AT&T restricts Motorola Backflip users to Market apps
AT&T asserts authority over its own user experience while Google and Intel spread app store concept to new sectors
Published: 10 March, 2010
READ MORE: US | AT&T | Intel | App Store | Android
App stores are the key tool for brand control in the mobile web, at least for now, but there are far too many such platforms, and operators and vendors are fighting for visibility. This week, AT&T has asserted its authority over its own user experience by locking down its first Android phone, while Intel and Google are stretching the store concept into new markets.
The Motorola Backflip is now on sale from AT&T, but subscribers will be tied tightly to the Android Market - one of a range of stores, along with Nokia's Ovi and others, that AT&T will support in its multifaceted mobile software strategy. Subscribers will not be allowed to install apps from outside Android Market, whereas Android phones from T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and Sprint enable support for non-market apps as a default option.
This will annoy Android enthusiasts, who claim access to non-market software and beta apps is one of the major advantages of the open source platform, compared to Apple iPhone. However, AT&T may willingly sacrifice the love of such cutting edge users, in favor of maintaining control of the apps that its customers allow onto the network. Also, its multi-OS strategy - embracing Android, Symbian, Brew and Palm - is geared primarily to volume, and the expansion of the smartphone into the mass market, where users will be more amenable to simple, well controlled experiences. As long as AT&T's iPhone exclusive lasts, it will wish to preserve the Apple handset as its premium offering for advanced mobile web consumers.
According to the xda-developers Forum, as quoted by FierceMobileContent, users can work around the Backflip lockdown by installing the latest Android developers kit and enabling the USB debugging option.
Over at Google, the search giant is extending the app store concept to its Google Apps range, its set of cloud-based alternatives to Microsoft software. The Google Apps Marketplace will offer third party programs to run on top of the Apps suite itself. Developers will have to pay a one-time fee of $100 to list their products in the store, and Google will get a 20% cut. The main focus will be enterprise functions that Google does not offer itself, such as salesforce management or accounting.
Meanwhile, Intel believes it can defend the strong position of its Atom processor in netbooks via its recently announced store, AppUp Center. This will be preinstalled on netbooks from various manufacturers, to approach the integrated hardware/apps model more common on phones. Creating a wide base of developers - luring them with the promise of a preloaded, simplified store experience to boost user uptake - will also help Atom penetrate new device formats such as smartphones, Intel believes. It recently took an important step in this direction by merging Atom's Linux-based software platform, Moblin, with Nokia's Maemo, to form MeeGo, which will underpin AppUp Center.
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