Verizon Wants Their Own App Store, And Theirs Only. Good Luck

GigaOm (7/14/2009) “Verizon (NYSE: VZ) wants to build its own app store, and is planning a July 28 event to entice developers to its platform. Like everyone else wooing programmers, the company hopes to get the equivalent of the in-crowd building the hottest apps that will elevate its store, and thus its phones and network, to the level of popularity that Apple’s iPhone currently enjoys. But getting a critical mass of developers building great software isn’t an easy task. And while Verizon is romancing developers, the carrier isn’t as solicitous of its handset partners. Verizon’s Ryan Hughes, VP Partner Management, said in an interview Friday that the network operator’s app store will be the sole marketplace on devices sold by the company, meaning stores such as Research In Motion’s BlackBerry App World or Microsoft’s Windows Mobile Marketplace won’t get placement on Verizon handsets unless a consumer downloads them”
For those thinking that the iPhone is soon headed to Verizon, think again. If Verzion wants to lock up the deck like this and control their own app store, Apple will have nothing to do with them. How Verizon thinks they can have one single app store to work correctly seamlessly across all their devices, they have a ton of bricks coming their way. Just more stupidity coming out of mid-level management in the mobile telecom industry.