Best Buy Considering Its Own App Store, Too

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Verizon has its own Android app store. Amazon is working on one. So, why not Best Buy, too? In the same piece covering the Amazon app store, the Wall Street Journal talked to Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn, who said that he would consider having Best Buy come out with their own app store. Er, what?

Best Buy’s CTO Robert Stephens went on to say that they were just exploring the app store “concept” and that it’s at a very early stage at this point. But, Stephens said, they do consider a partner and therefore, pissing them off may not be in Best Buy’s best interest (I’m paraphrasing just a bit on that last part).

The Wall Street Journal then went on to talk to analyst Ray Valdez, from Gartner, who likened an app store to a fax machine, saying that an app store is “just part of doing business.” Yikes. So, you’ll be able to get five or six different app stores on every Android phone you get. And for developers, that’ll be another .apk they have to upload.

There is a few things going on here. Firstly is the growth of mobile apps. Everybody knows that Apple and developers are making big money on App Store sales (don’t write me and tell me your fart app for webOS isn’t making you any money – we’re talking about Apple app store sales where some developers are allegedly making up to $800,000 per day). Companies, like Amazon and Best Buy, are seeing the gold rush for mobile apps, and jumping in.

Secondly, this is Android we’re talking about. Not only does the openness of Android enable these companies to do this, but it Android is also growing explosively – some 800% in the last year, by some accounts – and companies see the dollars signs on the wall with Android, too. Hence the abundance of app stores.

However, we imagine that for most Android users, the Android Market is fine – thanks.