24 Wireless Carriers Band Together to Fight Apple

[JMcEntegart]

A group of cell phone carriers from around the world have said they are teaming up to create a rival for Apple's App Store.

24 Wireless Carriers Band Together to Fight Apple : Read more

 

[brendano257]

I find it hard to see the compatibility for the store with such a wide range of devices and companies.
I can go into Sprint's app store, but just about anything interesting I click is "unavailable for your phone" I think this new app store would be a disappointment for most.

 

[touchdowntexas13]

Hmmmmm sounds good to me?

My problem is that there are TONS of crap apps out there on the app store. If the user base for smart phone apps gets multiplied, there will be even more crap apps to sift through.

The article also mentions that the apps can be used on pretty much any device. I have a hard time foreseeing app developers being able to create apps that will work on any device. Also, how well will they be optimized for each individual device?

In any case, the different smart phones will each still have their own app stores providing apps specifically created for their phone with better optimization.

Just my thoughts.

 

[tramit]

itunes should be shitting in its pants now 😛

 

[NegativeX]

How many apps is the Apple store up too? over 100k?

And how many of those are useful and duplicates of other crappy apps?

I'm not sure it's really going to be that hard to compete against Apples App store.

Now competing against the iPhone in terms of popularity in general, is a whole nother' story.

 

[apmyhr]

This sounds like a good idea in theory, but like others have pointed out, how the hell are developers going to create apps that work on such a large array of hardware. The only way this can work is if all the players involved agree to a unified programming environment, such as .NET or Java, and enforce certain requirements, such as capacitive touch interface, minimum CPU and RAM specs for phones, and minimum resolution for screens. I'm not sure these companies can really work together to agree on any of this.

 

[belardo]

It kind of like when the entire 3D Card market went against 3Dfx because they (3Dfx) changed how they did business.

 

[antilycus]

I think ATT should not be allowed to be part of it.

 

[cadder]

If it works then I think it would be a great idea. I've already seen advertisments for Android phones that claim a high number of apps, but without an Android device you can't even browse their app store to see what is available. This is a very poor strategy I think. If I could browse the Android app store on my PC that might make me want to buy an Android.

I think the carriers would have to focus on one OS though. Nobody wants to find an app that they like and discover that it doesn't work on their phone. The big advantage Apple has is that all apps work on their phone, maybe even all versions of their phone. And they have ONE software development kit to deal with too.

In the past I've had several PocketPC-based PDA's, and now a WM6.1Pro phone. I've been interested in developing my own apps, I've searched the net for programming languages, I've found numerous ones, but none that I was able to get into. So besides a common platform to develop apps for, they need to provide one and only one decent software development kit.

What I want- a phone that works. ALL of the features work, the GPS, the voice-dialing, apps, wifi. I want a SDK that will run on a PC and make it easy to develop apps. I want a phone that will easily connect to a PC. I have a fairly new Samsung Epix that cost a lot of money when new, and I get none of those features with it. About 4 more months and I get to change phones. I would get an iphone if their SDK would run on my PC, but they can't allow that.

The iphone has a big momentum going, but it is not the leader in market share. I read that Blackberry has more units in the US, so it is possible to compete against the iphone if you really want to compete, and that means more than just making cutesy TV ads.

 

[eddieroolz]

I think this is awesome! An app that would work on almost any phone out there would be a great step in interoperability.

 

[hakesterman]

Too many devices to be compatable with all phones, people are going to spend alot time
downloading only to find out that app isn't suported on their phone. If they want to do this then
they are going to have to pick a format like the droid and write nothing but droid Apps, that's the
only way they can compete with Apple.

 

[m-manla]

Wow AT&T and Verizon working together. Apple has put a big "X" over their head. But I think it would be good to have an upgradable OS that you can transfer all apps to another phone, which will be my biggest complaint. I would also rather have more quality apps that I can use than more apps just to say my cell has more apps than yours.

 

[Dax corrin]

Gosh, I just want to make phone calls.

 

[climber]

This global apps store should be done by Amazon.com, it should be called, "Apprazon.com"

 

[Parsian]

Finally an END to Apple's Monopoly?

 

[speedemon]

apple vs the world... when you know your good

 

[JohnnyLucky]

The entire market is getting very carried away with trying to cram as much as possible into a small hand held device. The same is true for the apps.

 

[falchard]

It is more work to assure compatibility, but easier then if each carrier made their own app store.

 

[princeandy63]

maybe the fall of apple? we shall see...

 

[applocalypse]

I think they are just a bunch of WAC jobs.