Microsoft now has its own Android app portal

Microsoft has become the latest company to launch its own Android app store.

Once downloaded, the company’s new Android offering, Microsoft Apps, will spotlight the variety of Microsoft-made apps that are available on Google’s mobile operating system.

For the time being, this isn’t the second coming of the Amazon App Store. In its current iteration, Microsoft Apps is more portal than marketplace; clicking on any one of the apps featured in its interface opens that app’s associated Google Play Store page.

However, as Business Insider notes, Microsoft Apps could become something much more significant in the weeks and months to come. After its recent partnership with Cyanogen, as well as the Android launch of previously Windows Phone only apps like Cortana, it’s clear Satya Nadella and company have a unique design for the open source operating system.

For Amazon, the launch of its own Android app marketplace coincided with forking the operating system in the form of FireOS. Given that Microsoft just finished the rollout of Windows 10, it seems unlikely the company plans to jump ship for Android. Still, this could be the start of something interesting.

Right now, though, Microsoft Apps is a decent enough way for the company’s fans to cut through some of the cruft on the Play Store and find their favourite apps.

[source]Google Play Store[/source][via]Business Insider[/via]