China Mobile Launches App Store This Year

China Mobile has recently confirmed that it has plans to release its own application store before the end of the ongoing year, based on the fact that it is making great progress with the roll-out of its 3G networks, built on the China-developed standard called TD-SCDMA, says IDG News. A company spokesperson is reported to have stated on Tuesday that the upcoming software portal would be named “Mobile Market,” and that independent developers and application companies would be allowed to add their applications for sale via the store.

The new app store comes in line with a large number of similar portals that have been launched by both mobile phone makers and wireless carriers around the world, in a trend that had as its pioneer Apple with its App Store for the iPhone.

China Mobile was in talks with Apple earlier this year for the launch of the iPhone in the country via its airwaves, yet it seems that the two of them disagreed on the Mobile Market applications. It looks like the carrier intended to sell iPhone applications through the software portal, yet Apple wouldn't approve it. According to China Mobile’s president Wang Jianzhou, the fact that Apple wanted to sell applications directly to its subscribers was a threat to its dominance on the market.

The wireless operator is the largest one in the country. The earnings report on the first quarter of the year showed that the company had 477 million subscribers at the end of the three-month period, while the total number of mobile phone subscribers in the country is of around 648 million.

For the time being, China Mobile's 3G networks only cover 10 major Chinese cities, yet the coverage is expected to be expanded in the near future, and the company will be able to sell value-added services and products such as apps much easier. The Mobile Market is currently under development, the company's official says, and does not have a Web interface yet.