——国际文传电讯社（www.interfax.cn）特约评论/Translated by Lu Xuege

With the success of iTunes, Apple Inc.'s online mobile application store (app), tech giants and telecom operators, including Google, Nokia, China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom, are building their own app stores. China's leading computer manufacturer Lenovo is doing likewise.

Dubbed "Le Plan" (in keeping with the theme of its LePhone smartphone and LeBook e-reading device), the company launched its mobile app store in April.

The company sees great potential in the mobile app business model. China's mobile Internet market is huge and largely untapped whereas the domestic PC market is saturated. Lenovo hopes that its relatively early entry into China's nascent mobile app market will help it stay competitive.

China's mobile Internet market is purportedly the biggest in the world. As of October 2010, it had more than 800 million mobile phone users, one sixth of the world total.

Meanwhile, the number of China's mobile Internet users surpassed the 200 million mark, up 40 percent year-on-year. Total revenue derived from China's mobile Internet market was estimated at RMB 23.7 billion ($3.57 billion) in October 2010. App services (downloads) accounted for 41 percent of the total.

By some industry estimates, there are as many as 10 million individual mobile phone software developers in China and the figure is rising 35 percent annually.

Apple's app store for China has done well since its launch, but app development for Apple handsets has not gone entirely smoothly. China-based developers are blocked from fully accessing iPhone's application software due to copyright concerns and government content restrictions.

Content is key. Providing effective and attractive apps that meet customer needs will help companies like Lenovo compete against the content-rich overseas providers. Lenovo may have an edge, however, in developing content that is more culturally attuned to the China market.

The Chinese market is complex and diverse. Success requires an in-depth understanding of consumer behavior and regional preferences. Because of its long-established business on the mainland, Lenovo can certainly leverage its knowledge of China's consumers to its advantage in terms of app development and sales.

From platform and content creation to customer service, Lenovo is well positioned to capture a bigger slice of the mobile app market. Its platform, which facilitates third-party app development and implementation, will attract developers because of its low entry barrier. Lenovo's "LePhone" is compatible with almost all Android-based applications, greatly enhancing users' options.

App stores must have a wide range of products for users to choose from. Lenovo's app store, which also goes by the name "Paradise," is divided into categories such as games, entertainment, life, business and finance. The company plans to offer more than 1,000 applications by the end of 2010.

The success of Lenovo's mobile Internet strategy hinges mainly on whether the company can garner a larger proportion of LePhone handset users. Posing another challenge is the fact that China's mobile Internet users tend to value their handset's built-in capabilities more than third-party apps.

Without a doubt, China's mobile Internet app market will see rapid development in the coming years. But questions remain over revenue sharing with app and content developers, profit models and industry chain development. Innovation will determine whether Lenovo becomes a market leader or a laggard in China's mobile Internet space.