AT&T revealed new elements to its mobile strategy at CTIA Wireless today, announcing plans to launch a consumer-driven beta application program and pursue netbooks and other new devices that don’t quite fit the definition of phone or computer.
The new development program is intended to expand the scope of applications available to customers who don’t use any of its portfolio of smartphones, all of which have their own development programs and—with the launch of the BlackBerry App World on Wednesday—already have their own app stores. Key to the initiative is a beta program for consumers to download and trial new apps. The best of those apps will be picked up by AT&T for sale or distribution directly to its customers.
“We’ve always given developers a voice,” David Christopher, chief marketing officer for AT&T mobility and consumer services, said at and AT&T luncheon at the show. “Now we’re giving customers a voice so we can deliver apps to the broadest swathe possible.”
AT&T is launching its beta program to cut down on the time it takes to launch an app and help developers reach its customers better, according to Emily Soelberg, AT&T director of product marketing management. She described the program primarily as a feedback forum for developers to get input on their creations, but she added that AT&T would consider pulling certain successful apps into their own app storefront across the carrier’s handsets.
AT&T has had its own mobile-Web storefront in place for the past five years offering thousands of titles spanning entertainment, productivity and communication, but the store suffered from a lack of awareness up until the launch of the iPhone. Soelberg said that as the iPhone drove familiarity and phones got more advanced and lower in cost, MEdia Mall has benefited from the new interest.
If the beta program proves successful, though, MEdia Mall may not prove deep or feature-rich enough to support an incoming flood of new applications. Christopher said AT&T is weighing options on how to handle that influx if it comes to that. “Whether that’s an app store or whether it’s more breadth and choice on MEdia Mall, we’re not announcing today,” he said.
AT&T is also pushing further into the mobile device space. On Wednesday it announced a pilot program in Philadelphia and Atlanta, which will offer low-price netbooks to customers that subscribe to both AT&T home broadband and 3G data, combining the two into a single “home and on the go” broadband plan for $60 a month.
AT&T also announced today that it will again provide three-screen coverage of the 2009 Masters Tournament across U-Verse TV, AT&T FanZone on the PC and AT&T wireless devices, along with a special interactive app for all U-Verse TV customers. In addition to scores, leader boards and real-time content, U-Verse subscribers will get access to a mosaic of channels broadcasting live coverage. The carrier will provide both live footage and on-demand content from Augusta National on the TV and wireless for those customers who subscribe to AT&T Mobile TV, MobiTV or Cellular Video services.
