Verizon Wireless today officially announced its Vcast application store that will take aim at Apple's App store, among other online portals that offer similar application stores for consumers.
Both free and paid applications will be available through the service.
Developers who offer an app will receive a 70 percent cut of the revenue, and Verizon doesn't plan to charge to certify and test any submitted applications. In addition, there should be no longer than a 14-day turnaround time before developers learn if their app has been approved or denied.
Not surprisingly, the first Verizon app store partner will be Research In Motion, whose BlackBerry smartphones have proven to be a cash cow for Verizon. RIM has its own BlackBerry App World store, but support for the Vcast app store won't change even with a bit of overlap.
Most major phone manufacturers and service providers have either launched their own app stores or are partnering with someone to try and earn revenue. Apple's app store leads the way, but Palm, Google, RIM, and now Verizon hope to cash in -- Verizon, however, appears to have a slight upper hand on phone manufacturers, as Verizon has access to to their customer base and can market apps directly to their subscribers.
Verizon expects to launch the Vcast application store sometime before the end of 2009.
As a Verizon BlackBerry user I look forward to seeing what kind of services will be available to me when the new service launches. I've made several purchases through BlackBerry App World, which have all gone well, but I'm very interested to see what kind of apps I can look forward to through the new Verizon service.
