Tencent Launches an ‘iTunes for Android,’ Gives Google a Syncing Feeling

Just as nature abhors a vacuum, Chinese web companies are amazingly good at filling a niche in the market. And so it follows that Tencent yesterday launched an Android management app that’s a sort of ‘iTunes for Android.’

As Android rockets in popularity in China, there’s obviously a huge hole to be filled by the lack of an Android equivalent of iTunes. That’s what Tencent’s new ‘App Assistant for Android’ aims to be. It’s a Windows app for managing everything about your Android phone over USB or wifi – downloading apps (see picture below), syncing music and other files, transcoding videos, taking Android screenshots, and backing-up your phone.

The Tencent Windows-only app – you can check it out here – supports XP, Vista and Windows 7 on the desktop side, and will hook-up pretty much any Android phone that’s ever been made, from your lowly Huawei (pictured top) to your shiny new Motorola.

The unofficial Android app store that's integrated into Tencent's new desktop app.

Back in May of this year we lamented that China was pretty much the only non war-torn or glacier-covered country in the world that didn’t have paid apps support in Google’s Android market. It has left quite a vacuum in terms of app availability that a lot of people have rushed to fill – from Downjoy inking a deal with Rovio to distribute Angry Birds, to Baidu setting up its own Android app catalog just last month.

To be fair, Tencent wasn’t the first to come up with this idea – some might say Tencent is never the first to come up with any of its ideas – as the guys over at the Chinese startup PeaPod launched a similar app over a year ago, and even attracted some VC funding earlier this year.

Elsewhere in the world, DoubleTwist has a similar app for Android-loving Mac users that syncs music, videos, incorporates its own app store, and supports the purchasing of music from the Amazon music store.

[Image source: Newhua]