Sure, Google’s Android App Store is a huge app store with hundreds of thousands of apps available for download on most Android phones, but Google takes a 30 percent cut of all revenue generated from app sales — and plenty of other folks involved in the Android phone space would sure like a piece of that action. So it’s not surprising that we’ve seen handset makers, Amazon, and other companies launch alternative app stores — some of which even come preloaded on Android phones and tablets.
Now Verizon is poised to be the first wireless carrier in the US to launch Android smartphones with an app search feature, powered by Chomp. Starting this fall, all Verizon phones running Android will come with Chomp preinstalled, as well as Verizon Apps store which will replace the company’s current V Cast service.
The good news is that Verizon Apps won’t replace the Android Market on Android devices. Instead it will ship alongside it, with Verizon banking on Chomp’s higher quality search results as a way to differentiate its app store from Google’s. Of course, the big question is whether the Verizon Apps store will attract developers, because an app store is only as good as the apps it makes available.
