I am spoiled and I know it. I have the Apple App Store, which is fairly well organized, well laid out and searchable. I know, I know. you are saying that they have some growing to do. But, have you ever tried searching the Android Marketplace for an app? You can’t. Have you spent any time in Blackberry’s App World. I don’t recommend you do it. I would rather spend a day in Walmart.
There is an answer to your mobile app procurement woes. And, while I should probably post this in Mobile App Of The Day, I thought it might be a decent piece of information for Studio readers as well. Enter GetJar (link here).
GetJar is the world’s second largest app store with over 1 billion downloads to date, second only to the Apple App Store. Unlike Apple, GetJar has adopted an open market approach. As a result, GetJar deliver applications for feature phones and smartphones across all major platforms, including Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, iPhone and Symbian among others. The company provides more than 75,000 mobile applications to consumers in more than 200 countries.
The home screen is nicely laid out:
Of course there is search. Thank you very much. And there is a very understandable breakdown of apps by categories that make sense. There are featured apps, recommended apps, and ad sponsored apps. If you enter the type of phone or device (iPad included), it will filter the apps automatically to only show those that work on your equipment. You download direct to phone by navigating to the mobile site, hitting quick download and entering a code. Or you can download direct to your computer and sync.
While it may not present a significantly greater experience than the Apple App Store, it is a MUCH better experience than the Android Marketplace and Blackberry App World. Plus, it collects apps for lots of other phones and different OS.
Check out GetJar and browse some of the offerings. You might find some handy tools you didn’t even know existed!
I sometimes have to laugh at infographics: their purpose is to make it easier to digest large amounts of “information” by using a visual format, but sometimes they “cloud” the picture. In any event, I do love a good infographic and this one takes on the not-so-puny task of communicating facts about both the explosion of information and the use of cloud storage, topics near and dear to me. The goods come from Wikibon (link here) and the image is reproduced below. Or hit the link here to go directly to their post.
Advocate's Studio 