The concept of App Stores is set to leapfrog in India as market leader Bharti Airtel launched its Airtel App Central across the country. Airtel plans to initially offer over 1250 Apps across 25 categories with feature spanning business, games, books, social networking services and other needs.

Based on usage, the charges will be deducted from subscriber’s account in prepaid mode or added to subscriber’s bills in postpaid mode. The services are available for prices starting Rs.5.

Announcing the launch, Atul Bindal, President - Mobile Services, Bharti Airtel, said, “As the undisputed leader in the Indian telecom industry, we are committed to constantly delighting our customers and offering innovations to enrich their experience. With the Airtel App Central - India’s first mobile app store- we are offering a one-stop shop open 24x7 to meet all our customer’s personal device needs. We are empowering our mobile customers to transform their phones into smart devices - with the click of a single button.”

The services are compatible with over 550 devices. There are India Specific Apps as well such as Ayyappa the God, Bhakti ki Shakti, Qibla which allows customers to calculate the direction from anywhere on the globe to the holy city of Mecca as well as Applications such as Book Cricket and Gilli Danda.

There is also an SMS Directory App allowing users to store numbers of frequently used services such as for flight details, railways, insurance details and so on.