Samsung B7620 Giorgio Armani, Picture: Phone Guide Germany

Apps expand the range of functions of smartphones: They run on the Internet or on the phone and deliver news, weather or status updates of social networking contacts, offer direct access to web pages and online services, open documents and email attachments or help in another way. Such applications can be downloaded from web portals to the mobile for free or at cost. The most well-known app store is the App Store service for the iPhone, the iPod Touch and the iPad which is part of the Apple iTunes Store. Here users can find applications developed with the iPhone Software Developer Kit (SDK). But there are several other app stores by different operators around. The problem with all these different download and mobile device platforms is: They are not fully compatible. In fact, most systems are rather walled gardens with apps especially developed for their mobile systems and with specific download platforms pegged to.

To Mac users apps are nothing new, but since the launch of the Apple iPhone the number of apps for mobile devices is rapidly increasing. In comparison to computer apps, mobile phone applications are smaller, lighter and require less resources because they run on less powerful systems. Encouraged by the success of the iTunes App Store, other handset manufacturers, mobile network operators and content providers started using this recipe for success themselves: Samsung is going to bring out its new platform Bada with an own app store, Vodafone has launched the new Vodafone 360 user interface, Qualcomm has introduced Brew MP, Nokia and Intel cooperate to develop Meego as a platform for smartphones and MIDs, and smartphones running on the new Microsoft operating system Windows Phone 7 are expected to appear late this year. They have been not as successful as Apple, though.

For mobile phone users this means: Not the choice for a specific mobile phone provider or a certain network, but rather the choice for a handset and its operating system determines which and how many services they can use on their mobile. People buying a Blackberry will not be able to download apps from the Android Market, there is no alternative app store offering applications for the iPhone OS except for the Apple iTunes App Store. Such closed systems may have certain advantages for the mobile phone users: Subscribers can be sure that applications downloaded on the phone install themselves automatically and actually work trouble-free. If the range of applications of such an app store is very broad and diverse – the iTunes App Store offers some 150,000 apps so far – and the apps are easily downloaded, installed and used, subscribers will make a good experience and probably return and buy some more programs for their phone later on.

On the other hand, some users of mobile phone with closed platforms such as the iPhone OS feel patronized. For example, there was an outcry when Apple banned several applications from the iTunes App Store which were – in the eyes of the handset manufacturer – too sexually explicit. That some iPhone users mind this behavior of Apple is supported by the fact that every new version of the iPhone OS is soon followed by a new jailbreak or hack. There are other examples or more open operating systems, though: Android OS and Symbian OS are the most well-known, Windows Mobile is another – even though eventually vanishing – one.

There are hints that deciding on a smartphone and a specific mobile OS might become easier soon. A bunch of handset manufacturers such as Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG Electronics, of network operators such as T-Mobile and Vodafone, and of content providers are launching a Wholesale Applications Community with the aim to unite a fragmented marketplace and create an open industry platform that benefits applications developers, network operators and mobile phone users. To do this, they want to create a common standard so that new apps can be used on different platforms. Together, these operators have access to over three billion customers around the world.

But until this new wholesale applications ecosystem will come into life at least two more years will pass. In the meantime, German operator T-Mobile takes another step: It will introduce a common billing solutions that allows T-Mobile subscribers to pay for their apps downloads by their phone bill instead of by credit card. T-Mobile is planning to offers this billing solutions for smartphone apps for different app stores. First partner will be Nokia with the Ovi Store: Before the end of this year users of a Series 40 or Symbian smartphone should be able to pay for their app downloads by way of their T-Mobile phone bill. And: On www.t-mobile.de/topapps T-Mobile recommends ten apps for Android smartphones every month. In Germany, T-Mobile has an exclusive marketing deal for the iPhone with contract, but also sells various Android smartphones such as the T-Mobile G2 Touch, the T-Mobile Pulse or the T-Mobile G1.