About Mobility

VentureBeat is looking to recognize Mobile innovation at the second annual MobileBeat Top Startup Competition.

Last year the awards went to firms such as AdMob and Loopt. This year the competition shifts to mobile applications and services, with 50 finalists to be determined and a final 14 to present live at MobileBeat on Thursday July 16th.

Top Startup Submission Rules:

• Startups must complete and submit a form by June 30, 2009 for consideration
• Fifty finalists will be announced on July 2nd on Venturebeat.com. Voting will then be open to the public to select the top seven companies per sector.
• Seven finalists from each category will present for five minutes each to the MobileBeat audience determined by judges as to avoid any vote manufacturing.
• Nominees must be younger than three years old. Special consideration will be given to companies that are launching for the first time.

Winners to be announced at the MobileBeat Conference July 16th, San Francisco CA San Francisco.

Directly following each two-minute presentation, a panel of judges will provide feedback in rapid fire. After final deliberation in the afternoon, winners will be announced.

Submitting a company for nomination is completely free. For more information visit the startup competition website.

MobileBeat 09 will take place on July 16, 2009 in the Parc 55 Hotel in downtown San Francisco. The theme of this year’s show is “It’s the application, stupid!”, focusing on mobile applications’ recent explosion in popularity.

See registration information.

Speakers at this year’s MobileBeat include: Dr. Tero Ojanperä (Nokia), Russ McGuire (Sprint Nextel), Matt Murphy (Kleiner Perkins iFund), Rick Segal (Blackberry Partners), Nagraj Kashyap (Qualcomm Ventures), Aditya Khurjekar(Verizon), and Michael Rayfield (Nvidia)

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As some of you may already know, MIDP 3.0 is going public. While smartphones have taken their own route with respect to the runtime environment, I expect feature phones to adopt MIDP 3.0; to be seen is the adoption by device manufacturers. But that said, FYI, the list of new features is very good (and many of my wishes were satisfied); to mention a few:

• Backgrounds MIDlets (i.e. services) and auto-launched MIDlets
• Enhanced storage management w/ support for record tagging/labels and support for external, secure storage
• Access to unique device IDs such as UUIDs and IMEI (to better manage deployment instances)
• New UI functionality such as support for splash, idle screen and screenisavers, text input into Canvas elements, tables, tabbed panes, splash screen, scalable images and animated GIF, menus and form layouts, other
• Support for libraries — now you can decouple common infrastructure components from the app and into libraries that can be shared across apps
• MIDlet concurrency and inter-MIDlet communication
• Support for application and system eventing (from the system events such as low-battery, etc)
• HTTP support for PUT and DELETE in support for REST-like web services
• IPv6 URLs, file selectors, and other
• Migration path to CDC
• A number of clarifications that I hope helps reduce ambiguities that previously permitted inconsistent implementations
• …and other

Related to this see JSR 271: Mobile Information Device Profile 3 - Proposed Final Draft.

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Disclaimer: I was a member of the expert group that defined MIDP 3.0, so I am obviously a bit biased to see this succeed and at the same time very pleased with the set of features that made it to the next generation of the Mobile Information Device Profile (Java ME).

Via @hametner, a couple of handset and Mobile Network Operators (MNO) metrics of interest (USA).

Top 5 U.S. smartphones sold in Q1 2009

1. BlackBerry Curve
2. Apple iPhone 3G
3. BlackBerry Storm
4. BlackBerry Pearl
5. T-Mobile G1

Note that 3 out of 5 are BlackBerry handsets, and that 4 out of 5 are Java handsets! RIM seems to own over 50% of the *consumer* space in the US; i.e these numbers do not include enterprise sales. As @hametner ponders, “does this mean that Apple needs to expand beyond exclusivity to have a broader cross carrier offering?”… Yes,interesting…

Top 5 US MNOs by number of subscribers at the end of Q1 2009

1. Verizon — 86.7M subs
2. AT&T — 78.2M subs
3. Sprint — 48.1M subs
4. T-Mobile — 33.2M subs
5. US Cellular — 6.2M

Verizon continues to be ahead, and with Verizon committing to LTE that means a very large LTE deployment supposedly starting in 2009, and with rumors that Apple and Verizon have been talking that would be a great opportunity for Apple and its “Pinky and the Brain” world dominance expansion plans for the iPhone!

Other MNOs, at&t and T-Mobile are all either committed or still evaluating LTE with eyes towards 2011, with Sprint pretty much committed to WiMAX (at this point).

