Developers who build apps for Mobile Market,*(China Mobile’s answer to Apple’s App Store) are in for a surprise. China Mobile will reportedly seek a 50% cut of all Mobile Market sales.
TelecomAsia is quoting a Shanghai Mobile (subsidiary of China Mobile) source; “China Mobile wants at least 50 percent of the revenues, and the rest goes to the developer.” By contrast, Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android Market take a 30% share of revenues and payout the 70% balance to app publishers.
A smaller slice (50% vs. 70%) of the revenue pie is one issue … another problem for Mobile Market developers is the need to recode apps for each mobile operating system (OPhone’s OMS** [Android-based], Win-Mobile, Symbian, etc.).
Excerpt from TelecomAsia: Baoding-based Zhu Lianxing, who leads a team named “139.ME” noted that the biggest challenge for China Mobile would be to provide a consistent user experience across different phone models and OSes; “If we develop an app for Apple, it runs on both the iPhone and the iPod touch. Now we have to develop one app for each OS.”
Read more > HERE
* China Mobile will allow developers to post apps for all handset OS except the iPhone. It will be accessible from both GSM and TD-SCDMA phones.
** China Mobile’s OPhones (due to launch summer 2009) will all run China Mobile’s proprietary open mobile system (OMS) and will support China Mobile’s “proprietary” wireless value-added services:
- Fetion,
- 139-emailbox,
- Monternet,
- mSpaces.
- Mobile Market app store
See video interview with China Mobile CEO Wang Jianzhou discussing China Mobile’s new MOS. Wang Jianzhou also mentions iPhone > HERE
More on China Mobile’s new app engine > HERE
[...] and we have yet to hear how China Mobile will share their Mobile Market revenues with developers (Update: China Mobile will share only 50% of Mobile Market revenues with developers – ouch!). And then [...]
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