It's a testament to consumer demand for mobile apps that the independent app store market is just as competitive as its OEM or operator counterpart.

It's a contest that's been ramped up with PocketGear announcing it's acquired rival retailer Handango to form what it claims is the world's largest, cross-platform, open mobile app store.

The company claims the new operation, which crosses a total of seven different platforms and over 2,000 devices, has a catalogue of more than 140,000 apps and supports more than 32,000 developers.

In terms of total apps, this puts it just behind the App Store, analytics firm Distimo recently reporting that more than 150,000 apps are currrently available for download on Apple's marketplace, although that may have dropped slightly following its smut deletion program.

As a combined force, PocketGear and Handango have generated over $400 million in mobile app revenues to date.

Open everything

PocketGear CEO and president Jud Bowman says the merger will benefit both mobile operators and publishers alike.

"Our vision is to facilitate an open app store ecosystem that supports every mobile device, every application, and every carrier network globally," Bowman said.

"Handset manufacturers, carriers, and media companies now have a single marketplace where they can quickly and easily connect with developers, source a catalog of apps developed specifically for their supported devices, and create a branded, revenue generating storefront and app discovery engine that works across all devices, platforms, geographies, and carrier networks."

Shaping up to GetJar

PocketGear's relative claims of market leadership may well be challenged however, as rival GetJar having recently told us it expects to hit 1 billion downloads in the near future.

"We're now doing well over 50 million downloads a month, and are the second biggest app store after Apple's App Store in terms of volume," GetJar's VP of marketing Patrick Mork told PocketGamer.biz.

"GetJar will hit a billion downloads in the next few months."

[source: PocketGear]