Airtel Launches App Store

Apple's App Store phenomenon has slowly made it to India with the announcement of its launch in the country. While it is the mobile phone manufacturers that usually get in to the App Store business, it seems mobile operators too find this another way of earning revenue. Little wonder why almost all major cellular networks have their own customised app stores.

Apart from Airtel, Aircel too has announced a partnership with Infosys to launch a mobile app store. As of today, Reliance too joined the fray and said it would be coming with an App Store called RWorld 2.0 of its own as well. The Reliance App Store will have a GSM and a CDMA version. It will go live on GSM handsets later this month.

Airtel, in India, has launched its own app store for its customers with over 1,250 apps. The Airtel App Store will be known as "App Central" and will feature apps across 25 categories for business, games, books and social networking Being an operator, you don't need to separately purchase an app. Any charges would be added to your monthly bill or if you are a prepaid user, it would be reflected in your balance. The cheapest app available costs Rs. 5.

All you need to use the Airtel App Central is a GPRS enabled handset and an Airtel connection. To access the App Central, head to the Airtel Live homepage or send an SMS with the text "app" to 54321 to receive the direct URL.