I had the pleasure of speaking with Alex Bloom of Handango last week, who was appointed Vice President of the company's Content and International divisions in May. While Handango offers products for virtually every mobile device available (take a look at their 190,000-plus title catalog), I was interested specifically in his views on Android and the effects it could have in the mobile content arena.

Alex sees the growth of Android-compatible software occurring in three phases. First, there will be  many ports of pre-exisitng programs coming to the platform; second, we'll see coders writing applications for particular devices, according to their specifications - what Alex referred to as 'the geeky stuff?; and lastly, there will be an explosion of mass market applications.

So far, we have seen quite a few ports and clones, but there has also been some interesting innovation coming from the open source community. I asked about whether a flood of free software could hurt retailers like Handango. Alex felt exactly the opposite was true.

He said that Android is inspiring coders in many ways. Developers are always looking for the next ?big thing? in terms of consumer trends, and Android seems to fit that bill. It's open nature, in addition to a potentially sensational market, creates a fury of activity and competition for developers at all levels.

We also discussed the value of an intermediary to screen and validate software. It's pretty easy during an Android program installation to tap ?Yes, I accept the terms and conditions.? And there are instances where a great deal of control and information is handed over to content producers. Android isolates such access within very specific boundaries, and the Market does have kill-switch capabilities. But for the general public, a familiar and trusted storefront - as Alex said - will always be in an advantageous position. Handango does have a loyal user-base.

I have tried a chunk of Handango's Android content. I'm particularly fond of the touch screen Tetris they're offering. GoogHelper gets a lot of use on my G1, and if you're a video hound, you should check out Mobiola; a program that makes a wide variety of formats palatable for your Android phone.

There were 14 apps in the Android section of Handango's site last Friday, when I spoke with Alex and Debra Benson, who facilitated the interview. As I write this on Thursday, the 30th, there are 39 programs. I'm noticing a few titles that are currently available in the Android market as free or demo-ware. GoogHelper is one of these.

The Android Market will start accepting priced applications around January. Right now, many developers are using the all-free Market as a venue to offer demonstration versions of their software that direct the user to retailers like Handango for a full-version purchase.

Handango, as Alex explained, is ?platform agnostic.? And while it was my primary area of interest in talking with him, Android is just one of many operating systems that he and his company provide content for.

He sees the openness of Android as the key to its growth, but also pointed out the significance of Google's hand in unifying the fragmented Linux community; in a way that would inspire a viable hand-held software market.

Alex Bloom has been in the mobile content business since it began, working with Verizon for eleven years and more recently with Motricity, among others. He is in charge of Handango's strategy in the global mobile content industry. Thanks once again to Debra Benson of Illume for getting us all together.