Sources:

• NPD Group
• FierceWireless

Disclaimer: I’m a Pinky and the Brain fan!

I’ve been keeping track of a very interesting thread at Forum Oxford (FOROX) on the topic of Android phone dissapointing developers (w.r.t. iPhone), with Jason Delport, Alex Kerr, William Volk (who started the thread) and others adding their different perspectives on the matter. All these guys are mobile experts so what they say resonate with me…

I like Jason’s responses as there is no bias, just pure pragmatism (i.e. he has been burned before); he makes a living building mobile apps, so for him it is about business and making money. Period. Jason’s take on why Android is dropping the ball is as follows:

1. User’s don’t want to sign up to Google checkout
2. There are plenty of places to find illegal copies of paid Android apps
3. The store is over cluttered with crap apps
4. The store has a poor design and has a rubbish user experience compared to the iPhone app store
5. Paid apps were launched later than free apps and a tone was set in the market that apps were, and should be, free.

For which I respond as follows:

On #1, Google should do one of two: 1) require and capture credit card information the first time a user tries to buy a premium application, or 2) integrate with the network operator’s billing. On #2, true, but #1 is the main issue. On #3 and #4, I totally agree, plus, the good apps are hard to find! A better way to find applications is needed. On #5, I totally agree as well; the wrong expectations were initially set.

Alex followed writing that developers should be focusing on the platforms that are most “useful” to as many people as possible in the world… these being J2ME, Web and S60.

But useful is *very* relative. For talking on the phone? For writing applications? For deploying and making money from? I used to think as Alex… yes, it all sounds reasonable — target the platforms that (in theory) have the largest subscriber reach. Well, that is, until you take into consideration “Show me the money”, as Ajit likes to say.

From the “show me the money” perspective “rich development platforms and ecosystems” have proven, finally, successful. When I say “rich development platforms and ecosystems”, ecosystems go beyond app repositories, and it is about all the details that make it work, which includes user experience, integrated billing/payment, social and not, feedback system, and all the goodies a good/properly designed app store is all about.

I remember the debates between Ajit and myself over Web vs. local apps a couple of years ago, including at JavaOne Motorola Keynote, where I defended local applications while Ajit debated that “AJAX will replace both J2ME and XHTML as the preferred platform for mobile applications development” (note that he wrote J2ME but he really meant local apps). Today I can humbly say that I was right about local apps, and that “AJAX will not replace local apps as the platform of choice for developing mobile applications”. At least not yet. Ajit was/is right that mobile web apps will be huge, but they will in a different way as when it comes to richness and user experience and making money, today it is about a local apps.

And it took Apple to show “us” the way.

App Stores have proven central for developers (i.e. “show me the money”), and for subscribers (to easily find and download apps). And as a consequence, have proven beneficial to network providers themselves - gosh, it has taken so many years for network operators to finally open their eyes, not be so paranoid and over-controlling, and agree with common sense — it is an ecosystem after all. So now, all are converging into similar solutions such as iPhone’s App Store. They have to - the power is shifting to the subscriber itself, and to the developers who are bringing applications, software to the market. And those platforms that don’t play nice with the ecosystem, will fail.

So the argument that subscribers would not download local apps, argument a number of us didn’t agree with and defended against over the years via our blogs and apps, resulted in a non-issue. Yes, users will download rich, useful applications, and even better, will pay for them if given ways to easily find, pay for, and download those applications. While other types of apps such as Web and SMS, well, subscribers do like, but for free! Don’t you agree? What this translates to is into business models centered on the subscriber vs. “the other side of the subscriber” such as businesses, etc.

A word on the various platform

A word on iPhone: the device, the platforms rocks. I have an Android (personal) and an iPhone (work). And the iPhone is a beautifully designed piece, overall, from hardware to software. AT&T will hurt and cry if/when iPhone goes to other operators. As a sidenote, see ReadWriteWeb article by Sarah Perez titled The State of the Smartphone: iPhone is Way, Way Ahead, where she explores a recent report by Flurry that concludes that the iPhone is way ahead when it comes to mobile apps (based on the number of developers, apps and consumers). But, let’s take this report “with a grain of salt”. Why? Because it can be biased as follows: the majority of the developers using their analytics instrumentation code might just be iPhone developers, thus, the sample-set is biased by default.

A word on Android: just give it time. Android has the potential to be everywhere - phones, internet appliances, cars, etc. around the Globe, and thus many different types of developers (mobile to embedded). And it very well might allow developers to enter “emerging” markets easier. Judging Android after 6 months or so means nothing in the grand scheme of things. Time will tell (but I stand by what I’ve been saying thought).

