Google unveils online phone store

As the company showed off its sleek new Nexus One, its first entry into the smartphone market, Google also unveiled its Web store to sell the device directly, reports CNN.

Some technology analysts argue the store was a bigger deal than the phone. "From a macro level, it's a much larger story that Google is finally getting into the e-commerce world and that they're starting to sell products directly to the consumer," says Scott Steinberg, publisher of DigitalTrends.com.

"You're looking at a company that basically is expanding into every possible category and is attacking major players in multiple spaces on virtually every front, so it's only natural that they would move into e-commerce," he adds.

Apple says over three billion apps have now been downloaded from its barely 18-month-old App Store, states PC Mag.

The App Store now offers over 100 000 apps, over 20 000 of which are games, to more than 50 million iPhone and iPod Touch users in 77 countries worldwide.

After years of lurking on the fringes of the smartphone market, mobile apps have taken centre stage, as RIM, Microsoft, and other vendors rush to populate their own online stores for BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian, and other devices.

A growing number of consumers worldwide used their mobile telephones to help them shop early in the holiday season with usage particularly high among young adults seeking coupons, according to a study sponsored by Motorola, says Reuters.

Those consumers used their phones to comparison shop, take photos of items they were considering buying, or simply to access online coupons, among other activities. This according to the survey of some 4 500 shoppers conducted for Motorola between 25 November and 20 December by e-Rewards and TNS International.

Respondents came from the US, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, India and China in the widest survey Motorola has yet conducted on the topic, though about 45% of respondents were US residents.