The marriage of PocketGear & Handango makes it the largest open app store

It looks like the only way to really test Apple's App Store in terms of might may be accomplished by joining forces to combat its sheer amount of available apps with their own. In this case though, two competitors enter the ring and only one leaves; ingesting the other. Actually PocketGear has acquired one of its former competitors, Handango, and lays claim to a fruitful mix of applications which can stand equally above with the App Store. It's a cut-throat market that's surrounding the applications community – Apple seemingly has a grasp that has tightened even more. In order to stay in line with the pact, the acquisition of Handango by PocketGear makes it a formidable competitor to go up against – they're actually now considered the largest independent app store out there that caters to pretty much all of the non-Apple platforms. Their growing list of customers include Android, BlackBerry, Palm, Symbian, and Windows Mobile. At the same time, they've been on the ball aiding others by setting the infrastructure needed for things like Samsung's TouchWiz widget store and Palm's Software Store. Although the catalog of applications will be at more than 140,000, it's still unclear as to the actual amount that are considered useful – but then again, how many times do you find yourself just downloading something once and never using it again? Still, PocketGear can really sit still helping their own cause as they continue to steer ahead in this competitive market.

source: PocketGear via Engadget