Apps for mobile phones are a huge market with the clear leader in the segment being Apple's App Store. There are also other successful app stores like the Android Market.

In January 2010 Apple announced that its App Store had generated 3 billion app downloads since it launched. The downside to all those apps that iPhone and iPad users download is that the vast majority of them are free apps. Reuters reports that the average selling price of an app on the App Store is a mere 26 cents.

App Store rivals are teaming up to make a larger application store for other handsets that will be more popular than the Apple App Store. Two large software groups -- JIL and WAC -- are merging to create an applications store that will offer apps to multiple carriers and on multiple devices. The two software firms are backed by wireless providers and handset makers. The founding members of the WAC include AT&T, China Mobile, Telefonica, and Vodafone.

Reuters quotes Daniel Gurrola, VP of Orange saying, "WAC, by sheer scale, will have dominance in the [app] market."

Despite the huge download numbers that Apple's App Store posts, the low average selling price of apps and the fact that most of the downloaded software is free has some analysts wondering why companies are rushing to enter into the market. Analyst John Strand from Strand Consult said, "If you want to battle Apple you don't have to build the world's largest app store, you need a more focused one. They need to create services consumers are willing to pay for."

The first devices using the WAC software for the new application store will be unveiled at Mobile World Congress in February 2011. The handsets unveiled will hit the market around May of 2011.