Smartphone maker HTC is allegedly creating its own app store for games, books and other applications, one that will be supported by Android and Windows Phone 7 devices.
Sources say "the team [behind the store] is understood initially to include a small number of staff based in Taiwan, with plans to expand to 100 people in different locations around the world."
HTC makes some of the world's most popular Android devices, such as the EVO 4G, Incredible, the MyTouch line and the G2.
The company has also just begun selling WP7 devices, including the HD7 and the Surround.
Says one analyst of the anticipated move: "App stores are table stakes," says Roger Kay of Endpoint Technologies (via EW). "The phone makers feel they have to have them. Even Qualcomm, a phone chip supplier, offers an app store infrastructure to its customers, the phone makers. Companies feel obliged to provide ‘a complete stack’ or else they're out of the game."
HTC's app store would certainly not be the first of its kind, as Apple, Google, Nokia, RIM and Microsoft all already have established app stores.
HTC makes some of the world's most popular Android devices, such as the EVO 4G, Incredible, the MyTouch line and the G2.
The company has also just begun selling WP7 devices, including the HD7 and the Surround.
Says one analyst of the anticipated move: "App stores are table stakes," says Roger Kay of Endpoint Technologies (via EW). "The phone makers feel they have to have them. Even Qualcomm, a phone chip supplier, offers an app store infrastructure to its customers, the phone makers. Companies feel obliged to provide ‘a complete stack’ or else they're out of the game."
HTC's app store would certainly not be the first of its kind, as Apple, Google, Nokia, RIM and Microsoft all already have established app stores.
