Vodafone launches app store in India

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: An application store for the Indian market has been launched by Vodafone’s Indian operation, Vodafone Essar. The operator waited for 10,000 downloads before officially announcing it even though the app store has been running since the middle of last month. This is the third major app store launch in India recently and there’s a fourth one on the way.

These apps provide smartphone features for feature phones and the lineup is also not that fancy when compared to the one on the iPhone or Android app stores. Currently, almost 800 apps available are focused on being useable and cheap.

Between 15% and 25% of the apps on the store are currently free of charge while the rest cost between Rs 5 and Rs 30 to download or roughly $10 to $65 or 8 to 50 euro.

Airtel, which is the biggest rival of Vodafone Essar in India, also launched its apps store a few weeks back. Next month, Reliance will be launching a store as well and prices are again expected to be very low.

Tagged with:
 

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Lookout for an engineer has been started by Apple to get its mobile-phone software onto additional devices. An ad was posted on the website of Apple on February 15, for an engineering manager to lead a team focused on bring-up of iPhone operating system on new platforms.

Apple’s growing reliance on devices that provide Web access and computing features for users on the go are being clearly reflected by its postings and remarks. The iPhone and related products accounted for $5.58 billion, up from 25% of revenue and 36% of total sales in the three months that ended December 26. Other mobile devices including iPod touch is also sold by Apple.

According to analysts, Apple may put the OS onto Web-connected TV machines and devices that help viewers watch 3D programming. More than 75 million devices based on the iPhone OS has already been shipped by Apple which lets users download and run applications such as games and calendars sold at the Apple App Store.

Tagged with:
 

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Airtel has come up with exhilarating service for all its customers under which Airtel Application Central, a new service will be launched by India’s renowned service provider in telecommunication services, Airtel

Being the first mobile application store in India, the service will cover 22 different groups of applications, thus filling its customers’ mobile with fun apps.1250 applications would be provided to the customers including games, themes, social networking, travel, books, business, and other useful software.

Some of the applications will be priced while some will be available for free. The payment will either be deducted from the customers balance or added to their monthly rental.

Tagged with:
 

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The size of the iPhone downloaded over 3G has been boosted by Apple from 10 MB to 20 MB. Earlier, users downloading an app larger than 10 MB had to switch to a WiFi connection.

The reason behind the limit was to preserve the bandwidth. It has been speculated that Apple has made the change in anticipation of the iPad, which is set to debut in late March.

The typical iPhone apps populating Apple’s App Store will not be as large as iPad application downloads. iPad apps will have to support higher-resolutions graphics due to its 9.7-inch screen, especially for games. It appears iPhone users will be able to enjoy downloading larger apps while on the go using 3G.

Tagged with:
 

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Only registered companies will be allowed to submit apps to Nokia’s Ovi store as a part of its screening process and to ensure mobile Ovi Store carries clean apps. However, a barrier is set up by this requirement for individuals interested in developing apps for the app store, as well as aspiring startups and entrepreneurs that may not have registered business licenses.

According to Marc Einstein, ICT industry manager at Frost & Sullivan, the move is an effort to avoid some of the controversies seen at competing stores, such as offensive content that had ended up on Apple’s App Store in the past and as such, Nokia’s move to limit app contribution is a necessary evil.

Nelson Wee, Nokia’s Asia-Pacific senior services marketing manager, explained that the company established the policy due to international tax complexities besides aiming at ensuring content on the Ovi Store is legal and authentic.

Tagged with:
 

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Increased integration with mobile apps and content stores as a key part of mobile internet strategy has been announced by Deutsche Telekom. Delivery of the widest choice of mobile apps and content and creation of an environment that is easy to use regardless of what brand of phone its customers are using is the main aim of the telco.

Operator billing option will also be launched as a part of this approach allowing T-Mobile customers to download apps from the key stores and have them charged back onto their mobile phone bill, removing the need to pay with a credit card.

The partnership between Deutsche Telekom and Nokia to roll-out a T-Mobile billing option for content and applications purchased in the Ovi Store is the first step towards this goal.

Tagged with:
 

Sprint & GetJar offer 60,000+ free apps

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Independent app store’s 60,000-plus free applications will be offered under the new partnership between Sprint and GetJar to all feature phone subscribers as well as BlackBerry and Windows Mobile smartphone users. A link to the GetJar catalog is now live on the Sprint portal across most of its handsets.

Facebook Mobile, Google Maps, YouTube, Weather Channel Mobile, ShopSavvy and Loopt are some of the popular applications offered by GetJar. 750 million GetJar apps have already been downloaded by the consumers worldwide.

According to Sprint director of product management and development Kevin McGinnis, the company has been fairly open about its views on storefronts and they want to provide the greatest amount of choice and support operating systems, as opposed to their own proprietary storefront.

Tagged with:
 

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Online mobile applications stores has been planned by one of the India’s top mobile firm, Reliance Communications, thus opening up a new revenue stream from add-on services such as music and social networking.

The first version of Reliance Communications application store would go live for GSM customers by the end of February and expended version would be available to its CDMA customers by the end of March.

Seventh-ranked Aircel was the first Indian operator to announce a mobile applications store in January when it signed a deal with number two software services firm Infosys Technologies.

Tagged with:
 

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Apple has requested educational software developer Flash of Genius to remove mention of Google’s Android mobile operating system from the iTunes description of the startup’s iPhone and iPod touch application Flash of Genius: SAT Vocab 2.2.

In November 2009, SAT Vocab was announced the Top 10 finalist in its category in the Android Developer’s Challenge, and the company hoped to include that information to boost sales of its iPhone app.

As a result of this, the application submitted by Flash was declared to contain inappropriate or irrelevant platform information by Apple. According to an e-mail sent by the iPhone Developer Program, providing future platform compatibility plans or other general platform references are not relevant in the context of the iPhone App Store and while the application has not been rejected, it would be appropriate to remove ‘Finalist in Google’s Android Developer’s Challenge!

Tagged with:
 

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Apple’s browser-based feature enabling consumers to view music available in the iTunes digital store front is now available in the App Store and its catalog of iPhone and iPod touch applications.

The service has been extended three months after quietly introducing iTunes Preview. Through the “Copy Link” option within the iTunes application, Web links to iTunes Preview pages are made available.

From there, the users are taken to Apple-hosted site that lists the description, price, screenshots and customer reviews of the iPhone app in question, as well as direct links to the developer’s own website and support pages.

Tagged with: