It's been an app store-tastic day at Mobile World Congress, with Orange joining Nokia and Microsoft by extending its own channel to market.

In addition to Signature services like Orange TV and Liveradio, the Orange Application Shop will focus on offering fun applications like astrology tools (horoscopes), magic tricks, puzzles and quizzes as well as practical tools such as language dictionaries, currency converters and business services from third party providers.

The Orange Application Shop first launched on the mobile in November 2008 in the UK and France, and is being rolled out across Orange's footprint in 2009.

In the UK alone, sales of applications via Orange Downloads in the UK went up by 277 per cent  within the first four weeks, proving its popularity and ease of use.

Orange is also launching a new range of mobile widgets, giving customers instant access to useful information via their Orange Homescreens.

The "widget experience" will be launched in May and rolled out across all European markets and 80 per cent of its Signature phone range by the end of the year.

In the future, Orange will open the widget catalogue to select third party developers and publishers.