A word on BlackBerry. They are getting it, but imposing a minimum app price of $2.99 — because “they value the efforts of developers” is bogus and is an attempt to sound developer-friendly. Let the market decide pricing!

A word on Nokia: they are trying with Ovi, but keep it simple! I really hope Nokia hits the ball out of the park –but they should consider simplifying their portfolio tho, see On Nokia’s App Store Strategy. Nokia’s attempt to do integrated billing for their App Store and (eventually) requiring Credit Cards mean they are thinking the right way.

A word on J2ME: Java ME suffered over the years due to 1) the process that created it was too slow to adapt, allowing for inconsistent implementations and incomplete API-sets, 2) its security model, and 3) lack of integrated app repository (i.e. app store). I still believe it has potential to be the platform of choice for mid-level phones. Specially with the latest MSA API-stacks and MIDP3 that (I hope) will come out later this year. And today,if you have the right market and channels, go for it.

A word on Web: best channel for apps that easily bring “generic” content out to people. Huge potential, especially with efforts such as BONDI and HTML 5 persistent data and the Canvas elements. In any case it is always a good idea, if it is applicable, to have a mobile web version of your app.

A word on short messaging (regardless of SMS or Twits): best channel for notification-like distribution. Second to none. True SMS is way to expensive and prohibitive for many; SMS though is a cash-cow for network providers who must be terrified of Twitter. If targeting notification-like app such as promotions SMS and Twitter is the way to go.

A word on voice apps: I wish we spend more time investing/researching this mode of interaction.

A word on SIM-based apps: The SIM card will always be at the center of mobile apps - directly or indirectly. New technologies such as JavaCard 3.0 and Smartcard Web Servers (SCWS) have the potential of bringing a new breed of mobile applications. Still developing SIM-card based applications is a niche and very network provider oriented, but if you have the relationship w/ the carrier, go for it!

And what the best type of application is? The hybrid app! This is a rich *local* app that is very good at consuming and rendering web content, as well as direct messages (i.e. SMS, Tweets). In the future, mobile web has tremendous potential but again, it is about making money *today*.

So in conclusion, we have to agree that today, integrated app stores that caters subscribers directly is the best channel for subscribers, and developers, and for operators as well. The potential for reaching more subscribers via J2ME, S60, and Web do exist, but but one thing is to create and attempt to deploy apps for those platforms, and the other is those apps getting payed for, downloaded and used.

As a recent report by IDC (Scott Ellison) titled “Developer Strategies for Success Shift as Apple iPhone Apps Store Passes 1 Billion Downloads” concluded:

Apple has demonstrated — again and again — that the success factors in mobile can change in the blink
of an eye — indeed in as little as 3 quarters in the case of the Apps store. The Apps store is increasingly
central not only to Apple, but to any developer or company seeking to play in the mobile applications and
content space. And understanding the shifting success factors within the Apps store is key to success
both on the device and in the digital marketplace that continues to remake mobile.

ceo

P.S. Anders Borg (Abiro Mobile News) has written an excellent analysis of this blog piece — see The state and future of mobile applications. And I like very much Michael Yuan’s comment saying “What developers want is to address the “maximum number of people who are willing to pay”; exactly!

A great writeup by Mike Rowehl, Please Don’t Mistake My Apathy For A Lack of Understanding, in response to VentureBeat’s piece iPhone devotion blinds Silicon Valley app developers.

Mike, who is a very experienced mobile developer and technologist in general, writes about his apathy for all the companies and people how now seem to “get it” when it comes to things such as app stores and ecosystems and the importance of developers; the same companies/people who made the life of developers next to impossible (i.e. fragmentation, cost/fees, certifications, lack of support, failing to deliver, over-control) when trying to develop mobile applications in the past. The same companies/people responsible for slowing down advancements in mobility because of lame excuses and FUD and control — that is, until Apple with the iPhone showed them differently.

My comment (modified a bit) that I left on his blog follows:

Agreed. It took Apple the vision to create the integrated experience that even non-techies get how to discover and download of apps. It took Apple to show/change the playing field, vs. being a “yes man”. And it took Apple show how a touch experience and mobile browsing should be, while others were afraid of taking step and while others didn’t get it at all. And, it took Apple to show it is about the experience and ecosystem and the developers to bring value to the mobile platform. Amazing, isn’t it?

Now everyone is copying. Now everyone “gets it”.

