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Apple recently hit One Billion Application Downloads and Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Android and Nokia have also announced or introduced their application stores. Nokia, infact, launched their store yesterday. It has not exactly been a smooth launch with some criticism that I read here and here.

Applications for the Symbian Platform and some of the others  have existed before even these App Stores became fashionable. So one may ask, what is the big difference ? The one big difference is that instead of visiting multiple unknown sites , a user can browse through a catalogue and discover a certified list of apps or applications.

The choice for the customer is not just the phone and its features but the extensiibility of it through applications available in the store. The experience then is just not the purchase of phone but every other touchpoint that the application brings into focus. The App store provides a unified feel to the experience. Some might argue that it is also a walled garden. Apple, with its unified iTunes store, user interface and strict guidelines has been a leader in the experience but there are quibbles that would need some sort of attention. The recently launched Nokia store has a fair share of issues that seems to suggest that this is a work in progress kind of a product.

The initial excitement seems to suggest that there are more downloads than actual usage of applications. As the market matures, though, this will change. It is here that Store providers need to set expectations regarding the experience and the type of products that are going to be on offer. The developer community of the platform will play a crucial role in this and at this stage needs mentoring.

With more customer data on the device, the security of it becomes very critical. How will the application backup data from the mobile to the desktop or the “cloud” . Store providers will need to think beyond single platform applications to manage upgrades and backups.  Some observations on this are

• Apple iTunes application synchronises contact, calender and mail data on the desktop and the mobile Me Services. It manages application upgrades too but what about the data on third party applications. It is not clear to me as yet.
• Nokia , on the other hand, has to evolve an application experience on existing phones and devices as well as set a direction for upcoming products. Most of the applications, that one experimented with, presented a unique user experience and did not seem cohesive in the overall context. Nokia has been a personal preference and one would like to see some dramatic enhancements.

Since the experience of the writer is currently limited to Nokia and Apple devices, your experiences on these and other platforms would be invaluable. It would be nice to learn from them.

Since Apple, Blackberry and Nokia make their own devices for their own platform , it is still a defined set of aspects that need to be worked upon. The interesting aspect would be with Android and Windows Mobile which have multiple devices made by different device  brands. How will the inevitable support issue be handled by the platform or the device provider or the application developer?

Not to be left behind are the Telcos. Vodafone’s recent announcement about their App Store makes things even more interesting from an experience standpoint. A Telco branded service will potentially run any on any device that is active on their network. Does it mean any changes in the way VAS is currently offered. There is also the possibility of application conflicts on various devices. Managing them seems like an experience nightmare. There is also the question of existing App Stores and how they co-exist with the Telco store. Will there be a partnership or revenue share but will all this impact the experience ?

The developers of such apps would be a happy lot. Till recently there was only Apple Store but now there are a lot more. The real challenge though is to understand which platform is most suitable for the application that one is developing. The apathy that developers witnessed with some platforms , till about a year back , is long gone. Now, these developers are being encouraged with investments, skils development and lot of marketing support . So in a way, success of an App Store is also dependent on the Developer Experience with a Platform.

Let’s take a look at the kind of applications that have been used by the writer on the Nokia Phone and the Apple iPod Touch.

Nokia Phone

• Email – Nokia Mail
• SMS – SMS Spam Manager
• Maps – Google and Nokia Maps
• Wifi Share – JoikuSpot
• Twitter – Gravity
• Notes – Evernote on the Web

There are some others from the Beta Labs that have been experimented with but since they have not been used much , they have not featured here.

The ones listed below were installed via the Nokia App Store. They are all free versions.

• SMS – SMS Preview
• Profile – Flip Silent
• Barcode – NeoReader
• Search – Visual Search
• Browser – Skyfire

Pocket Express was also download but it could not be used because of the non availability of Indian Mobile operators in their list.

Apple iPodTouch

• Social Networks – Linkedin, Facebook
• Mind Map – Simple Mindx
• Blog – Wordpress, Tumblr
• News – BBC Reader
• Notes – Evernote
• Type – Touch Type
• Communication – Skype, Yahoo, Meet by Cisco
• Twitter – Twitterrific, Nambu and Zensify
• Health – Care Giving
• Games – Billiards Lite

Branded Applications

• Knowledge – TED
• Fashion – Chanel, Uniqlock
• Lifestyle – Gillete uArt, Adidas Urban Art (does not work on my device), Audi Game

The iPodTouch has been used extensively for blog reading, making notes etc in addition to its primary use of music . A close look at the iPodTouch application profile provides a compelling indicator to the challenges that other store providers face in differentiating and making it substantial for their customers.

Finally,  Branded Applications have been getting a lot of attention from both the Advertising Community and Companies. TED is the one branded application in the list above that was used most. The content is compelling and that says it all. Of the others , one has downloaded them to see what was on offer and that is all. This is not a good sign and from an experience standpoint, brands need to take a closer look at what they need to do. Branded applications require functionality and then form.

There has to be something of value for the customer to return to the application and eventually retain it on their device.