* Carrier joins app store proprietors; anything in it for enterprises?
It was Sun Microsystems that first famously (and sagely) proclaimed, “The network is the computer.” And for years, Cisco’s slogan, “The network is the platform,” has persevered. Now, the notion that the utility of a computer is proportional to the capabilities of the network(s) attached to it has spilled over into the mobile environment.
Verizon Wireless is chucking its old walled garden approach to content to become perhaps the first mobile operator to open up network APIs to developers and launch its own mobile apps store.
The operator held its maiden developers conference July 28, during which it announced its intent to open the Verizon VCAST Store late this year. Most of the mobile smartphone manufacturers have launched their own stores as a channel for fueling application development innovation and providing a streamlined channel for mobile app consumption.
So what does Verizon bring to the table besides another distribution channel?
Verizon Wireless’ Chief Marketing Officer John Stratton, who estimated that 40% of phones on his company’s network are smartphones, asserted at the conference that “there’s a real risk of fragmentation” in terms of applications not being available across a wide choice of handsets. “We don’t think Verizon is going to solve the fragmentation challenge, but we think we can help by collaborating with our device partners,” Stratton said.
To this end, a goal with the developer program and app store is to facilitate a single application’s ability to run over the all the handsets Verizon supports and across the combined networks of Verizon, China Mobile, Vodafone and Japan’s Softbank, which collectively reach more than a billion subscribers. These mobile operators are all partners in an interoperable widget initiative called Joint Innovation Lab (JIL).
Verizon Wireless also pointed to the mobile app billing process as the single highest barrier to consumption. So Verizon will give developers access to billing and payment capabilities so that the “customer won’t have to figure out how to pay through different channels,” said Lowell McAdams, president and CEO.
Are there any enterprise benefits to be had from Verizon’s — or anyone’s — mobile app store? So far, none of the proprietors have announced anything akin to an “enterprise app store” with sandboxed applications and app delivery mechanisms.
“I don’t think there’s a way for app stores to be enterprise-friendly,” said Craig Mathias, principal at Farpoint Group wireless consultancy, who advocates company-procured worker smartphones that he feels should only be used for business use.
The reason, he said, is that smartphones have to be managed in their entirety by IT, which doesn’t have the option to provision, update and manage the business applications but leave the personal-use side of the devices alone.
