By Jay Seaton

With the race for mobile applications heating up, device manufacturers, application developers and wireless carriers are looking to plant a stake in the ground for their piece of the App Store market.

Hopes are high for mobile applications to account for a significant piece of mobile revenue. Consumers are hungry for more options, apps that are personalized to their own preferences, and a seamless extension of their Web life onto the mobile channel.

Last week's launch of the Nokia Ovi Store was the latest in a string of similar-style announcements made recently by players across many aspects of the mobile value chain -- from device manufacturers through to application developers and mobile operators -- all looking to follow Apple's lead and capitalize on the growing consumer demand for mobile Internet services.

And when you look at the statistics it is easy to see why. A recent announcement by Vodafone anticipated that the carrier would take a 30 percent share of revenues generated through consumers downloading apps on its network.

However, while the app store phenomenon is clearly a positive for the industry, for any app store to be mainstay -- whether from Apple, Research In Motion, Nokia, Vodafone or others " carriers must play a part in ensuring the apps can be accessed by the mass market despite handset fragmentation and existing limitations imposed on consumers without high-end smartphones.

Below are 10 tips on how carriers can jump into the apps game without suffering some of the limitations the current App Store models present.

1. Is the App store model open for debate? Carriers talk about replicating the app store model, but can that be done when the model is still in its infancy?

The reality is that there is no set model and no right way to go about it. The market will continue to see the model evolve over the next few months and years, and carriers should focus on enhancing app stores, rather than re-engineering them.

2. What does "enhancing" actually mean? To stimulate additional revenue opportunities and reduce churn, carriers should not only offer their customers a range of applications and services but they should also consider using the unique network assets, context and intelligence they have at their disposal to enhance those applications and services, helping them avoid being cut out of the revenue loop.

3. Should all apps be available to all subscribers or should carriers target apps for enterprise users and apps for consumers differently? A successful app store will be one that offers innovative applications to users no matter what their device or what their function.

App offerings should not be limited to business -- i.e. smartphone -- users. Carriers must establish a model that offers device agnostic service-enhanced apps.

4. Relevancy is king. Similarly, carriers should be careful to ensure that the mobile applications and services they offer are cleverly targeted to subscribers based on network intelligence such as information on location, devices and subscriber preferences.

5. How much is too much? Carriers should not underestimate their customer base. While there is a lot of competition among carriers, device manufacturers and developers to hook the subscriber on an initial app sale, all customers want the same thing -- ease-of-use, uncomplicated purchasing agreements, and most importantly personalization and customization.

Flooding the Web or consumers with new app options is only as good as the services delivered with them and that is the differentiator that carrier-driven app stores offer.

6. How do carriers negotiate a revenue share with application developers to make an app store worth it? Carriers should think outside the box when it comes to mobile applications and find a way to layer services on top of third-party apps for maximum revenue potential.

Developers want viable entry points to subscribers and realize it is ultimately the pathway to success. But carriers should not be afraid to break away from traditional service and content delivery models to make the collaboration with developers work.

7. Setting the right foundations. Carriers should be mindful of the mistakes of the past when deploying monolithic, technology based infrastructure. They should instead seek out flexible solutions to network upgrades which will enable them to seamlessly roll out services without negatively impacting upon their current network architecture or services.

It is this modular approach that will enable carriers to pick and choose the services they want to roll out -- and when -- while also ensuring that they future-proof their architecture.

8. AP-why? Central to the success of building a long-term ecosystem for applications and services are open APIs that enable third-party application developers to integrate their services with an operator's architecture.

Truly open APIs for developer communities are likely to drive substantial application-based revenues.

9. Does it all come down to trust? Carriers have an incredible advantage in the app store business to leverage the trust and loyalty of subscribers.

Recent reports suggest that while Apple's App Store saw a record number of downloads, most free apps eventually get deleted after the first download. There's no staying power. Factor into that there is little tying a subscriber to third-party app and you have a very tenuous basis for repeat purchasing.

Carriers, on the other hand, with long term relationships and a trust-factor unlike that on the Web, can bring a new level of engagement between consumers and the apps they purchase. This is good for everyone.

10. Sound the alarm. As the number of applications and services increases so too will the levels of spam and viruses. Carriers must therefore be careful to secure their networks and subscriber relationships by enabling a range of security services and parental control.

Jay Seaton is chief marketing officer of Airwide Solutions, Burlington, MA. Reach him at .