The battle of the app stores

"Developers have only just begun to submit their applications for Windows Marketplace for Mobile, therefore it would be premature to commit to a total number of applications available when Windows Mobile 6.5 launches later this year," he said.

"Windows Marketplace for Mobile will not aggregate all available applications, but rather provide customers with a single source for purchasing quality tested applications," he explained.

Palm Pre

Representatives from Palm declined to comment on what Palm's app store would look like, or what kind of applications will appear on the store, but we were told that more information would be released when the Palm Pre becomes available in the UK.

The Palm App Catalog was however, demonstrated at the D:All Things Digital Conference in May.

The demo showed off apps by Fandango, including an app that makes use of the Pre's location based services and Palm Synergy to find cinemas near your location and allows you to buy watch trailers, buy tickets, add showtimes to your calendar and get directions to the chosen cinema.

Another app outlined was Pandora, which makes use of the Pre's multitasking capabilities. It's a media player that allows you to listen to music while running other applications. The song and artist information appears on the secondary app's toolbar at the same time so you can always keep track of what you're listening to.

Neither seem revolutionary compared to those available from BlackBerry, Google and Apple, but only time will tell.

Can the others catch Apple?

What has become apparent in the last year is that it's no longer the device that matters, but what's on that device in terms of applications.

The Apple App Store started a new trend, allowing applications to be downloaded from one place and it's a huge success with more than 50,000 apps on offer and over one billion individual downloads.

However, it's just a test of time before the other competitors take what they can from this revolution and catch up on Apple, especially with open source, less aggressive approval methods.

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For more mobile phone news and reviews, visit Know Your Mobile.

Clare Hopping
Freelance writer

Clare is the founder of Blue Cactus Digital, a digital marketing company that helps ethical and sustainability-focused businesses grow their customer base.

Prior to becoming a marketer, Clare was a journalist, working at a range of mobile device-focused outlets including Know Your Mobile before moving into freelance life.

As a freelance writer, she drew on her expertise in mobility to write features and guides for ITPro, as well as regularly writing news stories on a wide range of topics.