Updated 11/6: Vietnam’s Vinaphone has partnered with Opera Software to introduce what they claim is the country’s first flat-rate subscription app store.

AppMarket, which is the storefront to Opera’s Mobile Store, has about 300,000 apps and games. Vinaphone customers can download all the premium apps and games they want for VND15,000 ($0.70) a week.

State-owned Vinaphone, the third largest operator with almost a 17 per cent market share, said it is offering customers the first week for free to encourage them to try it out. Subscriptions are renewed automatically each week unless subscribers opt to cancel the plan.

Users can subscribe to the plan by texting “DK UD” to 1556 or by confirming their online subscription at appmarket.vinaphone.com.vn.

“Downloading and purchasing premium apps and games just became easier and more affordable in Vietnam,” said Viet Anh Nguyen, Opera’s country manager for Vietnam. “We hope that this model can provide increased marketing and monetisation opportunities for both Vietnamese app developers and operators.”

In November Opera launched the white-label managed service to enable mobile operators to offer branded subscription-based app stores to customers.

Opera runs the operational and administrative processes, including developer payments, meaning operators don’t need to take on the overheads. The available titles are rotated, with a range of content available.

The service supports Android, BlackBerry, Symbian and Java operating systems and is live with several operators in six countries.