Operators: 'App Stores aren't a threat to us!'

There's a phrase here in the UK familiar to generations of schoolkids: "Chinny reckon". It's usually deployed with a mock beard-stroking gesture to imply that whoever's speaking to you is telling a great big fib.

Anyway, here's AT&T's Ted Woodberry talking about whether handset firms' app stores are a threat to mobile operators: "Not at all… We want to support our partners."

Chinny reckon!

Okay, now for some proper analysis. Woodberry was talking to MocoNews, which took the sensible step of asking him and Verizon Wireless' Ryan Hughes about the threat posed by app stores, which cut carriers out of the billing loop.

Actually, Hughes was more candid in his response. "No, although some could be. It depends on what degree they live on an island."

Both execs say that carrier billing will be an increasingly common feature in the handset firms' app stores "those conversations are taking place" said Hughes in an effort to ensure the operators get a cut of application revenues.

"We want to participate," said AT&T's David Christopher when asked at a subsequent press conference. "We think carrier billing is extremely important and we think it adds a lot of value."

It's going to be an interesting year ahead in the light of these issues. If operators can't sign billing deals with the app stores, what then?

One strategy is to launch their own, like Orange is doing in France with an eye to rolling it out elsewhere. But then what happens when that operator is selling, say, Android, Nokia or BlackBerry handsets. Whose app store takes priority, if any?

As the old song goes, there may be trouble ahead…