T-Mobile crawls into mobile app game, gives Apple bigger headstart.

T-Mobile has a unique opportunity to launch an immediate counter-attack against Apple in the mobile applications game. Apple's got a strong headstart, with more than 100 million downloads in its first 60 days. But T-Mobile is stepping up in a big way by dropping the on-deck platform of its phone and replacing it with one that's open to developers. And, with the popularity of the Sidekick among young users and the excitement around the soon-to-be-released Google Android phone in its back pocket, it had the potential to jump on to the scene with a bang.

Instead, it prefers to whimper in the shadows for a while.

At CTIA Wireless today, T-Mobile released some details about its developer program, expected to launch next week. Here's the thing: the company said the system will not support Android or Sidekick. Huh? No Android? No Sidekick? There's no advertising on the free apps either.

What can I say about the other phones in T-Mobile's lineup? I'm sure they're quality phones but I don't know that there's anything to get excited about. Not like Android. And isn't the Sidekick demographic the one that's most likely to download mobile apps? Granted, the developer's program is launching in beta, which means that Android and Sidekick could be in the mix by the time the system is officially released. But, this somehow feels like a disappointment.

Sue Schmitz, the devPartner’s product marketing manager, told mocoNews.Net that the system is a work-in-progress.  “This is for us to learn and for developers to learn," she said. "These are baby steps.”