It looks like T-Mobile, the fourth largest carrier in the Unites States, will open an application store of its own. Like Apple's App Store, 3rd party developers will be invited to sell their applications, and the carrier will take a percentage of the value of the transactions.

Unlike Apple's App Store, the one that T-Mobile will create will offer applications for all types of phones that the carrier sells. This means that developers will have to develop them for platforms like Android, Sidekick, Windows Mobile or Java.

Of course, the news is a very good one for developers, who will have the possibility to sell their applications to the over 31 million subscribers that T-Mobile has enlisted over the years. This is a target three times as large as the one that App Store offers, which is formed by the 10 million iPhone users.

The decision comes as part of T-Mobile's efforts to maintain its place as the fourth largest US carrier. Even though the company continues to enlist an impressing number of customers each year, the number dropped dramatically over the last period of time. The reason for this is that the carrier has lagged behind the competition as far as 3G services are concerned, as well as the fact that it offers a rather small number of latest generation smartphones.

It seems that the application store is just a part of T-Mobile's plan to stir the interest of potential customers. According to the Washington Post, Venetia Espinoza, T-Mobile's director of Mobile Applications and Partner Programs said that “the devPartner Community site, which is in its alpha stage, is just a taste of what T-Mobile has in store and we encourage you to stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks.”