Editor’s log, Stardate sixteen eleven oh nine: I find myself slowly becoming overwhelmed by the sheer volume of application stores available to the modern phone user. What started off as a fresh, original idea to sell applications for a dedicated device has quickly descended into the murky bog of confusion as every phone maker and his dog jumps on the bandwagon. What’s worse – I’m receiving reports that now the telcos are trying to cut into this already overcrowded market, with Optus launching its own app store for Symbian, Android, Blackberry, Windows media and Java handsets. This is the toughest assignment we’ve ever encountered, and it’s going to require all our strength to overcome it.
Despite the communication announcing the new Optus App Store’s arrival, there’s precious little actual information about it, other than the fact that there’s over 1000 apps available now, and that you can charge the app purchase to your bill. There’s no word on whether the content for this menacing threat to App stores is universal across the different platforms or whether apps are device specific. There’s also no word as to just how much applications will cost, and what percentage Optus will take, or how developers go about getting their programs on the Optus store.
If you’re brave enough to boldly go where only Optus employees have gone before, you can access the store by clicking the App icon in Optus Zoo on your phone, or texting app to 966 (so long as you’re an Optus customer, of course).