AT&T CEO: apps should be sold by carriers instead

At the Mobile World Conference, AT&T’s CEO gave a talk where he mentioned that app stores like the Apple’s iTunes App Store and Google’s Android Market are bad for the consumer. According to him, carriers should be the one selling apps instead, and apps should web app-based so they can work on any platform instead of just working for one platform like apps are now (iOS apps won’t work on Android and vice-versa). He was quoted saying:

You purchase an app for one operating system, and if you want it on another device or platform, you have to buy it again. That’s not how our customers expect to experience this environment.

Sure it makes sense, but there is a limit to what you can do with web apps (at least for now) and apps designed specifically for the operating system just work better. And if everyone gets the same apps from the same store, what’s going to differentiate all the different operating systems then? Everyone might as well be using the same phone.

It sure sounds like AT&T are just feeling the pinch of not getting any revenue from the iTunes App Store/Android Market, and want a piece of the pie. But these words coming from a carrier that disables the sideloading feature on their Android handsets; they should take a look at themselves before making such statements.