Verizon Wireless announced at the annual CTIA wireless trade show that it would launch an online application store for its mobile phones beginning March 29. Reuters reported
Verizon, which is establishing the store in partnership with Vodafone
Group, would allow customers to pay for downloaded apps by adding the
cost onto their monthly phone bill, as opposed to competing ventures
like Google’s Android application store or Apple’s App Store. Verizon,
which sells a variety of handsets, also offers Android-powered devices
like the Motorola Droid smartphone.
V Cast Apps, as the store will be known, will come online with about
300 applications, the company said, though Verizon is hoping individual
developers will soon push that number into the thousands. The Apple App
Store, in comparison, boasts more than 100,000 applications and as of
January more than 3 billion apps have been downloaded from the site.
Verizon first made the announcement eight months ago. The company also
noted the V Cast Apps store would supplement complimentary channels in
the BlackBerry and Android app stores, paving the way for applications
posted there to migrate to V Cast Apps.
The announcement was one of several Verizon made at CTIA, including the news that Skype mobile will be available
on nine of the carrier’s smartphones this week. “We set out to
transform Skype and the customer experience when we partnered with
Skype early on, and we made a few decisions,” said Verizon’s senior
vice president of digital media and marketing, John Harrobin. “The
first is that this application needs to be really easy to use. Second,
it needs to be really easy to operate when you’re going from device to
device. And third, it needs to have that call quality that our
customers are used to."
The company also announced expanded coverage
for 3G wireless applications and Internet access in Hartford County,
Conn. According to a company release, Verizon has invested $2.6 billion
into its New England network since 2000, including $192 million in
2009. "The $2.6 billion we've invested into our New England network has
kept us ahead of consumer trends, provided our customers a 3G advantage
and underscored our belief that any mobile device is only as good as
the network it runs on,” said Verizon’s director for network systems
performance, Richard Enright. "People across Connecticut are
increasingly relying on smartphones and 3G apps to manage their busy
lives and stay connected at home or on-the-go."
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