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Third party mobile application providers sign deals, launch operator products
Territories covered
Western Europe
Austria,
Belgium,
Denmark,
Finland,
France,
Germany,
Greece,
Ireland,
Italy,
Netherlands,
Norway,
Portugal,
Spain,
Sweden,
UK,
Central and Eastern Europe
Czech Republic,
Hungary,
Poland,
Russia,
Slovakia,
Slovenia,
North America
Canada,
USA,
Asia-Pacific
China,
India,
Japan,
South Korea,
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Published:
05-Jun-09
As the trend for mobile application store grows, a range of third-party mobile application providers have signed deals with operators and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to manage their stores or aggregate content. - Sony Ericsson has announced it will launch its own mobile applications service, with much of the back-end technical support and submission process managed by third-party applications provider GetJar. Lithuania-based GetJar only offers free applications; it charges developers to feature their applications – which can then link to other services or products from which they can drive revenues. As part of its deal with Sony Ericsson, the PlayNow arena will feature a direct link to GetJar's catalogue of over 45,000 free applications, while Sony Ericsson will sell high-quality premium applications.
- Number one US operator Verizon Wireless has announced plans to launch an application store based on the Java ME mobile platform later in 2009. The carrier, which had previously only supported Qualcomm's BREW mobile content platform, has yet to release full details of how its store will operate, but is expected to take a smaller cut of revenues from applications than it does from its current portal and provide a greater array of content.
- Player X, recently acquired by mobile content specialist Zed, was selected by the network operator Orange as one of its UK aggregator of mobile entertainment, lifestyle and practical applications for its recently revamped mobile applications store.
- The Italian mobile content specialist Neomobile and development community provider Mobango have partnered to launch a mobile applications store in collaboration with network operators. While the service may be designed to serve network operators, details of any deals with operators have yet to be announced. Following its initial Italian launch, Neomobile and Mobango plan to roll-out the store internationally.
- Mobile applications and content retailer Handmark, which runs its own direct-to-consumer service, has developed a 'white-label' applications retailing service for operators to launch their own managed application stores. Handmark already has experience of working with network operators, it has managed mobile content portals for carriers such as Telus and Sprint.
Our take...
As the number of mobile firms providing application stores continues to grow, it makes sense for third-party retailers and content providers to try and develop partnerships with mobile device manufacturers and network operators. Screen Digest believes that operating system (OS) and device specific stores stand the greatest chance of success in the competition between mobile application stores, while operators will maintain their key advantage in the billing relationship they have with subscribers.
For network operators, often faced with having to provide content for thousands of different devices, fragmentation (in terms of device specifications and OS requirements) remains a key challenge that outsourcing can help them overcome. While operators and device manufacturers that outsource management and/ or content aggregation for their application stores may have to part with a share of revenues, for those without the technical infrastructure to source, test, and port tens of thousands of applications to thousands of devices, outsourcing makes commercial sense.
So far, however, most operators and equipment manufacturers to have launched their own stores have elected to go it alone. Following the success of Apple, whose App Store recently passed 1bn downloads, OEMs such as Samsung, Nokia and Research In Motion as well as operators including Vodafone, T-Mobile and O2 have launched or announced plans for self-run application services.
Application stores for which its respective owners partly or entirely outsource its operation could prove less attractive to publishers and developers. When third-party store managers or content aggregators are used, especially in conjunction with network operators, another link in the value chain is introduced which can diminish their share of revenues.
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Analyst intelligence & notices
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