India's First Mobile Apps Store Launched

Indian GSM mobile service provider Bharti Airtel (News - Alert) has announced the launch of India’s first mobile applications store, Airtel App Central.

Now, Airtel mobile customers can transform their basic phone into a Smart Phone (News - Alert) by accessing over 1,250 applications across 25 categories for their business, games, books, social networking and other needs, according to industry observer Sanjay Bafna. 

They’re purchasable via single click. No credit card is required; the cost is simply added to the customer’s mobile bill or – here’s a good idea – deducted from the available talk-time. 

Industry observer Kunal Gangar said that it will be WAP-based only. 

“Airtel users can point the phone’s browser to http://airtel.cellmania.com using Airtel Live’s WAP profile. The only good thing I found for now is the buying part. The site automatically detects your Airtel number and bills it for any paid app,” Gangar added.

Atul Bindal, President Mobile Services, Bharti Airtel, said the Airtel App Central is empowering our mobile customers to transform their phones into smart devices with the click of a single button.

It offers both free and paid applications India Specific Apps – religion and devotional apps such as Ayyappa the God to Bhakti ki Shakti “where our customers can express their devotion to Maa Durga to Qibla, which allows our customers to calculate the direction from anywhere on the globe to the holy city of Mecca,” company officials said.

And of course there are the “old local favorites” such as Book Cricket and Gilli Danda, an SMS Directory App, which “saves you the trouble of remembering formats and those difficult to remember numbers which are required to query for popular services and information such as your flight details, cross check your railway booking or even find out insurance details,” Bafna said.

The Hindu is reporting that Reliance Communications (News - Alert) has also announced their plans to launch mobile applications stores, 'joining global companies like Apple, Google, Motorola and BlackBerry.'

While Bharti Airtel (News - Alert) launched Airtel App Central, 'RCom said it will introduce the first version of its mobile applications store under the Reliance Applications Store label, in the country by the end of the month.'