App stores are where it's all happening – so much so that the annual Mobile World Congress is launching the App Planet 2010 expo to claim slice of the action.
Barely 16 months ago there was no such thing as a mobile phone app store — indeed, any type of ‘app store’ in the sense with which we’re now oh-so-familiar.
Then Apple launched the App Store alongside the iPhone 3G and revolutionised the way people browse, buy and install software for their smartphones.
Now almost every mobile OS vendor has a similar offering – Microsoft, Nokia, RIM, Android – and even handset manufacturers such as LG and Samsung are getting into the app store game.
Intel’s promised Atom app store will extend the concept to netbooks running its Linux-based Moblin operating system, and there’s even talk of mobile phone carriers launching app stores with wares exclusive to their customers.
A sign of just how big the ‘appscape’ has become is
App Planet, a new event added to the annual mobile phonefest known as Mobile World Congress.
App Planet will debut at next year’s Mobile World Congress, being held from February 15-18 in Barcelona, and organisers claim that App Planet will be “the new centre of the Apps Universe” for the duration of MWC.
App Planet will include developer conferences “focused specifically on the most influential mobile platforms in the market”, an “App Lounge” for developers to network and explore new business opportunities, and of course exhibits of apps by the bucketload.