Everypoint enables apps for mass-market devices

At launch, the platform is designed to attract developers wanting to get started with mobile apps quickly. Beginning today, developers can download the beta preview at no cost online. If they choose to offer the app for free, Everypoint will host it and support it at no charge. If they choose to charge, developers pay a registration fee for the rights management and share part of the sale price to Everypoint. MacKinnon said this will be a precursor to joint billing in the future. While the first iteration is focused on the developers, he said the company is looking to partner with handset manufacturers, carriers and content owners as well.

Everypoint is entering an already crowded marketplace. With many handset manufacturers and software makers launching or exploring their own app storefronts as well as a host of up-and-running independent app stores, Nemo will be one of several options for developers and consumers. Apple announced this month that the iPhone has topped 3 million apps downloaded just five months after opening its doors, so the momentum is clearly continuing. But as a storefront that is neither carrier-supported nor embedded in the device, Nemo could face struggles. MacKinnon is banking on Everypoint’s focus on the billions of lower-end handsets, the de facto standard in most of the world, to entice developers to choose Nemo over the competition.

“As far as we know, we are the only end-to-end solution for mass-market devices that is downloadable over the air,” MacKinnon said. “The fact that we have our own presentation layer and it can run on mass-market devices, then combine that with the infrastructure and distribution and full scripting language, we’re fairly unique out there. We’ve baked in services and made them a utility of part of our platform.”