Seems like US Army’s project of creating an Army App Marketplace, is finally on the verge on becoming a reality. On Friday, US Army, launched its custom mobile app marketplace prototype for soldiers, to use on their personal devices like iPhone and iPad that run on Apple’s iOS platform.
“This prototype is a first 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, Army Chief Information Officer/G-6.
At present, the app marketplace prototype includes twelve different training apps, that were developed by Army training school as part of Connecting Soldiers to Digital Apps (CSDA) initiative. These include, The Soldiers Blue Book (initial entry training guide), Army Values, Army Social Media Handbook and Developing a Performance Work Statement. The soldiers can download these software applications online from www.marketplace.army.mil Many other apps are waiting for approval, as the CSDA community continues to submit apps.
Army CSDA Director Brig. Gen. Wayne Grigsby Jr. said the prototype allows CSDA to begin distributing training and leader development content to the Soldier at the point of learning.
Further highlighting the same, Sgt. 1st Class Nanette Williams, a member of the Army Executive Communications Team at the Pentagon stated, that the different apps available in the Marketplace are designed to give soldiers easy access to information that needs to be kept current.
Still in its initial stages, the marketplace will only offer apps for iOS devices, but intends to roll out apps for Android devices in the near future. Once through the prototype phase, the Marketplace will deliver approved for use, web-based and downloadable applications, within the Army’s Common Operating Environment on the Army network.