But it is good to see now that everyone else is “getting it”, and are doing something about it.

But I agree, don’t call developers blind (or stupid), as what developers are doing is just the opposite - it is not about devotion — it is about low investment, quick time to market, exposure, and large as possible ROI. And as others platform get to show good return potential, developers will develop for those as well… Show us the money!

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When app stores first came out, I was very excited. Finally, I said, all the right pieces, all together, all correctly placed: the integrated catalog that allows for easy application discovery, the download over the air that works, integrated billing/payment, the ecosystem, the business model, and apps that work. The realization was that app stores were the new deck.

It took years for someone to break the ice. Why do I say break the ice? Because traditionally handset makers have been very careful (afraid?) about crossing the line into the network provider’s turf. Everyone knew that the old the deck stunk bad and that it didn’t work. Yet, no one was willing to cross that line.

But Apple did. And they proved the world how things should be done. Apple also proved that network operators are the reason why when it comes to innovation beyond the network, is why things have stalled for so long. It is nothing personal when I say this, it is just the way it is.

Then came Google, with a similar ideas. Then BlackBerry and Microsoft and Nokia finally. So far so good.

But now we have Comverse and Amdocs offering app stores. See More Apps Stores Unveiled. But why Comverse and Amdocs? Amdocs and Comverse are taking advantage of the new opportunity. They have realized that operators are in a tough position, as all these new app stores are all working around them. So why not put together a (white-labeled) app store infrastructure and offer it to the operators? And in addition to the online catalog, also offer to “review each application and conduct testing, certification and legal reviews before hosting an application in its store.” Again, all this very operator-centric. And with this, app stores will become the new walled-garden, as Andrew Gill writes.

All of this sounds *exactly* as the old deck, doesn’t it? And guess what? It won’t work.

One more thing. A big reason why app stores such as Apples and Google’s work is because the downloaded apps work. And that is possible because the target (number of) platforms were simplified. So 1) let’s start by simplifying the platforms, 2) don’t go back to the old operator-controlled deck.

Well, I should say that it is fine to have operator-controlled app stores, but don’t preclude other/better app stores.

The new deck is much more than trying to copy Apple…

Related to this:

• App stores abound at Mobile World Congress
• Are App Stores Just Another Type of Walled Garden?
• On Nokia’s App Store Strategy
• App Stores are the New Deck

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As you may know, there are rumors of Nokia getting ready to launch their very own app store.

This is an interesting (but necessary) move by Nokia, a company that traditionally has been very careful about not “crossing the line” into their customers (i.e. MNO) territory, as crossing such line creates a love/hate relationship with the customer.

But that is only part of Nokia’s problem. In addition to more aggresively extending their audience (beyond mainly network operators) and how to approach them, Nokia has many platforms and content portals and related strategies to deal with; should those be slimmed-down? Combined?

But it is time for Nokia to enter this new competitive world where the weight of the ecosystem is moving beyond the network operators and devices, where (App) Stores are the New Deck, and where the power is shitfing to the consumer (and is powered by the developer community).

And it is about the consumer experience where better ways to find and buy content drives usage and revenue. And it is about the ecosystem. And it is about great integration with the handset (which goes back to the experience) making the discovery and buying of content as easy as making a phone call.

We soon will learn if Nokia will combine or keep separate their existing portals. But to offer the right experience this probably means having separate stores: an App Store, a Music Store, and so on, as the context and the experience for/when discovering/buying music is different from apps, and so on.

A big difference between the Nokia app store and the rest of the app stores is that Nokia’s app store will benefit multiple players beyond the company themself: 1) Nokia of course, 2) the developers of course, 3) the consumers of course, 4) the Symbian Foundation and the Symbian OS, and 5) maybe it event will give Java ME a push forward.

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The other day Luca Passani sent me an email pointing me to a very important discussion that had been happening at the W3C Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group WG. The discussion is around Transcoding of web content and HTTPS -or- justifying breaking HTTPS in the name of transcoding.

That same week Dennis Bournique (WAP Review) wrote an excellent essay titled Transcoders and HTTPS where he describes the problem with this.

I’ve been wanting to write about this very, very important topic and today got the opportunity to write about this matter at ForumOxford; below is what I wrote:

I have been wanting to write about this for a while, but no time right now; my apologies.

I haven’t read the specs, but if the W3C is proposing to break HTTPS by introducing intermediary elements, such as a gateway, that is a major problem. And it is the WAP (Security) Gap all over again.

