Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu platform which is set to make its way to mobile devices next year, does not plan to build an app store to support the launch of handsets powered by its platform, Engadget reports.

According to Richard Collins, Ubuntu Mobile Product Manager at Canonical, “at launch, we’ll have the capability for a mobile app store, but at this stage we don’t believe it is essential for the entry-level smartphone market we’re targeting”.

The Ubuntu mobile platform seems to be targeting a similar market to Mozilla’s Firefox OS, although Mozilla has made its HTML5-based developer story a core part of its proposition.

In addition, low-cost vendors from Asia have taken Android – and therefore the thriving Android apps ecosystem – to entry-level smartphone buyers.

Collins told Engadget that “we have a very definite approach in terms of addressing an important part of the market where users are primarily interested in being able to use a core set of applications”.

Contrastingly, the executive also positioned Ubuntu Mobile as being largely similar to desktop Ubuntu for developers, stating that “legacy apps will have to be adapted. They’ll need to compile on ARM processors, but that’s not a significant amount of work”.

He also said that Ubuntu will offer an SDK to enable developers to build apps which work with both the smartphone and desktop interface.

Last week Mobile World Live published a video feature revealing how the Ubuntu mobile OS will look on a smartphone; check it out here.