Saturday, August 09, 2008
T-Mobile going for an App Store
The iPhone might be closed, the App Store might prevent open source application to be distributed, Apple might be closing critical APIs like Calendar, but one thing is clear: it is forcing everyone else to open up :-)The last confirmation comes from an article on the Washington Post about T-Mobile. Apparently, T-Mobile will launch an App Store this fall. They will ditch the on-deck strategy (about time, did they really need the iPhone to see it was not working??) and will go with an 'open' deck. Open might just means you will be able to upload applications without lobbying within the company, looking for someone to listen to you. But it will be a great step forward.
Thanks Apple, I have a hard time liking what you do but - despite doing most of the things wrong - you are doing something very good to this industry.
Posted by Fabrizio at 09:51
1 Comments:
Mordy said...
Yeah, T-Mobile used to be the BEST as far as open networks go in the USA. I used to be a big fan because where other carriers would only offer help if you bought a handset from them, T-mobile would support any standard GSM handset, and were always very accommodating- I had a tech on the phone for hours trying to help me get a European Nokia working. The year and a half they were giving away free unlimited data (about 3-4 years ago) without having a data plan wasn’t half bad either! I even mentioned to Tech Support one day that it seems everyone I know on T-mobile has free data, and the rep responded “we know its wide open, it actually helps bring in customers. We don’t advertise it though- don’t want people abusing it”. That’s a company I can deal with!
But a couple of years ago, they started changing their tune- they started blocking IP ports, monitoring data usage, and apparently closing up certain phones to only install “approved” applications.
When you combine that with their lack of network expansion compared to the others (what? NOW they’re announcing 3G will be coming soon?! Little too late, fellas), its just sorta sad what they’ve become. I left about a year ago because as a road warrior, I couldn’t deal with 2G data.
In any event, its good to see T-Mobile taking steps in the right direction!
