,” said Matthew Bancroft, vice president of Mformation in a statement. “They want a more personalized experience.”

The firm said that 94 percent of consumers already personalize their phones with ringtones or accessories, but 89 percent would “like a higher level of personalization through the ability to pick and mix applications, services and other characteristics of the handset, such as form factors and designs.”

Application stores certainly provide that opportunity for programs. Apple’s App Store has several different categories of programs, from navigation to take advantage of the phone’s GPS radio, to games, entertainment, business and productivity software.

RIM's approach
With Apple trying to woo corporate users to the iPhone, and Research In Motion trying to lure more consumers to the mainly business-oriented BlackBerry, RIM’s addition of an “application storefront,” announced last week, “helps nullify one of the selling points of its competition,” said Burden of ABI Research.

“It’s unlikely that Blackberry users that value its business e-mail capabilities would move to an iPhone or Android phone because of their app stores, but they certainly might have coveted the growing number of applications available for those devices had RIM not announced its own app store,” he said.

RIM says software developers will retain 80 percent of the revenue from sales, compared to 70 percent that Apple and Google gives developers.

RIM’s app store customers will use PayPal on their phones to pay for programs, the company says. Apple uses its iTunes Store for billing, with customers required to set up an account before they start using the service.

The first Android phone, the G1, carried by T-Mobile, went on sale last week, with only about 50 programs in the Android Market. All programs are being offered for free right now.

Many more programs are expected, and starting this week, software developers will be able to register for $25 to start creating programs for the market.

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