There are some basic principles, one being that HTTPS is secure end-to-end, that should remain always true, always. HTTPS is like an axiom — and building on top of HTTPS should always mean (it is accepted that it is) an end-to-end encrypted channel. If the W3C breaks that, it MUST NOT be called HTTPS.

It is Deja vu. And there will be proposed “solutions” such as operational safety of gateways to preclude unauthorized individuals from accessing the H/W, but that is not a true solution, and again, it is the WAP (Security) Gap all over again.

Either the folks proposing breaking HTTPS are a new generation and must be re-educated on WAP Gap and why it failed in favor of HTTPS, or they are just putting their business interests in favor of basic principles such as what is expected when HTTPS is discussed.

In addition to being respecful of “basic principles”, breaking HTTPS is a huge problem in practicality. Financial apps is one example — how can I guarantee to the end-users and banks that my mobile payment application is truely secure? Do I now have to implement my own encryption on top? And if somethig goes wrong due to the Gap, will the implementers of the broken gateways, and perhaps W3C will be responsible for this due to the irresponsibility/negligence, and are willing to take responsibility in courts?

It is disappointing to see this security gap coming up again. I thought that as a mobile/wireless community we had grown pass security gaps; but again, personal and/or business interests can always change the game.

So again, HTTPS should not be broken and thus HTTPS content shall not be transcodable. (Transcoding shall not take place anyhow, if the author of the content doesn’t wish it anyways; again, back to the importance of principles.) And if W3C continues pushing for the “transcoding of encrypted content”, it must not be done by breaking HTTPS and must not be called HTTPS, but by introducing a new thing, let’s call it WTLS and both protocols must be supported, and let the content owner decides which one to use.

Don’t break HTTPS.

Thanks to everyone who is creating awareness on this very important issue…

I would like to call the developer community to express their opinion on this matter…

Last but not least, The Transcoding Manifesto should be updated to include the above HTTPS concern, since as we can see, the end-to-end secure nature of HTTPS seems to be in jeopardy in mobile.

ceo

When I started eZee inc, one of my proudest accomplishments was the great R&D/development team I had. And one of the members of that team was Michael Yuan. Enter Ringful…

Since then, Michael went on and started Ringful, a mobile mashup company for voice and mobile messaging applications. Ringful is the creator of apps such as Facebook Voicetag, Instant conference calls on the iPhone, Calendar-based conference calls, and Two-factor ID Verification via mobile phones.

A couple of days ago Michael sent me an email about his new app, the Pollen Journal which is the first pollen forecast app (and corresponding back-end mashup) for the iPhone.

Some screenshots (click to enlarge):

Related links:

• Video of the app (Vimeo)
• The Product page with app store link and video

Very cool. Expect more new cool apps coming from Ringful…

ceo

Update: (May-2-09) Since I wrote this piece, it seems that the Palm OS folks have changed their minds, recognizing that ignoring the current customer-base was a mistake. The Palm Pre will come with a PalmOS Emulator that will “let the phone UI look and act like the Garnet OS, and even has virtual, on screen buttons to give you full functionality“. Good, smart move!

The new Palm Pre is a step on the right direction for the company. From the H/W to the UI to the app store, to the approach to application development which is based on web technologies. I’m glad to see Palm re-inventing themselves.

That said, who or what kind of customers more likely will move to the Palm Pre/webOS? My bet is that at first it would be existing Palm customers (in the U.S. lots of these are enterprise customers) which typically are pretty loyal customers.

That is where the Palm (Product) folks dropped the ball, as they have failed to provide a transition path to convert their existing customer-base to the new Palm Pre webOS platform; see New Palm Pre won’t work with old apps (ComputerWorld).

Perhaps this is an opportunity for a 3rd party to develop such solution, or maybe Palm just ran out of time for CES and is working on such emulation, but the PMs at Palm must recognize the strategy of not providing a good a path for existing Palm users as a flawed strategy that is going to cost them…

…existing Palm customer-base must be able to seamlessly run the existing inventory legacy applications and data on the new WebOS via some kind of emulation.

ceo

I just noticed that this year’s Design For Mobile conference, organized by the folks from Little Springs Design, is scheduled for April 20-22, 2009. I attended last year’s event and it was a good event with attendees and presenters from both academia and industry-practitioners.

See the Design For Mobile website.

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I’ve updated my diagram on non-messaging Mobile Applications: Browser, Lightweight, Local-based Applications (click to enlarge):

I will be using this diagram on an upcoming article that I’ve been cooking for a while.

ceo

Source: THE NIELSEN COMPANY ISSUES TOP TEN U.S. LISTS FOR 2008.

