Telcos' own-brand iPhone apps

Just out of curiosity, I decided to have a look through the Apple AppStore to see what other telco-branded applications are available.

So far, I've found:

- BT Exchanges local search and yellow-pages style app
- Orange UK WiFi Hotspot finder, plus also Orange Wednesdays movie application and "Your Orange"
- AT&T "Connect Mobile" conferencing app, Yellow Pages and NBC Olympics apps
- Telefonica Espana "123", O2 UK - My O2 account management app (useless without an O2 account), O2 Czech IPTV guide called "O2TV"
- Telstra's "Official V8 Supercars" apps for Australian motor-racing fans
- Portuguese operator TMN's "Pond" social media aggregation tool
- Taiwan operator Far EasTone's "Do U Love Me?"
- Four apps from Korean operator KT Corp, none of which I can understand
- Something from Softbank mobile in Japanese that I don't understand
- Various Vodafone apps including People Sync (part of 360), a multi-headed social network front end called "Vodafone Update", and others from various local properties including Omnitel (Italy) and its Turkish subsidiary

I guess we are moving slowly to a world in which operators start to become so-called over-the-top providers of applications, but there is still huge resistance from the corporate culture of blending access and service.