MobiHand, a prominent third-party app store, looks like it’s on the financial ropes. One developer is claiming that it is still owed over $160,000 in royalties dating back to July, while many others are chiming in that they’re past due on payments within the same timeframe. The folks at EasyTether did get an e-mail back from MobiHand, which ultimately said that they didn’t know for sure when they would be able to pay the amount due. MobiHand has explained in their own blog post that they’ve been working to diversify the services they offer since RIM and Google pretty much have their respective app markets locked down. That development work has “created significant financial strain” and leaves MobiHand in a position that might “result in the sale of the company to a larger, more well-capitalized partner”. Whatever happens, MobiHand hopes to be able to pay back their developer partners by the end of the year.
While the logic holds that those that manage the mobile platform will generally be in the best position to deliver apps, there are exceptions to the rule. For example, just look at the Kindle Fire; Amazon has basically cut Google entirely out of the equation for their tablet while still using the Android operating system. Even smaller players, like GetJar, have been able to stay in business offering an alternative mobile app store. There will be a secondary impact on the blogs that not only sell apps through MobiHand’s affiliate program, but cell phone accessories too. For a lot of those smaller blogs, MobiHand is a big source of revenue, and without it, those blogs may be at a significant financial disadvantage.
Many developers have pulled their apps from the MobiHand store until the situation is resolved, and really, who can blame them?
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