The App Store has been billed as the secret weapon for the iPhone 3G, a source of third-party content and services that will eventually drive demand for the handsets far ahead of what Apple could achieve on its own (I say “eventually” because, for now, this looks as over-hyped as the launch of the Facebook platform more than a year ago: it is a very big idea, but many of the initial apps have been junk and have done little to prove the real power of the platform.)
So great is the long-term potential, in fact, that Apple’s rivals have been rushing to launch or dust off their own mobile storefronts. On Thursday it was Google’s turn, with an early look at its Android Market (the first Android handsets, from HTC, are due to go on sale from T-Mobile this autumn.) Many important details are still being kept under wraps, but it was at least possible to discern how Google plans to set itself apart from Apple.
Rather than an organised store, like Apple’s, this will be an online bazaar, something much more like YouTube. Google is also counting on its search technology to give it an edge in helping users find their way to relevant apps.
A second point of differentiation looks like being Google’s use of analytics – tools to help app developers get a better sense of where their new mobile “audience” is coming from. As free apps become vehicles for mobile advertising, that data will be vital. With Google Analytics, the search company already has some of the best free tools on the Web.
One vital question is still unanswered: how big a slice of the cake will Google take from sales of paid-for apps? It must surely undercut Apple’s 30 per cent take. Apple has done a clever job making this sound entirely reasonable, the bare minimum it needs to take to cover its costs, but the figure sounds high.
I heard Mitch Lasky, former head of mobile game company Jamdat, say this week that that 30 per cent is roughly what he used to pay Verizon to distribute his company’s games - and we all know how hated the mobile companies are for supposedly using their “closed” networks to levy excessive fees from content producers.
