Google on Thursday in the US announced Android Market, an online center similar to the iPhone application store that will let people find, buy, download, and rate software and other content for mobile phones equipped with the open source operating system.

(Credit: Google)

Attracting developer attention was a key part of the Google-led Android software effort, and those who produce applications will have an easy time getting them to the market, Eric Chu of Google's Android project said in a Thursday blog post.

"Similar to YouTube, content can debut in the marketplace after only three simple steps: register as a merchant, upload and describe your content and publish it," Chu said. "We chose the term 'market' rather than 'store' because we feel that developers should have an open and unobstructed environment to make their content available."

Though the first Android phones are planned to arrive later this year, Chu said to expect the initial phone-based Android Market application to be a beta version that might only support distribution of free applications. An update later will handle different versions of applications, support for different profiles of Android phones, and analytics to help developers track adoption.

The move was expected. Google said in May at the Google I/O conference that it would provide a central repository of Android software.