New app storefront will rival others, have Verizon's customer base
Verizon Wireless today threw its hat in the ring of online application stores by announcing it will open the V Cast Apps store in the fourth quarter of the year.
The Verizon storefront will make it easy for developers of applications for BlackBerry devices and BlackBerry’s App World to offer their wares via Verizon’s store, officials said.
If an application has been developed for App World, created by Research in Motion Ltd., “you’re good to go, and it gets populated — boom — with Verizon,” said John Stratton, chief marketing officer at Verizon. He spoke at the Verizon Developer Community Conference in San Jose, as well as by webcast.
Jim Balsillie, co-CEO of RIM, also appeared at the conference and said RIM will support both its own App World and Verizon’s new storefront. “We are going to support both worldwide,” he said. “What we want, real simple, is for this stuff to get adopted.”
Stratton said the new V Cast store will allow for one-click payments, unlike other storefronts that require registration of a credit card or a PayPal account. A spokeswoman said later than at application programming interface will be available to developers so they can allow customers to bill directly to a Verizon Wireless subscriber account. They will also have the option to allow credit card payments.
Stratton also said that developers will get a 70% share of the revenues from applications they offer, drawing cheers from developers in the audience.
One of the biggest concerns of developers is how they can be sure that a new application storefront will gain acceptance to rival the success of Apple Inc.’s App Store. The App Store reported 1.5 billion application downloads in its first year.
Balsillie said the quality of applications, not just quantify and an initial marketing buzz, will be a big factor in success. “Titillation is phase one and this is about richer substance and richer contextualization,” he said. “And it’s not about having 30 or 40 apps you download once and don’t use again…. Your benchmark is going to be stickiness.”
Stratton said that the new V Cast Apps store will benefit from Verizon’s Web site, which he called a “very substantial” Web presence, with 60 million registered users. Those users will have the ability to see what is available for smartphones and other handhelds, he said.
