Apple’s App Store has been a phenomenal success, despite predictions when it was first released that it would not take off. Now that new and innovative applications are regularly appearing and the formula has been agreed as an out-and-out success, everyone else is once again playing catch-up with the pioneering company.

It has been no surprise to hear that Microsoft, Nokia, Orange and O2 are all launching their own app stores to try to rival the might of Apple’s original version. After all, the mobile market is having quite a tough time of it lately, and any income-generating idea was always going to catch on quickly.

The new app stores to be released are the Ovi store from Nokia, which will arrive in May, Windows Marketplace from Microsoft, Orange Portal from Orange and Litmus from O2.

Of course, all of these are claiming to be developing upon the original idea of the App Store rather than simply providing cheap imitations. James Parton, who is the head of O2 Litmus, said that its store will be a “completely consumer-led series of useful applications” rather than just another App Store, and Steve Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft, even claimed that its store will take mobiles to “another level”.

Apple’s App Store was launched in July 2008 and has already seen 500 million downloads, which will earn Apple a predicted £556 million in the first year, and although this year will see a huge surge in the number of App Stores out there, we will have to wait and see if any other company can match the success of the original.