MWC Scorecard: App Stores

Whose profile is rising: Nokia. The handset giant's Ovi Store is the first of the many mobile application storefronts launched in the wake of Apple's game-changing App Store to offer a vision and identity that feels genuinely new and different. Consolidating Nokia's existing Download!, Mosh and WidSets efforts, Ovi Store will tout a customized and contextually relevant user experience determined by factors like personal contacts and physical whereabouts (or as Nokia calls it, "Social Location"). Consumers can activate social discovery features to receive updates and recommendations on content enjoyed within their social networking circles--in addition, Ovi Store will present content and applications tied to the user's present location.

"The central idea is that the media you consume is no longer just about what you bought, but also where, when and who bought it," said Nokia executive vice president Niklas Savander during the Mobile World Congress press conference that announced the storefront's launch. "Ovi Store is about immediacy and personal relevance. The service will learn your habits and tastes, and anticipate what you want to consume."

Nokia will open Ovi Store in May in nine countries--the store will be pre-integrated on the new N97 smartphone, also launched last week and scheduled for commercial release in June, and Nokia forecasts the service will reach an addressable device base topping 300 million by 2012--a scale Apple simply can't match. Beginning in March, Nokia will allow content providers and application developers to upload their products at publish.ovi.com. Content partners including Facebook, MySpace, Fox Mobile Group, EA Mobile and Glu Mobile already have confirmed their participation. Ovi Store will feature both free and premium downloads--in the case of the latter, Nokia will award 70 percent of revenues to developers, and offer credit-card billing or operator billing mechanisms depending on the international market in question.

Whose profile is falling: Microsoft. Given how long Microsoft's Windows Mobile applications storefront has reportedly been in the works--the rumor mill first cranked up back in September 2008--you might have imagined the software kingpin would have offered something more substantial and exciting than Windows Marketplace for Mobile. But at first blush, the app store appears to be as vanilla as the name would suggest.

Microsoft offered frustratingly few details on the venture, which will arrive later this year in tandem with the release of the Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system as well as new WinMo phones from LG and HTC (also announced in Barcelona). Promising users a comprehensive site to search, browse and purchase applications from WinMo phones or on a PC by using a Windows Live ID, Windows Marketplace for Mobile offers scope--according to Microsoft, there are presently more than 20,000 Windows Mobile applications already in existence--but little else, at least for now. Microsoft is playing virtually every major detail of Windows Marketplace for Mobile close to the vest--the company did not address how it will break down revenue share, nor did it state how apps will be billed.

Based on the admittedly scant evidence at hand, Windows Marketplace for Mobile appears to offer no larger, overarching vision a la Ovi Store. Nor is there a buzz-worthy device to herald the storefront's arrival, like the iPhone 3G did for the App Store or HTC's G1 did for Google's Android Market. Even Windows Mobile 6.5 seems like little more than a stopgap measure until WinMo 7.0 is finally ready for beta release late this year. In short, Windows Marketplace for Mobile feels like little more than a me-too effort, introduced almost solely because launching an app store is the thing to do.

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