If there's one thing to be said about 2009, perhaps it should be called the "Year of the Apps Store." It seems like every entity out there launched a mobile apps store. Helping aid in the discovery process, Mplayit has platform specific stores that can be browsed from within Facebook.Apple set the stage when it launched the iPhone Apps Store in July 2008. Since then, RIM, Microsoft, Palm, Nokia, Sony Ericsson and others have launched their own versions of an apps store. Some of them are easier to use than others.

One thing that makes the Android Market a bit difficult to work with is the lack of a really good desktop version. Sure, you can browse some featured applications and read reviews and such, but it's a very limited tool.

Mplayit is looking to merge social networking and apps shopping, to a degree. Its own Facebook application hosts four separate apps stores. BlackBerry, the iPhone and Java-based devices were already supported. Now, Mplayit also supports the Android Market.

Mplayit's Android Arcade lets Android users browse through all 15,000 application in the Android Market and also gives them the option to have a link sent to their phone for downloading purposes.

Michael Powers, founder and CEO of Mplayit, said in a prepared statement, "App discovery on Android is frankly a mess. From our success with our iPhone Arcade on Facebook, we know how to socially engage users. We let them tap into their friends and networks to try and share apps, and we're bringing that know-how to the Android app marketplace. Android is on the brink of prime time. It will be the single biggest audience for mobile apps in the very near future, and Mplayit will play a major role in helping those users find great apps, Compelling new devices like the Motorola Droid, Google's Nexus One and the truly mass-market devices that will shortly follow make Android the place to be. We believe that, with our new service, Android is at last getting the distribution ecosystem it deserves."

The Android Arcade is free to use. You can find it here.