9:50 AM Operator worries about app store 'silos'

Michelle Donegan

June 11, 2009

1 Min Read
T-Mobile's App Store Angst

9:50 AM -- All the latest plans for new mobile app stores since Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) burst on to the mobile device and app scene have caused T-Mobile International AG to start fretting about fragmentation.

With app stores proliferating from the likes of Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK), and BlackBerry , T-Mobile worries that the industry is heading for a market scenario of device "silos," and that's a bad thing, according to Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT)'s chief product and innovation officer, Christopher Schläffer. (See Nokia Opens App Store, Apple App Store Gets 12% Market Share, Is Nokia's Ovi Finnish'd?, NTT America Extends IPV6 , Navigating the App Store, and Vodafone Puts Its Apps in Gear.)

"Everyone is providing an app store and not interoperating," said Schläffer, speaking at the Open Mobile Summit in London yesterday. "This industry needs a serious dialogue on open standards when it comes to app stores; otherwise we will lose years on mobile Internet development. We cannot afford silo ecosystems for different device manufacturers."

Schläffer didn't offer a proposal for how such interoperability could be achieved, but he said he wanted to get the industry discussing and debating the issue.

— Michelle Donegan, European Editor, Unstrung

About the Author(s)

Michelle Donegan

Michelle Donegan is an independent technology writer who has covered the communications industry for the last 20 years on both sides of the Pond. Her career began in Chicago in 1993 when Telephony magazine launched an international title, aptly named Global Telephony. Since then, she has upped sticks (as they say) to the UK and has written for various publications including Communications Week International, Total Telecom and, most recently, Light Reading.  

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