T-Mobile USA Launches Beta DevPartner Program

Right on schedule, T-Mobile USA launched the beta Web site for its devPartner Community program today after laying out details of the program last week at CTIA. The program allows mobile developers to sign up their apps online with a pre-determined revenue split, instead of having to deal with the carrier’s business development team. Ultimately, the apps will be available in a storefront on the devices, a la iPhone’s App Store. Oddly enough, it won’t support Android applications, even though the beta is launching a week before T-Mobile unveils the first Android phone. Most importantly, if this is successful, the program may be very lucrative for T-Mobile. In the App Store model, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has been pretty vocal about how the margins are thin after subtracting out the costs of operating the store and paying fees to credit card companies. But for T-Mobile, it already has a robust billing system in place, eliminating one of those costs.