Verizon Wireless to open app store March 29
(Reuters) - Verizon Wireless, the biggest U.S. mobile operator, said it would open its own mobile phone applications store on March 29. — The venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc said that consumers buying applications …
Context & Ripple Effects
The March 29 launch closes a loop Verizon opened in late 2007, when it pledged an 'any apps, any device' option for customers — a striking reversal for a carrier then known for tightly controlled handsets. Since then the operator has repositioned around openness: Droid-branded Android phones arrived with heavy marketing through late 2009 and early 2010, the Motorola Devour followed in February, and a CDMA Nexus One has been rumored for this month or April.
The store also lands mid-campaign: Verizon Wireless has spent early 2010 paring its device lineup, revamping calling plans and running its 'there's a map for that' ads explicitly to grab customers ahead of 4G, while the confirmed Skype Mobile partnership added headline apps to its smartphones. An owned storefront gives the biggest U.S. operator a billing and merchandising layer on top of that push.
First-order effects
- From March 29, Verizon Wireless sells applications directly to its subscriber base, adding a retail and revenue-cut layer between developers and the Android and other smartphones already on its network.
- Developers targeting Verizon's Droid-era lineup gain a carrier-billed storefront alongside Google's Android Market, forcing a per-device distribution decision.
Second-order effects
- If carrier-billed apps prove popular, rival U.S. operators face pressure to stand up their own storefronts rather than cede app merchandising to Google and handset makers.
- Vodafone, as co-owner of the venture, watches a template it could weigh for its own markets — though nothing in the announcement commits the store beyond the U.S.
Third-order effects
- The launch is a live test of whether network operators can retain a share of smartphone app economics, or whether OS-vendor stores make carrier storefronts structurally redundant as devices go more open.
- A fragmented Android distribution landscape — one store per major carrier — would raise discovery and maintenance costs for small developers, pushing them toward whichever channel aggregates demand.
The trend: Carriers are attempting to reclaim app-distribution revenue from platform stores just as open operating systems loosen their grip on handset software.