Every week it seems we are assaulted with the now hackneyed announcement of the release of a new mobile ‘App Store’. So common has this press release become, one would be forgiven for thinking the same PR Agency is behind the ‘Save As’ approach – with almost identical revenue share arrangements (70/30), category layout (games/everything else), and community aspects (reviews/star ratings. blah, blah, blah).

The Mobile Network Operators – feeling the pinch from all sides – can always be relied upon to adopt ‘emerging’ business models; with the unfortunate caveat that they be adopted by everyone else first. And so the era of the ‘Carrier App Store’ has begun – not with a bang mind you, but with more of a tired magician’s best efforts at sleight-of-hand.

Following the recent app store announcement by Vodafone (adopting an almost word-for-word approach to the likes of AT&T, Verizon and O2) it is only a matter of time before all Operators wave their wands at the App Store concept. But the trick is this – these concepts are not new, but rather re-branded versions of WAP-based App Stores that have failed consistently to provide a passable user experience and ignite the mobile application market since the late 1990′s.

Sure they have a cool new title (originality points not withstanding), and in some cases are actually client-based desktop download interfaces. But in most cases (see Orange, Verizon, etc), you are simply witnessing a new name slapped across an exhausted content strategy. Call a poor xHTML download site an App Store, and a cash cow it ain’t.

Worse, there is little doubt consumers will be faced with multiple app stores per handset within the year – further diluting the new channel media owners and developers alike see as the ‘Great White Hope’ of content in the digital age. While AT&T and O2 have opted for a ‘Web 2.0 friendly’ approach of early adopter voting, submission and downloads of applications (using primarily a PC Web-based interface), little empiric value is being created by the Operators’ transparently defensive tactic of preventing an almost total meltdown of their content-based revenue.

No doubt the Carriers will not be content with simply gathering the application revenue ‘scraps’ left by the likes of Apple, Google, and Blackberry. But it remains to be seen how their delayed and re-branded entrance into the marketplace will provide a compelling platform for major media organizations and developers who are now being tasked with a near exponential number of signing, submission, and pricing procedures – making a coordinated application launch on multiple handsets a prospect that would make even David Blane blush.

In the end, the Carriers in their frenzied desperation may only succeed in sawing themselves in half – as developers and content owners will simply opt for rollouts on the top 2 or 3 App Stores (Apple, Android, Blackberry or Palm), avoiding the muddled remains entirely.

So if you’re feeling lost in the ‘App Store’ illusion, take a look at Gizmodo’s helpful chart on the top App Store characteristics and criteria. While I have found this invaluable, with the impending release of a number of Carrier App Stores, the chart will doubtless be doubling (or perhaps trebling) within a few months…