We’ve given Apple’s App Store quite a bit of coverage from the start, and rightly so—it was (and is) a flawed product, but it’s consistently updated with new, interesting material. The other thing is, people use it. A lot.

Seeing this, other companies have since joined in, or announced plans to do so in the near future. Some of these solutions have been around for months, others for much less, but so far none have earned the same steady coverage as the App Store, and a lot of you have asked us why.

In short, these other stores hadn’t really hit their stride. The Android Market suffered from late implementation of paid apps and limited developer interest; now it’s got a fine payment system, more users, and sits on the cusp of exploding. BlackBerry App World materialised almost spontaneously, met with apathy by a userbase that was used to getting apps elsewhere, and debuted chock full of content we’d already seen; now, it’s gaining steam. Microsoft is about to open their solution, and Nokia just did. Palm’s is basically imminent. So we’re doing something about it.

Starting tomorrow with the Android Market, we’ll be doing periodic roundups for non-iPhone app stores. Since none of these stores have the same kind of volume Apple’s does (yet!), our roundups will fall on a rotating schedule, so no matter which smartphone you’ve got in your pocket you can expect a heaping, fresh serving of nutritious, delicious apps every few weeks.

Of course, you’re all part of this: if anything useful, interesting or strange shows up in your phone’s app store, shoot us a link at our tips line, with “BlackBerry/Android/Whatever App Roundup” in the subject. Happy downloading.

Of course, you can still purchase paid apps from each Android developers website, but the convenience of using the Android Market is still a few months away, sadly.

On a side note, how many of you rushed out to pick up the HTC Dream from Optus this week? What do you guys think?

The reason of the sudden swing was artificial, caused by a large chunk of computer-driven orders that pushed the values up, only to drop down again after these were processed. At least according to the Associated Press, which says that this early roller coaster was “likely caused” by these orders, which “kicked-in when prices had fallen far enough to make some stocks look like an attractive bet. But that buying reflected no lifting of the market’s deep despair, and selling continued.”

Oh noes. Maybe we should all cheer up and let computers run the whole thing for a while then. Or just send stocks to hell altogether. [AP -- Thanks OMGponies]

Android Market is officially out of the bag. The application store for Google’s Android mobile phones only contains free software for now and there is no approval process for the software: it’s an open content distribution system. The structure is similar to the iPhone App Store, with a rating system similar to YouTube’s. Google is touting their experience as a search engine and infrastructure provider as advantages to Apple’s store, but would that be really useful if everyone and their dogs can submit their flashlight apps?

As shown in today’s presentation, some developers are very excited about Android Market. In the keynote, T-Mobile and Google have pushed the Open Source aspect of the new store. But at the end, as demonstrated by the barrage of useless applications that inundate the Apple’s iPhone App Store, what really counts is the overall quality of the software and how the best applications can reach the consumers. That’s where the rating system may come handy, but like with YouTube, there’s not warranty that the really good things will float up, specially since you are limited to the G1 built-in store.

There’s a good side to the open no-limits, no-approval nature of the system: developers can publish anything they want. No prohibitions and controls means that developers will be able to access any part of the hardware, allowing software that is not allowed in the iPhone App Store, like tethering. On the other side, this may also bring bad things to the user end, since it opens the door to potential problems and conflicts that may affect the stability of the Android mobile phone.

The lack of a desktop component may be the biggest problem for final users, an online shop that allows you to easily surf through different options and manage your applications (as well as any other content). This could make things more difficult for consumers. Once we try the store–which looks extremely similar to Apple’s own–and see how you manage the software, we will be able to answer this question more thoroughly. For now, however, the idea that everything has to happen over the air in a tiny screen may make Google’s solution a weaker one than Apple’s, which in its current form has problems on its own.

Apple’s success as a new entrant is striking, but it will face challenges to keep its momentum going, said Canalys analyst Pete Cunningham in a statement. Historically, vendors with just one smart phone design, no matter how good, struggle, he said. That means Apple will have to create and refresh a portfolio of devices if it wants to increase its market share, he said.

Worldwide, Nokia takes the first place with 52.8 percent followed by RIM with 11.4 and Apple with 6.5. When you think that Apple is only available in a few countries, this is a particularly stunning feat.

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[NYT]