If you have published anything to the Vodafone AppSelect store, you would have recently gotten this message (although chances are you have not, which is probably why this message was sent out in the first place):
Due to technical and operational considerations, Vodafone AppSelect will now close on 21 November 2012, which is earlier than anticipated and originally communicated. Accordingly, please take this email as formal notice that we will be closing AppSelect and ending our agreement with you on 21 November 2012.
Question is, is this a signal of the coming fall of the mobile operator app store? Rumors are certainly plentiful in the marketplace and many have predicted their downfall. Certainly a lot of mobile operators have proven that they are not good enough to be retailers, but still there are others that have been moderately successful. Mobile operators can more often than not customize the home screen on phones, and they can provide direct billing. These are important pillars for discovery and easy of charging – but they still need to be experts at content retailing. The unraveling has begun – but who will survive among the operators?
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