S Mobility, an Indian handset brand which was earlier known as Spice Mobile, is planning to set up an App store. The move is in line with its new philosophy of going for the wireless internet and content businesses in a big way.
During an Assocham meeting, managing director of S Mobility Dilip Modi said that his company “will be setting up incubation centres and bringing in hundreds of developers to create a lakh of applications to be retailed via the company’s apps stores.”
The first incubation centre will be set up in Delhi (Noida) on November 19 followed by one in Bangalore in March.
He added, “If someone has an idea for building a mobile application, we will have a website where one can post ideas. If the proposition looks feasible, we will give capital up to Rs 50 lakh per application to invest in that idea, and will give space within our apps store, called Spice Hotspots, to monetise the product.”
Spice Group already manufactures both feature phones and smartphones. Recently, it started selling tablets as well. This new app store will be an additional benefit to them supplying innumerable application that can be installed on their handsets.
Modi’s partners are Taiwan-based MediaTek, a leading fabless semiconductor company for wireless communication. Spice group has also bought mobile phone brands in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
About 18 months ago Spice had disclosed its plans to set up an app store, but nothing happened ever since though the company continued developing apps for mobiles and tablets. However, this time around the plan is more robust and is likely to see the light of day.