LG Electronics has joined its rival mobile-phone makers in launching its own online store for applications. The Seoul, Korea-based company and world’s number-three handset maker will launch the beta version of the app store on Tuesday.
The LG app store located at www.lgapplication.com will first launch in Asia-Pacific nations, including Malaysia, Singapore and Australia, and will offer LG users 1,400 applications, including 100 free programs, in 15 different languages. The company said it plans to have 2,000 apps available to nations in Europe and South America by year’s end.
So far, there are no plans to offer the store to users in the U.S.
“LG is more successful in Europe than the U.S. and will go after the market with the highest penetration first,” said Rob Enderle, principal analyst with the Enderle Group. “In Europe the open nature of the market works better for LG and they have a lot more freedom.”
Plans for an app store have been under way for some time since LG launched the LG Mobile Developer Network, a Web site developed for third-party LG mobile-phone developers. The Web site, officially made available in October, allows developers to develop and share widgets to test applications. Currently, the developer site supports the Java software development kit and will support a virtual developer lab and over-the-air downloads for widgets by the end of the year, according to LG.
LG is late to the table with its app store in comparison with its rivals that have application stores already up and running.
Apple on Saturday celebrated the one-year anniversary of the very successful App Store. Nokia,the Finnish phone maker, launched its app store called Ovi. Palm launched the App Catalog and Research In Motion launched App World for BlackBerry smartphones.
LG also has to compete with the likes of Google and its Android…