The second-largest Chinese carrier, China Unicom (CHU: 11.59 -0.36 -3.01%), is set to launch its online mobile application store "UniStore" in June 2010, according to a company official. The store will feature applications based on the carrier's "Uphone" Android handsets which were introduced in January 2010.
China Unicom began trial operations of UniStore in February 2010. The online store has been designed to resemble Apple Inc's (AAPL: 255.965 -7.155 -2.72%) App Store in China. UniStore currently has more than 780 mobile applications (including mobile themes, games and entertainment and system tools) which are categorized into two groups, namely, freeware and paid applications. Besides Android, the store's applications support other leading mobile operating platforms such as Windows Mobile, JAVA, Linux and Symbian.
While UniStore has been able to pile up a vast pool of applications, it still lags China Mobile's (CHL: 46.4225 -1.2075 -2.54%) "Mobile Market" and China Telecom's (CHA: 44.47 -1.18 -2.58%) "eStore" online stores, which boast roughly 18,000 and 1,250 mobile applications, respectively.
The recent buzz on online application stores follows the success of Apple's App Store. Following a similar model, Chinese carriers are aiming to profit from premium value-added services and data services enabled by the 3G networking.
The maturing vanilla voice market has become less significant for the carriers due to the emergence of lucrative data and information services. However, given the availability of free applications on the Internet, it will be a tough task for the Chinese operators to convince customers to buy from their stores. So, it will take some time to develop a comprehensive ecosystem in which carriers, application developers, device makers and subscribers realize the significance and growth potential of the online mobile application marketplace in China.
UniStore will largely support the adoption of Uphones, which represent China Unicom's second biggest opportunity (besides iPhone) in the 3G handset market. Uphone, which has been designated as a major national project by the Chinese government, competes head-to-head with China Mobile's Ophone Android smartphones. The three big Chinese carriers are banking heavily on the booming market for Android smartphones to boost their respective market shares.
While China Unicom will initially offer customers free downloads through UniStore, it plans for a smooth transition to a paid download model for select applications later. To entice application developers, the carrier plans to offer them a 30% share of profits from UniStore.
China Unicom began trial operations of UniStore in February 2010. The online store has been designed to resemble Apple Inc's (AAPL: 255.965 -7.155 -2.72%) App Store in China. UniStore currently has more than 780 mobile applications (including mobile themes, games and entertainment and system tools) which are categorized into two groups, namely, freeware and paid applications. Besides Android, the store's applications support other leading mobile operating platforms such as Windows Mobile, JAVA, Linux and Symbian.
While UniStore has been able to pile up a vast pool of applications, it still lags China Mobile's (CHL: 46.4225 -1.2075 -2.54%) "Mobile Market" and China Telecom's (CHA: 44.47 -1.18 -2.58%) "eStore" online stores, which boast roughly 18,000 and 1,250 mobile applications, respectively.
The recent buzz on online application stores follows the success of Apple's App Store. Following a similar model, Chinese carriers are aiming to profit from premium value-added services and data services enabled by the 3G networking.
The maturing vanilla voice market has become less significant for the carriers due to the emergence of lucrative data and information services. However, given the availability of free applications on the Internet, it will be a tough task for the Chinese operators to convince customers to buy from their stores. So, it will take some time to develop a comprehensive ecosystem in which carriers, application developers, device makers and subscribers realize the significance and growth potential of the online mobile application marketplace in China.
UniStore will largely support the adoption of Uphones, which represent China Unicom's second biggest opportunity (besides iPhone) in the 3G handset market. Uphone, which has been designated as a major national project by the Chinese government, competes head-to-head with China Mobile's Ophone Android smartphones. The three big Chinese carriers are banking heavily on the booming market for Android smartphones to boost their respective market shares.
While China Unicom will initially offer customers free downloads through UniStore, it plans for a smooth transition to a paid download model for select applications later. To entice application developers, the carrier plans to offer them a 30% share of profits from UniStore.
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