Mobile Application Store powered by Appia launched in India by Vodafone

Vodafone India, one of India's leading telecommunications services providers, today announced the launch of the new Vodafone Mobile Application Store. Powered by Appia, the new Mobile Application Store provides Vodafone India's over 145 million subscribers with a comprehensive and vast selection of over 10,000 free and paid applications for virtually any handset across major mobile operating systems including Android, Java, Symbian and Blackberry.

"We are excited to partner with Appia to offer this new mobile Application Store to Vodafone subscribers," said Kumar Ramanathan, Chief Marketing Officer, Vodafone India Ltd. "The store will present the best the world has to offer in mobile applications, giving Vodafone subscribers an expansive catalog of games and apps to entertain and enrich their lives."

The Vodafone Application Store includes over 10,000 app titles across all popular categories including games, entertainment, social networking and local culture, offering a one-stop shop for all Vodafone India Mobile (2G/3G) customers to purchase and download applications and games for use on their GPRS-enabled handsets. The catalog also includes an extensive collection of content from local providers, including Hungama, India Games and Nazara, Spice, and Vodafone-branded apps like Portfolio Tracker, Vodafone TV, and Chhota Comics. Free applications will be available, along with a strong collection of paid applications.

To enter the exciting world of Vodafone Application store, Vodafone customers can sms or to 111 from their GPRS-enabled handsets and click on the URL in the response message. Customers can also log-in to live.vodafone.in and click the Vstore link on the Vodafone Live homepage.

Appia's application discovery and distribution network provides all of the content for Vodafone's mobile application storefront, as well as the end-to-end managed service platform for storefront merchandising and commerce. The store currently supports over 3,500 different devices, and is optimized to match applications to each subscriber's specific device, offering thousands of applications across all major mobile operating systems, thus making it one of the best amongst all operator apps stores in the country.

"Appia is honored to partner with Vodafone India to launch an Application Store with a great collection of mobile applications to Vodafone's more than 145 million subscribers across India," said Jud Bowman, CEO of Appia. "Vodafone has always been a leader in mobile data services, and as one of the fastest growing and most progressive operators in the world, Vodafone continues to set the standard for the mobile application experience in India."

Vodafone leveraged the Appia Developer Program to work with the many local Indian content providers to rapidly aggregate their content and to ensure that the apps and content available in the store meet the distinct needs and tastes of the Vodafone India subscribers. App developers interested in distributing their applications through the Vodafone Application Store should visit the Appia Developer Program at dev.appia.com.