Apple vs. Everybody Else Round 1: Taking on the World Apps Market

Apple vs. Everybody Else           Round 1: Taking on the World Apps Market


Being an iPhone user for over a year now, I share the same sentiment as most other iPhone users when generalized claims of Apple’s dominance in the smartphone market is staked by anyone and everyone who sees the sheer genius of its creation. This is precisely because in my humble technological perspective, the iPhone is the genius device that puts the smart in smartphone.

Need I elaborate on the reasons behind Apple’s dominance not just of the high-end phone market with its iPhone, but also of the mobile applications market with the iTunes App Store?

The mere reality of this situation has prodded telecommunications companies around the world (24 of them to be precise) to get together try to wrest back control of the mobile applications market from Steve Jobs’ successful takeover.

Short of ganging up on Apple and taking down the biggest competitor, these companies, namely, Singtel, Vodafone, Orange, AT&T and Chinaphone to name a few, seem to be intent on getting their slice of the mobile applications pie.

Now these companies, collectively known as the Wholesale Applications Community, are trying to get developers to create applications that will run on a universal platform.

Let’s hold up there and take in the implication of the WAC’s primary objective. Creating universal platform apps will allow users to run the same applications on their phone, regardless of device or software.

If you think about it, this does sound kind of fair to everyone involved. Creating a universally accepted application will reap the following benefits:

• Developers don’t need to write more than one version of their application to run on different devices or platforms. Less work is required.
• Developers will be able to market their applications to a worldwide market that doesn’t narrow down the customer base to the number of platform or device users in need of that specific app version. That’s around 3 billion consumers all over the world.
• Users don’t need to subscribe to different app stores just to square in on their specific device, any app store will give them the app they need.
• Telcos will get a fair share of the app market and everyone will get a slice of the applications pie.

Seems like everyone will benefit, that is, everyone except Apple, whose monopoly of the applications market will surely be broken.

But, oh the dreams of a utopian society! Though this seems like the perfect solution, some tech big wigs are questioning the feasibility of this venture saying that it’s always been the dream that will never be fully realized. This is precisely because developers often have a bias towards a certain software or platform, and that deciding on one universal platform to run on all phones will cause a great big debate that not even a cooperative of telecoms will be able to agree on.