Sony Ericsson today announced the imminent addition of applications to its mobile content service, PlayNow arena. When it is completed, the mobile store will offer an integrated content marketplace for their Sony Ericsson phones and giving third-party developers access to an established mobile content market channel for their content.

Applications will be offered in the 13 countries that currently support PlayNow arena. The service platform, which is compatible with 38 Sony Ericsson phone models, will roll out to further markets and models over the year.

“Sony Ericsson is delighted to introduce applications as the latest evolution of PlayNow arena, offering an established market place to our developer and partner community,” said Björn Ahlberg, Head of Content & Services at Sony Ericsson. “By bringing high-quality applications into PlayNow arena, consumers are only one click away from the world-wide creativity of innovative application developers.”

Sony Ericsson also announced it will start accepting application submissions as of July 1st, allowing developers to submit high-quality mobile applications to the PlayNow arena as well as to the established online application service, Fun & Downloads. There will be no fees for either service.

The submission process requires little effort and offers a quick time-to-market. Initially, it will be open for Java ME and Symbian OS applications and later this year will expand to cover additional platforms.