Portugal, has teamed up with GetJar to launch a free mobile app store that is available to its Optimus customers via both WAP and Web sites. By adopting GetJar's mobile app store service, Optimus has joined other major operators across the UK, Europe and Asia in offering consumers the broadest choice of free, high-quality mobile applications.

Through GetJar's app store service, Optimus is able to offer its subscribers a huge range of completely free mobile applications, including Google Maps for Mobile, Yahoo!Go, Nimbuzz, eBuddy, MIG33, Trutap, and MyWaves. Applications add value to a subscriber's cellphone and enable a mobile operator to enhance the range of services it offers. GetJar is the world's most respected mobile applications portal, delivering over 16 million mobile applications per month to consumers worldwide.

Commenting on the growing number of operators who are implementing free GetJar app stores, GetJar founder and CEO Ilja Laurs said, "We know through our own experience that consumers, developers and advertisers all value the 'Mobile Applications Ecosystem' we have created. It brings together all of these groups in a mutually beneficial way, and operators increasingly see the value in promoting a high-quality service that immediately drives significant demand."

GetJar provides an open and free environment for application developers and consumers, with over 10,000 free applications available for anyone with a Java, Symbian, Windows Mobile, Palm, BlackBerry, or Flash Lite-compatible phone, and will launch a catalogue of Android applications later this year. GetJar connects consumers to developers through free access to applications, and helps developers access a global market quickly, easily, and with zero operational expense.

"Our partnership with GetJar is part of a broad strategy to drive mobile data adoption across our customer base," explained Hugo Figueiredo, director of Central Marketing at Optimus. "There is huge demand from consumers for the range of applications we can now offer, and GetJar's experience shows that an app store based around applications which are free is a vital to ensuring a successful service."

Evert Jaap Lugt, CEO of Nimbuzz, commented, "GetJar is a strategic distribution platform for us and the Nimbuzz is the perfect application to support Optimus in driving mobile data adoption. We are proud to offer mobile value added services, such as chat, geo-presence, and social networking, to Optimus customers via the GetJar platform."

About Optimus

Since its launch in 1998, Optimus has been growing on a regular basis in the Portuguese market, with a single goal: lead the Portuguese telecommunications market by offering its mobile customers high quality and simple services. Optimus has more than 2.6 million customers.

About GetJar

Founded in 2004, GetJar (wap.getjar.com on a mobile phone) is the world's most popular mobile application distribution and developer community, with over 200,000 registered developer and beta-tester accounts. GetJar operates a groundbreaking business model in which all industry groups from consumers and developers to publishers and advertisers are connected in an interactive environment, which also gives users an active role in product development. With over 300 million downloads from the site in just two years, the current download rate average over 16 million per month, GetJar is based in the UK and Lithuania.

Information Source:    Marketwire
Image of Ilja Laurs, courtesy of his LinkedIn webpage