AS A DIRECT DIG at the Duke of Cupertino's fanboy club, Getjar is describing itself as the mobile applications portal for the 3 billion or so mobile phone users that don't own the Ithingey.

Getjar [type wap.getjar.com into your mobile browser] is claiming to be the world's biggest supplier of mobile phone apps having just surpassed the 300 million download mark.

The Itunes App store will have some catching up to do, eh?

The company claims it provides an open environment for both application developers and consumers, with over 10,000 free applications available for anyone equipped with a Java, Symbian, Windows Mobile or Flash Lite-compatible phone.

Which covers, of course, every smartphone there is – even the Crackberry.

It's not just cheap-n-cheerful stuff on the site, either. The site acts as a download centre for prime mobile downloads such as Opera's Mini browser; Yahoo's Go and Google's Maps.

In another swipe at Apple, Ilja Laurs, CEO with Getjar, said, "Our success is illustrated by the popularity of applications such as Mywaves, which has seen more than four million downloads worldwide but has thus far been denied visibility on Apple's App store."

So while the Ithingey continues to grab the headlines, Getjar is catering for the rest of the smartphone owning community. µ