 Samsung Electronics will open its own App Stores in European countries next month. App Stores became a hit when Apple opened to allow iPhone users get downloads of a variety of contents online. Other major mobile firms are jumping on the bandwagon, opening their own App stores. / Korea Times |
Online Store Downloads for Mobile Phone Set New Trend
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
The success of Apple's ``AppStore'' for its iPhone and iPod Touch devices has major rivals following suit, and this includes Samsung Electronics.
The world's second-largest handset maker Monday announced the plans for its own online market (www.samsungapps.com) for mobile application software and multimedia content, or ``apps'' in geek terms, which will be available in Britain, France and Italy starting on Sept. 14.
The company has been testing a beta version of the Samsung Application Store in Britain since February. It plans to eventually operate online stores in 30 countries, including major European markets such as Germany and Spain.
Samsung will offer a glimpse of its online store at the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) electronics show scheduled for Sept. 4-9 in Berlin.
Video game giants Electronic Arts (EA) and Gameloft two of the major content companies that agreed to provide their programs to the Samsung online store. Pearson Longman, the London-based publishing giant, and Handmark, a Kansas-based mobile content company, will also develop programs for use on Samsung phones.
More than 2,000 programs will be available on the online store by the end of the year, company officials said, including games such as ``The Sims,'' ``Metropolis,'' ``Spiderman'' and ``GTS Racing'' and other content such as the Longman electronics dictionary.
Users will be able to download the content directly from handsets, saved from the trouble of downloading them on personal computers first. The online store will be used for handset applications first, but may expand its coverage to other digital devices such as portable media players and televisions, with Internet connectivity being required in an increasing number of electronics products, company officials said.
Samsung said the online store will be interconnected with the company's developer's site, Samsung Mobile Innovator, and marketing site, Samsung Application Store Seller Site, to form an effective ``eco system.''
``The challenge is to find business models that benefit consumers, the handset maker and content developers at the same time,'' said Lee Ho-soo, a Samsung executive vice president.
The monumental success of the Apple App Store seems to have every company in the tech sector leaping on the bandwagon, and the Koreans have been no exception.
LG Electronics, Samsung's bitter industry rival, also has its own aspirations for mobile software. Telecommunications rivals KT and SK Telecom are also engaged in a similar type of competition.
Samsung is apparently hoping that its online store will contribute in boosting the momentum for its ``smart'' phones, which support Web browsing and multimedia atop of voice.
Lately, Samsung has been gaining on its rival, Nokia, the world's largest handset maker, acquiring 19.1 percent of the world market during the second quarter as the No. 2 player.
However, the company still has a lot of room for growth in the more profitable segment of smart phones, in which Samsung controls just about 4 percent of the market.
Although Samsung products have been well reviewed for their hardware innovations, the company's software efforts have yet to be considered relevant. Having a strong software base is crucial in the smart phone game, and providing an online storefront covering a broad range of Samsung phones and other portable digital devices is seen as an effort to achieve that.
It remains to be seen whether Samsung's online application store will be a success, as unlike Apple, the handset manufacturer has no control over the platforms to which they are selling the applications.
thkim@koreatimes.co.kr
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