| App Store | Atom Application Store | BlackBerry App World | LG Application Store | Ovi Store | PlayNow Arena | Samsung Apps | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Company | Apple Inc. | Intel | Research In Motion (RIM) | LG | Nokia | Sony Ericsson | Samsung |
| Launch | July 2008 | 2010 | April 2009 | July 2009 | May 2009 | August 2008 | September 2009 |
| Category | manufacturer | manufacturer | manufacturer | manufacturer | manufacturer | manufacturer | manufacturer |
| Platform | native | native | native | LG Mobile Widgets | Nokia WRT | native | Windows Mobile, Symbian S60, Samsung TouchWiz OS |
| Widgets | no (via PhoneGap possible) | no | yes | coming soon (5) | yes | no | yes |
| Supported Devices | iPhone, iPod touch (1) | right now supports all Netbooks based on the Intel® Atom™ processor | BlackBerry smartphones running BlackBerry Device Software v4.2 or higher | - | 60 Symbian based smartphones and > 100 handsets in total | 38 Sony Ericsson phone models | 11 (widgets) (14) |
| Store preinstalled | yes | - | yes pre-loaded on new phones and can be downloaded by existing customers | web-based | N97 + some others (increasing) | browser-based (11) | yes (Omnia devices) |
| Countries | in 88 countries (2) | - | available in USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Austria, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Venezuela | in CIS, South Africa, UAE, Asia&Pacific and in 15 languages (6) | available in 5 languages and on 27 operators in 8 countries that have an Ovi Store in their native language support and carrier billing (Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, France, Russia, Singapore, Australia)+ Ireland and Austria ? (8) (9) | 19 (mostly Europe) | available in 7 languages in UK, France, Italy, Germany, Singapore, Brazil, China |
| Price | free or paid apps (paid start at $0.99) | - | free or paid apps (paid start at $2.99) | free or paid apps | free or paid apps (paid start at $0.99) | free or paid apps | free or paid apps |
| Revenue Share | 70 / 30 | 70 / 30 for apps; Developers can sell application components the Developer Store in exchange for a % share of revenue from every application sold which uses their component (18) | 80 / 20 | - | 70 / 30 | 70 / 30 | 70 / 30 |
| Development Cost | Standard Program: $99 Enterprise Program: $299 | now free (later $99 per year) | $200 USD fee (for 10 application submissions) | - | 50 EUR registration fee | free | 1 USD registration fee |
| Billing Options | one-time billing at the time of download; subscription-based billing; In App Purchase (in free apps to sell content, subscription, digital services or premium features) | - | one-time billing at the time of download (in-app payments , monthly and annual subscriptions - coming mid 2010) (19) | - | one-time billing at the time of download (credit card and operator billing) | billing through premium SMS, credit card, operator billing | credit card billing; Phone billing; In App Purchase |
| QA duration | up to several months | - | 4 weeks ? | - | 1 week | - | - |
| Special Restrictions | billing through iTunes | currently supported: Java, Moblin Native, Windows Native | consumer need PayPal account to purchase apps (not for free ones) | - | - | - | - |
| Interesting Facts | China Unicom signed a deal to sell Apple iPhones in China (but they are also having plans for an own app store: Wo Store ??) (16) | developers will be able to write applications once and have them run on Windows and Moblin devices; devices ranging from netbooks to cars to handsets (17); Intel is partnering with manufacturers (Asus, Acer, Dell) to create multiple app stores where applications and application building blocks for Intel-based netbooks and handhelds will be sold | coming first half 2010: BlackBerry Push Service (push notifications to BlackBerry apps), location services (battery-friendly cell site geolocation /grab users’ locations), reverse geocoding (convert geolocation co-ordinates to specific addresses), travel time (only US, CA) (19) | - | Each registered user downloads an average of 8 pieces of content, the number of downloads in October 2009 compared to September is up by 70% (8) | Successful content (at PlayNow Arena) may also be included on Sony Ericsson’s other service platform: FUN & downloads (12), which reaches over 200 million phones in 69 markets, Collaboration with GetJar by providing a one-click access from PlayNow arena to their extensive market channel | hosted and managed by Handmark (15) |
| Plans | - | Adobe AIR runtime support | - | reach Europe and the South America by end 2009 | by end 2009: 80 million users, 3 additional languages (Portuguese, French, simplified Chinese), more carriers incl. AT&T in the US | - | rollout in more than 50 countries in 2010, -apps will be also available on Televisions, Blu-Ray Players, Home Theater (July 2010) |
| Users total | 50 million | - | 5-10 million (4) | - | 1.67 million (10) (from 180 countries) | 25 million (13) | - |
| Major downl. countries | - | - | - | - | Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, France, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Russia, UK (8) | - | - |
| Apps+Widgets total | 159,000 (3) (25% free and 75% paid apps) | - | 2500 | 1400 (7) | 6000 | - | 2,000 |
| Downloads total since launch | 3 billion (3) | - | - | - | 10 million (10) | - | - |
| Store URL | Apps Home | - | BB App World | LG Applicaitons | OVI Store | Playnow Arena | Samsung Apps |
| URL Developer | Apple Dev Home | Intel Atom Dev Program | BB Dev Home | LG Dev Home | OVI Publisher Page | SonyEricsson Dev Home | Samsung Dev Home, Bada Developer Site, Samsung Apps Seller Portal |
| Forum | - | Intel Forum | BB App World Forum | LG Dev Forum | Forum Nokia | - | Samsung Dev Forum |
| News/Info URLs | - | Intel News Release, Dev Blog | BB Blogs, BB Dev Portal, BB Dev Conference | - | OVI Blog, OVI Apps, Forum Nokia Blog, Forum Nokia OVI, Nokia Beta Labs Blog | - | Bada, Samsung Innovator |
| App Store | Atom Application Store | BlackBerry App World | LG Application Store | Ovi Store | PlayNow Arena | Samsung Application Store |
(1) http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/34291/Apple-Its-Only-Rock-and-Roll-liveblog-here-from-6pm-BST (sales stats: 30 mio iPhones, 20 mio iPod touches) http://iphonemeter.com/
(2) http://www.apple.com/iphone/countries/
(3) http://www.intomobile.com/2009/11/02/palm-app-catalog-now-counts-300-titles.html , http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/35528/Apple-reveals-3bn-downloads-milestone-for-iPhones-App-Store , http://www.blog.welluma.eu/index.php/2010/02/13/app-store-hat-nun-150-000-apps/, http://148apps.biz/app-store-metrics/
(4) http://www.slideshare.net/getjar/app-store-comparison-from-getjar
(6) http://www.lgapplication.com/web.gateway.dev
(7) http://www.reuters.com/article/technology-media-telco-SP/idUSSEO35932120090713
(8) http://moconews.net/article/419-nokia-had-only-10-million-ovi-downloads-in-first-three-months/ , http://www.s60.at/talk/?p=6502
(9) http://events.nokia.com/developersummit/assets/pdf/NDS09_2804_presentation_John.pdf
(10) http://moconews.net/article/419-nokia-had-only-10-million-ovi-downloads-in-first-three-months/
(12) http://www.sonyericsson.com/fun/
(13) http://developer.sonyericsson.com/site/global/gotomarket/sellit/p_sellit.jsp
(15) http://vhirsch.com/blog/2009/09/02/handmark-powers-samsungs-app-store/
(17) http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2009/09/intel_to_step_i.html
(18) http://appdeveloper.intel.com/en-us/article/faq#pay_00
(19) http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/34987/BlackBerry-gets-ads-in-app-payments-content-push-and-location http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/35031/BlackBerry-poised-for-apps-evolution-in-2010