We're already app to our necks in App Stores as it is. Now Sony Ericsson have gone and done a deal which will see punters able to download 45,000 free apps from PlayNow Arena. PlayNow Arena is Sony Ericsson's music and video online store (read: answer to iTunes), and now thanks to a deal with GetJar, the world's largest independent app store, will offer access to free applications.
GetJar develops free apps for a number of mobile platforms and regularly racks up over 14 million downloads per month. Popular downloads include Facebook Mobile, Google Maps featuring Latitude, eBuddy and Nimbuzz.
The apps available are all tailored for a multitude of operating systems, so whether your handset is running on Windows Mobile, Symbian, or Sony Ericsson's proprietary OS, you'll be able to get involved.
Sony Ericsson is now the latest of the major mobile manufacturers to announce its own online content store to compete with the growing dominance of Apple's iPhone App Store. Samsung made a similar move recently launching Samsung Movies, a high definition movie download offering in March, and RIM launched BlackBerry App World on the 1st of April.
In addition to Samsung and RIM's launches, Nokia finally took the wraps off of its Ovi Store last month, but was plagued with initial teething problems. The Ovi Store had some 20,000 apps available to download from day one, whereas PlayNow Arena will have more than twice that amount. Whether this puts PlayNow Arena on a more equal footing with the iPhone App Store, which as of the last official count, has over 35,000 available apps remains to be seen.
No launch date for when the 45,000 apps will be made available has been released by Sony Ericsson, although it is inviting developer submissions for PlayNow Arena from the 1st of July onwards.