The iPhone AppStore is not the first mobile storefront for downloadable applications, but it is the first with mainstream appeal. Other carriers and mobile manufacturers are trying to replicate Apple’s success with the AppStore. The first out of the door to follow on Apple’s coattails is Google’s Android Marketplace. Like Apple, it will host a flurry of applications for any device running Google’s open-source Android Operating System, a competitor to the iPhone and iPod Touch which run a modified code of OS X. Unlike Apple, the Android Marketplace will host trials and demos, but may irritate developers of free software by charging them for free apps that make use of T-Mobile’s network with the G1, the first Android phone.

» Android App Store Screws Developers Over