Some iPhone apps failing Vodafone quality tests

Some applications available through Apple’s App Store are failing to meet Vodafone’s internal quality standards, accessing APIs that are non-essential for the applications’ functions, according to the international carrier’s group director of content services, Lee Epting.

“What we’ve found is that there’s lots of stuff getting into the Apple App Store that we don’t think Apple would be happy with,” Epting told Telecoms.com. “We don’t know why; maybe they’ve dropped the bar. But when we quality check these apps they fail our standards, mainly for using APIs not required for the application. So we’re more stringent than other application stores,” she said.

Vodafone recently launched a branded store within the Android market and a curated, multi-platform store of its own in response to what it has identified as a confusingly wide array of applications in the market place.

If Vodafone is correct in its assessment there is a new generation of smartphone users who are clamouring to be let back into the walled garden. It could be argued that the growing adoption of HTML5 as a rich web technology will exacerbate this problem as many see an HTML5 site as a cheaper alternative to a full blown mobile application.

Epting conceded that HTML5 gives brands the ability to bypass all other channels in the delivery of their solutions but argued that the web is, “just another touch-point. Users come in via the browser and are presented an app to download to the desktop.”

She told Telecoms.com that users exploring the device default to an app-centric world and, while widgets as a concept are becoming increasingly dynamic, there is more richness available  from native apps. “I have yet to see one new paradigm put another paradigm to death. Just look at Java,” she said. “It’s still a primary breadwinner for a lot of app developers today and is a mainstream in the emerging markets. Java will still be around for some time because people with feature phones will want content too.”