Partnering with operators beats app stores says Telmap

Rating: Going completely against perceived wisdom, then

Here’s an unusual one. A mobile app developer simultaneously singing the praises of mobile operators and boasting about the volume of its iPhone app downloads. Somehow, Telmap has managed to do this.

Of course, Telmap was one of the original pioneers of mobile location based solutions. Yet it seems perfectly happy with the fact that the number of downloads for the iPhone version of its mobile location app has just exceeded 100,000.

Apparently, reaching over 100,000 downloads in a relatively short space of time, “Serves as a testimony to operators’ strong position and unique relationship with subscribers, even in the mobile app store environment,” the company maintains.

This particular landmark for Telmap, “Proves that operators can and do leverage their very important assets of trusted, long term billing relationships; strong brand and marketing power; significant point of sale presence, and excellent customer care,” argues Oren Nissim, Telmap’s CEO.

GoMo News was with Oren on this one until he got to the customer care bit. Nonetheless, Telmap still insists that, “Launching operator-branded, iPhone compatible versions has been a strategic move for mobile operators.” Buying from them, of course.

The company insists that these figures show that when it really matters, “The trusted operator-end user relationship proves to be even more important when it comes to mission-critical functions such as search, mapping and navigation.”

If Telmap is correct, mobile operators have less to fear from the massive growth of online app stores than most analysts would have us believe.

Furthermore, if Telmap is right, there’s still a business case for developers to co-operate with key market players, rather than the alternative of speculative app development and throwing yourself on the mercy of the ‘free market’.