I know what you’re thinking. Why the heck do we need yet another app store on our phones, what with Amazon, GetJar, and the Android Market and a slew of other apps that do this same thing. However, I think you’ll want to hear me out on this one because this proposes to be a different kind of app store. Here’s the back story.
Recently Koush, the man behind ClockworkMod Recovery and ROM Manager, came out with a tethering app that bypassed the need for a tethering plan and one that did so without the need for root access. While there are other apps that do the same thing, Koush is known for bringing us very good software. Well it wasn’t long before carriers banned the ability to access this app in the Android Market as they did with other tethering apps. It’s those moves done by carriers that spurred this article to begin with. So here’s the deal.
Koush, and the rest of the CyanogenMod team want to hear from you. They want to know if you think it’s a grand idea for them to develop their own app store for rooted apps. This app store would be for those apps that received the ban hammer of injustice from the overly powerful carriers. As Koush puts it:
”Apps removed from the Market includes, one click root apps, emulators, tether apps, Visual Voicemail apps, and more. These are all completely legal (Nintendo emulators are fine, ROMs are NOT, there is a distinction).”
He approached Amazon but they turned him down, so their best strategy is to go forward with an appstore of their own that features all those apps that were once available in the Android Market but has since disappeared along with the apps already available in the Android Market itself. The best part is that this wouldn’t be exclusive to that of the CM ROM and would be open to all ROMS. Of course the CM team would receive a bit of the proceeds made from the paid apps as a way to supplement funding for the growing server usage and store maintenance.
So what do you think? Is this a great idea or should CyanogenMod focus on other aspects? Don’t just let us know, head over to their Google+ page and let them know as well.
[via CM's Google+ Page]