Motorola on the top and Nokia on the bottom - wow. And in between in that order: LG, Apple and BlackBerry. Wow again. The US does operate differently than the rest of the world! I wonder for how much longer that will hold true.

The following handsets all support Java ME / MIDP or BREW, SMS and mobile web browser applications; except for the iPhone of course.

I found the above via Mobile-Facts and it is quite funny (and probably even true!). The important concept here, even if not the best of examples, is that an open market and ecosystem is a very good thing…

ceo

Happy 2009 New Year to all my readers. My first post of the year is about mobile applications: local/native vs. native, and app-stores.

App-stores have been shifting the balance on application development and distribution (back) towards local/native applications. I don’t mean to undermine mobile web which will continue to be very important and very large for access of information of type “web content”. But the reason for this is the same reason I’ve been preaching for a long time: the ability to deliver/maximize “application richness, functionality and experiences” - which (today) maximizing these is only possible via local/native applications. This is the same topic took Ajit and myself into a debate at JavaOne’s keynote a couple of years; that was fun.

What I’m describing above can be seen on the iPhone which is the best mobile web handset today, and which redefined and raised the bar on mobile web applications, yet the really cool applications are local/native, and more importantly, developers of local/native applications seem to be the ones who are generating (receiving) the most revenue - after all, it is about making money. And this trend will continue… I do believe that in the future mobile web will be able to match the richness and functionality of local/native applications, once the proper APIs and functionality are put in place and become standard, and that today a happy medium are local/native applications that consume mobile web content; i.e. hybrid apps providing the best of both worlds.

And when combining the above with App-stores, which provide for the application discovery and revenue streams for developers, the market place becomes very attractive and thus active.

But to be successful, app-stores must exhibit certain characteristics:

• From the end-user perspective: the app store must be seamless and well integrated into the user experience. Downloaded applications must work. There must be a good selection of high-quality apps. Integrated checkout/payment is easy and straightforward and secure. The end-user is in control, including influencing how applications will perform on the market (via feedback that influences ranking).
• From the developer perspective: there must be a low cost and barriers to entry and distribution. Must provide application visibility (see below). Good revenue model. Provide feedback back to developers for improvement.
• Application visibility: the app store must provide the means for good application visibility. Already established applications are ranked appropriately based on user feedback, while new applications (including new versions) go into a different bucket that allows them to be visible regardless of ranking (perhaps for a period of time).
• As Ajit writes, must provide a true ecosystem (that benefits everyone: developers, network providers, the end-user, and so on).

Part of the above is why the iPhone has been successful. And is also the reason that I expect the Android app store to do well once it starts paying back to developers — it is just then when the Apple and Android stores can be compared.

There are app stores for Java ME, for example GetJar. The problem faced by GetJar is that there are things that are out of their control, such as cost and barriers to entry (due to fragmentation and certifications and fees and it is just a pain-in-the-neck to deal with network operators issues in general), and not being well integrated (seamless integration) into the overall user experience.

For years I’ve been attributing the lack of integrated solution for Java ME that works (per the above) for application discovery and download and revenue share, as one of the top the reasons why Java ME has failed to maximize its opportunity. As a member of MIDP expert group, this is an important lessons learned for me, that sometimes you do need to include such functionality into the platform vs. expecting 3rd parties to solve the problem; this seamless solution is still needed for Java ME…

On Goodbye 2008 and welcome 2009 and some predictions on mobility I made some predictions on app stores, which I will repeat here:

• Google will introduce a checkout process for its app store, and developers wanting to make money will notice; the Google app store will explode with a large number of applications.
• App stores will continue to have its huge effect on mobile apps and distribution. Due to the revenue and fast distribution models offered by iPhone and soon Android app stores, developers will first target such local applications (vs. mobile web). An even larger number of local/native applications will be created and distributed via app stores for Android and iPhone.
• The BlackBerry app store will be somewhat successful.
• Someone will introduce an app store for mobile web that goes beyond an application catalog. dotMobi will take leadership by going beyond an application catalog but also providing an associated business/revenue model.

Last but not least, and related to this topic, check out Paul Golding (Wireless Wanders) on his video blog entry Mobile 2008/9 all about App Stores where he discusses and provides his insight on why app stores have been important in 2008 and how important they will be in 2009… right on.

Also related to this see Ajit on Mobile Web Megatrends event - Making money from Appstores - Singapore - April 27 and 28, as well as his related thread on ForumOxford.

ceo