Verizon explicitly denies any plans of opening a new mobile app store.
Verizon, the largest wireless carrier in the U.S., has denied any plans of conducting preliminary talks with other carriers and hardware makers for a new mobile software store.
Soon after news of Verizon's supposed plans for a store broke on Wednesday, spokeswoman Debra Lewis of the company told the media that the carrier has no such plans whatsoever.
"We have no plans to do that," Debra Lewis told Re/code. "Been there. Done that."
The latter reference is to the company's homegrown mobile app store that was shut down last year. Verizon Apps was a revamped version of Verizon's Vcast Apps, which served the same purpose.
In response to that, Amir Efrati, who originally reported the story on The Information tweeted, "I and @theinformation stand by this report 100%" and minutes later he added, "Verizon's comment is misleading."
According to the Information report, the rumored move was in response to Google's recent cutbacks in revenue sharing with carriers and hardware makers for apps sold through its Play Store. The report also noted that Verizon might consider using information like location, time of the day and social indicators before recommending apps to users.
Digital marketplaces for apps from carriers haven't been as successful as the ones offered by Google and Apple. The main reason behind that was found to be the lack of app selection and delay in app updates. Consumers are often inclined toward default app stores on smartphones than using a third party store. But Amazon has managed to secure a prominent position in the app offerings, mainly because it restricts Kindle Fire users to download apps only from its own Appstore despite being based on Android's platform.
