Canada's Wind Mobile has joined a movement that includes global cellphone heavyweights NTT DoCoMo, O2, Vodafone and about 20 others in an alliance capable of challenging Apple's dominance in the booming market for mobile applications. The coalition, called Wholesale Application Community, is an attempt by mobile operators to collect a bigger share of the $6.2-billion U.S. market for programs and games for smart phones, known as "apps," short for software applications.
Apps have become a booming business, largely thanks to the popularity of Apple Inc.'s iPhone device and its iTunes' App Store. Experts at Gartner, a technology researcher, predict that 4.5 billion apps will be downloaded globally this year, compared to 2.5 billion in 2009. Researchers expect the market is expected to be worth more than $29 billion U.S. by 2013.
Apple's App Store currently accounts for more than 65 per cent of all apps downloaded. More than three billion apps have been downloaded from Apple's store in the past 18 months. Although some of them are available free of charge, the Californian company takes a 30-per-cent cut from every app sold.
The alliance, which is supported by handset manufacturers LG and Samsung, aims to move app developers away from Apple by creating an industry standard that will enable developers to create apps that work across all mobile networks and handsets. The consortium also promises to allow users to move applications from one device to another if they buy a new handset. The alliance, which also includes AT&T, Bharti Airtel, China Mobile, MTN Group and NTT DoCoMo, was announced at the Mobile World Congress trade fair in Barcelona Monday.
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