Apple on Friday will launch its iPhone App Store, coming just a day after Nokia added nine members to its open mobile software development group, a move that will transform the mobile market, experts said.
The App Store is a marketplace for independent developers to sell iPhone applications or offer them up for free. Apple's App Store is built on the iTunes store model and will be a boon particularly for smaller developers, according to analyst Moe Tanabian.
"Apple's App Store is a very fertile environment for application developers and this model will be copied by others like Google, Nokia, Samsung, and Microsoft," said Mr. Tanabian, a principal with IBB Consulting.
Apple's App Store on iPhone allows iPhone users to browse available applications either over cellular networks or Wi-Fi. People can choose applications to download and install directly to phones.
The App Store handles much of the marketing and all of the transaction processing for a 30 percent cut of the revenue generated.
"This is particularly good for smaller developers because they can lower their overhead and focus on the business of innovation," Mr. Tanabian said.
Nokia has similarly made strides to change the distribution of mobile applications by giving users of its phones direct access to mobile applications and services, a process once tightly controlled by carriers.
Last month, Nokia announced that it was acquiring all of Symbian and that it would make the operating system software available under a royalty-free license to members of the newly formed Symbian Foundation. (see
Nokia Stalks Google with Free Symbian)
On Thursday the Symbian Foundation added carriers 3, America Movil, and TIM along with chip maker Marvell and software developers Aplix, EB, EMCC, Sasken, and TietoEnator,
The Symbian Foundation gives developers a distribution channel other than the carriers through which they can reach the mobile consumer. Many developers have complained that going through carriers can be a long, expensive, and frustrating process.
"You are going to have a lot more open competition this way, and the competition will be much more around the consumers' appetite for user-friendly and efficient applications," said Joe Nordgaard, director of wireless consulting firm Spectral Advantage.
Mobile apps have lagged far behind PC apps in terms of efficiency and user friendliness in part because the applications must balance a number of very critical handset needs.
Using the operating system, mobile apps must operate well within the constraints of limited bandwidth, very limited power, a very small screen, and a difficult radio frequency link.
"An open, easily accessible market for mobile apps will make the mobile market a lot like the PC market, except that in the PC market it was primarily Windows. Here you have quite a few operating systems to develop for," Mr. Nordgaard said.