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Ericsson tries with a new white label appstore, aimed at carriers, to get a piece of the fast growing mobile phone application market.
Hans Vestberg (CEO) announced the eStore at the MWC in Barcelona, a multiple platform store starting with a library of 30,000 apps, both paid and free. Carriers can add the store to their portfolio, while Ericsson takes care of the technology, maintenance of the shop and contact with developers. According to Vestberg “It will provide operators with an open landscape and an opportunity for them to quickly set up their own app stores.”
The payments are settled via carrier billing. Both Ericsson and the carrier earn a percentage of the sales via the eStore, however according to the developers website, 70% of the proceeds go to the developers.
According to their press release Ericsson teamed up with the Opera Software team to gain from their experience in widget technology and their knowledge about all different platforms.
Given the recently announced ‘wholesale applications community’ carried by 24 partners including LG, Sony Ericsson and Samsung it is interesting to note that Ericsson now launches this white label app store initiative. Ericsson claims to be already in discussions with a number of operators, but no names are disclosed.
Gert Jan Spriensma