With the success of Apple’s App Store for the iPhone (they’re coming up on 1 billion apps downloaded), everyone is getting in on the App Store trend. And it’s great: turning devices into platforms means that instead of being tied solely to a manufacturer’s software, users will have their choice of great, innovative, unexpected apps to expand the usefulness of their hardware.
The trend towards App Stores is starting to pop up in information appliances, too, and one of the most promising such devices, the Verizon Hub, will launch an app store later this year.
The Hub, which combines a phone with a 7-inch touchscreen and a widget-heavy operating system, has been on sale to Verizon customers since February.
The app store will open up uses for the device and, along with that, it seems that Verizon will be making the device available through channels besides its Verizon Wireless pipeline.
Of course the success of this move towards openness will be, in part, determined by Verizon’s commitment to it and the ease of development for the platform, but I’m excited to see where it leads and to see what kinds of widgets and applications get launched when the app store debuts.
On InformationAppliance: Verizon Hub to Add an App Store | Digital Picture Frames wrote at April 24th, 2009 at 8:43 am
[...] Today on InformationAppliance.com: Verizon is joining the App Store trend with its Hub information appliance. It sounds like a great move to me. The more devices become open platforms, and not just stove-piped products, the better it will be for consumers … read more [...]