By Prarthito Maity email: p.maity@mobilenapps.com | Feb 26, 2013 08:02 AM EST
This is a perfect bit of information for those who want to break out of the traditional norm of the Google Play for apps and are looking for different sources for similarly qualified Android Apps.
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Per reports, Russian counterpart of Google called Yandex has just launched its own branded app store, creatively titled Yandex.Store.
The APK, currently, is a freely-available download for any Android device, and after a standard account setup process, users will get access to a remarkable selection of mainstream apps. What's more, big titles like Angry Birds, SoundHound, ES File Explorer, Opera Mobile, and Twitter and are all available inside the store and available directly from the front page. Apart from that, there is a strong cache of 50,000 apps, and the number is growing every day.
While the vast majority of apps on display are free, there are paid options as well, with an impressive support for credit card and cell phone bill payments from a boatload of countries, and this includes the United States as well.
However, Yandex.Store easily offers more than that. The store can be implemented on a stock Android device, and this means that not only will it run one of the straight versions of Android's OS, but also one that has taken and customized the platform. The company told TechCrunch that there are further partners getting announced in coming weeks for the store.
"The global market for Android-based mobile phones is very fragmented," Alexander Zverev, head of Yandex.Store, stated in a statement. "There are only a few major players who enjoy a meaningful share, with the remaining portion of the market, which is quite significant, distributed among hundreds of smaller companies. We are joining the game to contribute to competition [and] ensures freedom of choice."
Yandex has partnered with Opera to provide the backend, as well as a number of currently available apps. Although Opera is supplying most of the apps that will be sold there, but this is not exclusive. As far as Yandex is concerned, the company is "interested in other partners with app lineups to [also] be aggregated into Yandex.Store," the spokesperson added.
There's also been a huge revision to Yandex's branded Android homescreen replacement called Yandex.Shell, available on the Google Play Store.
Version 2.0, per Android Police, "brings some whiz-bang 3D animation, as well as more useful features like the ability to hide apps from the drawer and resize the homescreen grid. It's a free download, but at present it's only available in Russia. The customizable launcher is targeted at smaller handset makers and regional carriers."
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