Given the vast number of carriers, manufacturers and – in Amazon's case – online retailers who have already rolled out marketplaces on Android, the launch of a new player could appear like a drop in the ocean.

Vodafone's new platform for Google's OS – dubbed AppSelect – is actually a refreshed effort, however, with the marketplace set to come pre-installed on the operator's Android devices in the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Greece and the Netherlands.

New rules

The new offering, which follows a similar app store relaunch by Vodafone's US based sister carrier Verizon back in September, will feature both personalised content recommendations and integrated carrier billing.

Vodafone is also advising developers that the new store features and updated QA process, involving a pre-QA testing filtering set up focused on "ensuring a higher quality bar for the way the application is described, language used, use of keywords that are real words and relevant."

There are also new image style metadata guidelines to be met, the full details of which can be found on the Vodafone Developers website.