It seems that we’re all going mobile marketplace crazy. It’s an old idea of course, but the iPhone app store has reinvigorated our appetite for developing mobile apps and for spreading their mobile goodness. I doubt if there’s a good payback for most small developers, but at least their apps are in a sales funnel with sizable traffic - you’re only in the long tail if someone can see you!

T-Mobile (US) are getting ready to launch their store, followed closely by Google for their Android platform. In the UK, we’ll soon have O2 Litmus, which is getting ready to launch. See their alpha site image on Flickr. Note the menu heading earnings. As I said before, this was a major omission from the Vodafone Betavine site. That may have changed, but I haven’t been back to take a look. I found it too irritating that an operator, especially one that big, would expect developers just to play with their APIs without a crack at making some money. It’s like R&D for free.

But this is the Internet and free is here to stay. There are still plenty of free apps out there vying for our attention. These can surely benefit from an aggregated marketplace. Phoload does just that - it’s a free mobile software download website. Free apps exist either just for fun or part of a wider mobile strategy - i.e. a mobile client to build a social network. I noticed the Trutap client, for example. Other apps are trying to pursue alternative monetization schemes, such as ad inserts.

The website aims to build an active community of users who recommend, rate, and review the software. The games and applications on Phoload are uploaded directly to the site by mobile software developers. There are already over 200 items in the catalogue, including location-based apps, social networks, language tools, and plenty of arcade and puzzle games.

Initially, Phoload will be offering software built for J2ME. The iPhone has been getting all the attention recently, but then most people don’t have one! With over 2 billion phones that support J2ME, there are plenty of people around to download MIDlets!

Phoload will also be launching Android support next week and adding Symbian support by
the end of the month.

Developers start uploading now!

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