Symbian Horizon app store launched

The Symbian platform now has its own official app store, home to an initial catalogue of just 50 apps.

The announcement came at the Symbian Exchange and Exhibition (SEE) 2009 and Horizon, as it is known, opened its doors to the public yesterday, offering Symbian users their first look at the official repository.

Whilst 50 isn't a large number by any-means, the sheer user base of the Symbian platform means that this number is likely to grow quickly. The Foundation naturally wants to hit the ground running and says that the “publishing programme is being scaled up to process thousands of applications in 2010”.

Of course, some operators and manufacturers that use the OS have already launched their own marketplaces. Thankfully, we're happy to report that Horizon is fully compatible with them all, and will simply integrate its content into the existing stores, which is good news for UK users of the Nokia Ovi store, the Samsung Application Store and Sony Ericsson's PlayNow portal.

To check out the beta store for yourself, click on over to the Symbian Horizon homepage.