Vodafone’s 360 app store was launched last September and offers a collection of mobile widgets to Vodafone subscribers in eight countries. Initially, developers could only offer free applications. Now Vodafone announced the support to publishing paid apps on the 360 platform.

Developers can publish paid  apps in one or more of the eight supported European countries. Application prices are set in 20 tiers between 0.49 and 9.99 euro and can be selected for every country individually by the developer.

The widgets offered in the 360 store are based on the JIL platform, an iniative by operators China Mobile, Softbank, Verizon and Vodafone, backed up by manufacturers like LG, RIM and Samsung that was started 2 years ago. Vodafone says they provide developers with simple upload methods, a transparent review process (within 10 business days) and in-depth reporting of country specific downloads and revenue.

The revenue share for paid apps is 70% and consumers are charged via Vodafone operator billing. Right now 50 different handset models are supported, including the Vodafone 360 H1 and M1 phones from Samsung, and a collection of Symbian/ S60 phones from Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung. More information for developers is available on the new developer site.

At the end of September, Vodafone announced 360, “A Suite of Innovative, New Internet Services for Mobile and PC”:

• An address book that integrates with social networks.
• A collection of applications, games, music and maps for mobile phones, PC and Mac.
• A phone backup service for contacts and other phone content.
• An app store with around 1,000 applications.

For us the most interesting part of course is the app store. There are however very little details enclosed. This is all Vodafone has announced so far:

a catalogue of over one thousand Apps at launch available to different handsets, downloadable through the Vodafone Shop

We are very curious what kind of platforms the store will support. Most likely there will be a strong focus on mobile widgets.

Several sources have confirmed that Vodafone 360 will be launching to consumers tomorrow. The 360 website changed from promotional material to the image below, indicating that the launch is getting close:

Vodafone 360 website

360 will launch in Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the UK and will be followed by launches in a number of other countries in 2010, including India, Turkey, South Africa, New Zealand, Romania and France.

More info tomorrow.

UPDATE: Vodafone 360 was launched.
The Vodafone 360 website has been displaying both the new service but also ‘work in progress’ image over the last hours. It seems Vodafone is in the process of going live, but not fully accessible yet.

Yesterday, Vodafone announced its new suite of internet services called 360. Part of 360 is an app store. Not too many details are announced on the supported content and platforms, but it’s clear that mobile widgets will be in the store.

Vodafone just announced a competition, called App Star, for developers to build the best mobile widget for Vodafone 360:

The mobile widgets to enter this competition need to be based on the JIL platform and support the two upcoming 360 phones by Samsung. These Samsung phones are not running Symbian, Android or Windows Mobile, but the Linux based LiMo operating system.

The Vodafone App Star competition has a combined prize fund of €1,000,000 which will be shared across eight of Vodafone’s largest European operating companies to encourage innovation in the mobile application and widget space. The eight participating countries are: Netherlands, UK, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece.

Interested developers can sign up here.