Telco app stores - friend or foe?

This paper examines the phenomenon of the generic app store as a `foe´, i.e. detrimental to Telcos´ business, versus the role of a `friend´, i.e. a valuable tool to compete in the emerging Telecom/Web landscape. Some successful app stores are run by device manufacturers and device OS vendors, and some Telcos are seeing a modest success too. The paper suggests that there is much more to gain from a Telco app store where apps enhance communications. The App Stores is a `friend´ because it educates users to demand rich voice and - most importantly, to pay for apps, albeit small fees. It legitimizes the notion of a `disposable app´, allowing Telcos to deliver `perpetual Beta´ and get away with no user support. The plethora of popular Data apps through the app stores has marginalized Voice, but there is still great scope for related apps that `augment´ reality. With IMS, Telco can differentiate app stores by offering multi-terminal, Fixed and Mobile synchronization facilities. Most of all, app stores are becoming the decisive factor in users choosing a network and a key interface to them that Telcos cannot afford to lose.