Nokia, Microsoft Next To The App Store Party?

The Washington Post and a number of tech blogs on Sunday linked to a post, in Russian, by Mobile-review.com editor Eldar Murtazin suggesting Nokia was pulling out all the stops. The mobile technology blog Unwired View.com offered the following translation of Murtazin's post from Russian into English:

At first glance, for now, the app portal looks so-so, there is some confusion. But they are trying, polishing it and a lot has changed for the better in a matter of days. A right step in a right direction ... And the distribution and revenue sharing model between app makers and Nokia looks very attractive.

Nokia's staying mum, of course, but the weekend consensus buzz from the blogosphere was one of approval. If true, the Finland-based mobile phone giant would follow already-unveiled plans from Samsung—which said in late 2008 it would be launching its own app store, with 1,100 initial applications, at Mobile World Congress—as well as Google's Android Market and Research In Motion's upcoming Application Storefront.

The industry's also awaiting a possible jump-in from Microsoft, which according to a Sunday report in The Wall Street Journal will this week uncork several new programs and services for mobile devices, including an "online bazaar" for phones that run Windows Mobile. The Journal also reported Microsoft would soon release a new version of its smartphone OS, Windows Mobile 6.5, to bolster its mobile competition with Apple.

Apple, of course, has been humming right along, and there have been plenty of whispers that Apple is working on a premium game section for its App Store.

The Journal cited data from IDC that puts Apple's 2008 market share of smartphone business at 9 percent—a jump from 3 percent in 2007—and Microsoft's at 13.3 percent, up 11 percent from a year earlier.