Vodacom South Africa's mobile applications store will go live on 01 September. Vodacom Apps will feature a catalogue of over 140,000 applications powered by Appia, an open application marketplace. Vodacom believes this will mark the start of an entirely new, local, South African mobile application ecosystem, complete with the development of home-grown talent and revenue opportunities. Vodacom Apps will support major mobile platforms including Android, Blackberry, Java, Symbian and Windows Mobile, making it relevant for the vast majority of data-capable mobile phones and smartphones. The store will feature a wide variety of apps in various categories. CEO Pieter Uys said Vodacom Apps users will be able to download free apps, for which standard data charges will apply. In the near future, Vodacom will introduce paid-for apps which customers can pay for using their airtime account, meaning they will not need a credit or debit card. The store will be accessible via http://vodacom.mobi/apps on mobile phones or from the Apps feature on Vodafone live. The Vodacom Developer Programme will provide the developer community with technical and commercial support, including training, workshops and innovation incentives over the coming months. This will further stimulate the local development of apps by allowing developers to upload their own developed applications and generate revenue from this.
