I tend to keep track of what's going on in the Windows Marketplace for Mobile and remember seeing an application with the same functionality as mine in the store for India. As of last night it was also available in the USA application store. That's fine, after all competition is a good thing.
What I didn't notice until later was the keywords that the application was associated with. If one were to do a search for my application by it's title the other application comes up too. It reminds me of the Angry bird thing all over again (If you aren't familiar with that search for Angry Bird in the iTunes App Store. In addition to finding a game by that name you'll also find a number of other applications from other publishers making it hard to pick out the actual game).
This specific example is not one of much concern; the only reason the application has a price was to prove to some one that it wouldn't sell (and boy was I wrong). But it does bring up a higher concern. In addition to the Angrybird case there seem to be a number of different applications in all the Marketplaces that I've looked at in which one application intentionally makes an association with another to "ride on it's success." One could argue it's common practice. There was a USA case in which one insurance company had done something so that when web searches were done for some other insurance company both companies would come up. The other insurance company took it to court and the ruling was that the practice was fair. All the same it makes one ask how they can ensure that a consumer can differentiate their product from another. I can't say that I know the answer to that, but it is something worth thinking about.
Update : Ugh! I was trying to find an applicaiton called "SpeedTest" for the iPad and ran into problems identifying it. Turns out what I needed is named "SpeedTest.net." But now there are lots of other applications using "SpeedTest" in their names!
Tags: Marketplace, Windows Mobile