With the massive popularity of smartphones and tablet computers even among military personnel, the United States Army now has its own apps marketplace for their mobile devices.

A prototype Army Software Marketplace launched recently with at least 12mobile training applications for soldiers to use on personal phones and tablets.

“The Apps Marketplace is at the center of Army efforts to radically reduce the time to deliver applications across the force. This prototype is afirst step in establishing and exercising new submission and approval processes that will eventually enable Army members, organizations and third-party developers to release applications for Army-wide distribution,” said Lt. Gen. Susan Lawrence, the chief information officer/G-6 .

Once fully implemented, the Marketplace will deliver web-based and downloadable apps to all devices approved for use within the Army’s Common Operating Environment on the Army network.

The publicly-facing apps were developed by Army training schools in the Connecting Soldiers to Digital Apps (CSDA) initiative.

Approved for Army-wide use, the apps are available online via www.marketplace.army.mil.The CSDA community is continuing to submit apps.

On the other hand, the Army said the Marketplace prototype brings together key Army stakeholders to focus on implementing industry-provenagile software-development practices, such as increasing collaboration early between end-users and developers, and delivering software to users in short release cycles.

“Training aids, planning tools and other apps in the Marketplace give Soldiers easy access to information we need to keep current,” said Sgt. 1st Class Nanette Williams, a member of the Army Executive Communications Team at the Pentagon.

Army CSDA Director Brig. Gen. Wayne Grigsby Jr. added the prototype allows CSDA to begin distributing training and leader development content to the Soldier at the point of learning.

Grigsby is the Director, Mission Command Center of Excellence at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

iOS now, Android later

Initially, the Marketplace prototype supports publicly-facing apps on personal iOS devices. Soon, the marketplace will also support publicly-facing apps on Android devices.

Among the apps available now are:

- The Soldiers Blue Book (initial entry training guide)

- Army Values

- Army Social Media Handbook

- Developing a Performance Work Statement.
-AMD, GMA News