At&t may have had enough of Apple’s App Store
“A friend is one who has the same enemies you have.” Now, I am not quite sure at this point who exactly President Lincoln was referring to when he let loose this famous quote, but in the case of At&t and nearly a dozen other mobile telcoms, it is pretty clear: Their friends are anyone who doesn’t presently have a financial stranglehold on smart phone application development. In this case their friends just happen to be each other and the enemy is Apple, Google, RIM or any other hardware of software vendor who thinks that they can ride the networks to market dominance.
In 18 short months Apple has nearly singlehandedly forced At&t into the role of a dumb pipe and it would seem that with the emergence of Android’s marketplace as well as Palm and RIM’s variants, the other major mobile providers are feeling pretty threatened as well. If The Times Online is to be believed it seems as though enough is enough. They have reported that a sea-change is coming and it will start tomorrow in Barcelona at the Mobile World Conference.
With over 6 billion dollars in play this year alone according to Gartner’s Research, I am and have been more than convinced that “something” would have to happen, but I am doubtful that once rabid competitors will form an unholy alliance in order to combat the very companies whose innovation has created the entire market in the first place. Maybe improved software standards or compatibility amongst handsets and their respective operating systems but I wouldn’t wager on any further chicanery.
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