Good News for Sri Lanka’s mobile content providers: Etisalat to adopt ‘App-Store’ model


Posted on June 15, 2010  /  1 Comments

LIRNEasia’s advertisements last week, while highlighting the limited usage of Mobile 2.0 services by ‘low income’ users, suggested steps to be taken by regulators/policy makers and operators to make Mobile 2.0 galore. .

We think this is the right time for Emerging Asian mobile operators to adopt what we call an Mobile Application Store or ‘App-Store’ model. Put simply it means a platform for mobile content providers to add their applications under standard contracts with telcos. It eliminates the need for a series of time consuming meetings between the operators and developers. You develop an application; add to my platform; if it works let us share profits. Nothing could be more straightforward.

We didn’t expect results so quickly. The advertisements by Etisalat on the same day (above) were a pleasant surprise. The full page ads invited local mobile content providers to add their creations to Etisalat platform.

Dumindra Ratnayaka, Chief Executive of Etisalat Sri Lanka, later, at the South Asia Mobile Conference held in Colombo last week, expressed Etisalat’s willingness to share 70% of the revenue from sales with developers.

“It will be up to applications developer to market his application,” Lanka Business Online quoted him, “He can make a name for himself.”

Read the full news story in Lanka Business Online.

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