Apple’s iTunes Store set the gold standard for online purchases of music, TV shows, movies. With the addition of the popular App Store, Apple has attracted 100,000 developers who offer 65,000 apps, games, utilities; customers have responded with over 1.5-billion downloads. Now, Verizon wants in on the action and plans to build their own app store. How well has Verizon handled apps for cell phones? Stacey Higginbotham:

Verizon has offered content for years using Qualcomm’s Brew platform for feature phones, but smartphones were left out. Now that smartphones are so popular with consumers rather than merely with corporate users, having applications is becoming more important, and those apps are coming from a greater number of providers.

Like any slow motion train wreck, this will be fun to watch.