The J2ME App Store Manifesto

Something in it for the developer?
There has to be a revenue share between the store and the developer. Sun's main failing on J2ME was to oversell to the developer and not talk up the benefits to the everyday consumer. Apple has got the mix right with a 70/30 split, any other app store should be looking at the same. Developers still have to shout loud about their apps regardless of platform. You can make the money but it takes effort on both our parts.

Intelligent ID
With the iPhone there's really only one phone to worry about. This is a major showstopper on a decent app store for Java mobile apps. I have a Nokia E51, brilliant phone, but I don't really know what apps are going to work with it. There has to be some form of intelligence detection when the phone queries the store, "Hi I'm an E51 what apps will work...."

Verification of Apps
Manual checking of newly registered apps. Apple are choosy, so am I. I want the creme de la creme of J2ME apps, it's makes it easier for me to sell them. Developers should be striving to get their apps within the top ten of the Java App Store.

Is Free gonna do it?
Is free a real business model for you? For games, more than likely not. For some services that can make revenue from other sources like cost per click activity or supplier buy in then fair enough. I don't have an iPhone but I was impressed with the idea behind Yowza (that nice chap from Heroes, Greg Grunberg, it was his idea and boy that helps with the marketing too).

Sun heavily got into the "community" and the open source thing but some developers mistaken that community as free. It's nice to give some stuff away but it's also nice to put food on the table. The Cathedral and The Bazaar still has a place in the hi tech economy but are the open sourcers really making money?

Build It and They Will Come
Now I'm working on that bit....

So, are you building J2ME apps?
Good ones, real good ones, yeah. Perhaps we should talk.