Verizon to restrict devices to its own app store
updated 11:30 pm EDT, Mon July 13, 2009
Verizon app store rules
Verizon has disclosed a number of details regarding its upcoming app store, including plans to prohibit handset makers from shipping devices with their own app portals, according to GigaOM. The restrictions will prevent immediate access to the BlackBerry App World or Windows Mobile Marketplace, although users will be permitted to add the stores manually.
Verizon's VP of Partner Management, Ryan Hughes, said in an interview that the carrier will integrate content from a variety of sources including Windows Mobile, Palm, Android and BlackBerry. Developers can create content for each platform, while each app that requires subscriber data or billing will require approval from Verizon.
The exact terms of the program remains unknown, although Verizon is expected to make considerable changes to attract a wider range of developers. The company will be competing amongst a number of other app stores attempting to bridge the gap with Apple's App Store, which currently hosts over 50,000 titles. The iPhone portal recently celebrated its first-year anniversary earlier this month, after reaching past one billion downloads in April.
"We’ve always had deals with companies like ESPN and EA, but now there are all these mom-and-pop developers," Hughes said. "So where there were once 20 or 40 developers that you needed to care about, now you have 100,000. Quite candidly, we didn’t have the framework to handle those applications in Brew.”
Hughes suggests the app store will be "competitive, not only with the price, but with the process and the simplicity which developers have come to expect in open ecosystems.” The comments could be considered a dig at Apple, which has received criticism from a number of developers frustrated with the alleged subjectivity of the App Store approval process.
Verizon claims its app store will be ready before the end of the year. Additional information will be available during the company's developer conference scheduled to begin July 28th in San Jose.
if you trust the past...
07/14, 01:01am reply
If the past Verizon attempts are any indication, like the Get It Now service, it will be very expensive. Then again, this was before the App Store forced some competition.
mr100percent
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Dec 1999
competitive
07/14, 02:01am reply
That means it will be as big a pain in the a** for developers as Apple's approval process is.
And the reason why they didn't have thousands of developers is because every model phone has it's own unique mix of Java, screen and keyboard, and to work best, each has to be QA'ed separately. And once you've done all that work, Verizon MIGHT let you onto the only portal directly accessible by the phone [theirs], and then, depending on your company size, give you less than 30% of the selling price.
nowwhatareyoulookingat
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Joined: Jul 2009
Why AT&T is better
07/14, 02:11am reply
I know people complain about AT&T coverage, but the iPhone is just not the iPhone w/o the app store. Had Apple gone with Verizon as a carrier, I suspect we would have been nickeled and dimed to death.
Verizon is trying to save their bacon as mobile carriers try to be more than just a carrier. They want to limit the experience, throw up barriers and make things more difficult. Be careful what you ask for is all I'm saying.
macnews
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Joined: Jun 2004
Hmm. . .
07/14, 05:01am (1 reply) reply
So, it's going to be open enough to deal with hundreds of thousands of developers, but closed enough that Verizon need to approve everything.
(If I was Verizon, the easiest way to do that would be to refuse to deal with most developers directly, but only deal with 'publishers' who can deal with the developers).
JulesLt
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Joined: Jul 2005
No iPhone for them
07/14, 08:05am reply
That's a nice way to assure themselves that they'll never get the iPhone. Apple would never relinquish control of the App Store.
chefpastry
Mac Enthusiast
Joined: Nov 2005
Tell me it ain't so
07/14, 10:27am reply
Verizon would intentionally cripple their hardware so they can nickel and dime customers to death?
Nah...they've never done it before.
Mr. Strat
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Joined: Jan 2002
Re: Why ATT is better
07/14, 11:58am (1 reply) reply
I know people complain about AT&T coverage, but the iPhone is just not the iPhone w/o the app store. Had Apple gone with Verizon as a carrier, I suspect we would have been nickeled and dimed to death.
Nope, because Apple would never have given up that control. No one is more stubborn than Mr. Jobs. He never would give up the control he wants.
Probably why they didn't get the iPhone in the first place, even though they were supposedly first contacted by Apple.
testudo
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Joined: Aug 2001
No iPhone on Verizon now
07/14, 04:19pm reply
And that is why having the iPhone on Verizon would suck. And that's why Verizon didn't get the iPhone in the first place.
apple4ever
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Joined: Jan 2001