Owners of HTC’s Droid Incredible on the Verizon network will get a new software update to include V Cast Apps storefront with the update coming next week. Verizon Wireless subscribers with the Droid Incredible will become the first Android users with access to V Cast Apps.
In September plans were announced to launch V Cast Apps for Smartphones running the Android 2.2 version. Users of the BlackBerry Storm 2 were the first to get the new storefront in March, now the Incredible gets its turn. The idea was to provide consumers with one-click access to mobile applications that will billed directly to their statement. This model may prove to be more appealing to developers than Google’s own Android Market. The big difference is how the developers get paid, because of various complex market issues with Android’s Market storefront.
In Las Vegas during a Verizon Developer Community conference it was communicated that V Cast Apps will be around to complement, not replace the Android Market. There’s no plan to replace the Android Market with the V Cast Apps for these devices. Instead it’s about giving consumers more choices and convenient billing.
The number of apps offered may never approach the numbers on the Android Market, but the smaller number will represent higher quality testing. The smaller number of high quality apps will put Verizon in a better position to offer merchandising options to developers. In comparison if you have something like what’s on the Android Market, providing individual merchandising is much harder.
