A “Safaricom Store” has reportedly appeared on some Windows phone devices in Kenya, with the company revealing last year an app store was on its way.
The “Safaricom Store” was reported by Mulika Mwizi and shows native applications such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and WhatsApp.
It is not clear if they are aiming to host local applications or it will be a mixture of international and local products.
HumanIPO reported last year that the integrated communications company was about to launch an app store.
Safaricom’s corporate affairs director Nzioka Waita said: “The platform would give developers the opportunity of reach out to local market to expose the local products towards the international market.”
Since then all talk of the application store had died down until two weeks ago when there was speculation of Safaricom launching an operator billing, helping application developers to monetise their apps.
Safaricom has reiterated their desire to work and promote local app developers in the country.
Waita said at Mobile Web Conference 2013: “Can you deliver quality, timely, innovative and unique solutions to problems? We are ready to work with you.”
Nzioka was responding to claims that the company does not benefit the application development eco system. He said that his company is looking for quality and scalable applications.
