T-Mobile plans to launch an ‘Apple’ like Application Store

T-Mobile USA has recently announced its plans to launch its very own application store, similar to that of the Apple App store for the iPhone.

There will be one big difference to the Apple App store, the applications from the T-Mobile App Store will be available to every mobile phone model that they carry and as they currently have 31.5 million subscribers, the already have a huge customer base for their new App store.

As with the Apple App store, the success of this new venture will depend on the developers and the quality of applications they produce.

The developers will submit their applications online and will enter into a revenue sharing agreement, which will be based on how much the application uses the network, for example if it is a video streaming application, then T-Mobile will take more of the revenue as it is based on bandwidth.

As with the Apple store, the applications will be presented to customers in order of popularity, and this will also apply to the carrier’s platforms from upcoming Android, Java, Sidekick and Windows mobile.

T-Mobile needed to do something, as the fourth largest carrier, they have continued to add subscribers every year, but they are behind on launching 3G and they are loosing subscribers to AT&T as people buy the new iPhone, this new T-Mobile App store might be the boost they need to bring in new subscribers and keep existing ones.

T-Mobile’s director of Mobile Applications and Partner Programs, Venetia Espinoza, had the following to say about their new venture:

“T-Mobile is working with the industry to foster an open wireless services platform which will provide developers with the tools and information they need to make new, innovative experiences available to T-Mobile’s more than 31.5M customers. The devPartner Community site, which is in its alpha stage, is just a taste of what T-Mobile has in store and we encourage you to stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks.”

via Moco News