Pocket Picks round-up: July 16th - App Store price changes, Android functionality changes, Nokia leaps on a bandwagon, ZTE is teaming up for the UK

Both of the two major mobile distribution networks have seen some changes this week, with one adding functionality and the other adding price.

Apple’s App Store price changes are the most surprising of the two developments, marking the first time the company has altered the price structure since the service launched three years ago.

What isn’t too surprising to see is that Google is continuing to add extra features to the Android Market.

Although previous changes have been almost entirely focused on the web version of the service, some interesting new additions made their way across to mobile users this week.

In a move that took everyone by surprise (not least the developers), Apple suddenly shifted the pricing of its international stores around the world to compensate for, as it calls it, ‘current exchange rates’.

This move means that we in the UK now have to pay up to 25 per cent more (depending on the price level) for a title than this time last week, while Australians actually pay a little less for their apps and games.

The change also affected in-app purchase prices, meaning the cheapest virtual good you can buy now costs 69p, up from 59p.

Meanwhile, on the over side of the mobile divide, Google has started rolling out an update to the Android Market on mobiles, which integrates two of its new services - books and movies - into the system.

The update runs on Froyo and above (sorry, 2.1 owners) and doesn’t appear to be out yet in the UK - either due to slowness on Google’s part or, more likely, to licensing issues with the two new sections.

If you’re a resident of the US, though, you can start renting movies for $1.99 ‘a pop’ and reading quality literature like Dan Brown on the bus.

You can also experience the new ‘nothing like Windows Phone’s tiles’ layout, which is far nicer-looking than the current list system.

With the recession still biting for many of us, Nokia is hoping that its new digital voucher system Perks will help persuade us cash-strapped normal people to pick a Finnish phone next time we’re on the lookout for a new mobile.

Perks is like a community-minded version of the humble barcode scanner, complete with NFC integration for using the vouchers directly from your mobile.

People can upload discount vouchers to the service, and then load them directly onto their phones for reductions at the point of sale (as opposed to printing it all out).

Sounds like an intriguing mixture of NFC payment and Groupon-style, community-driven reductions to us.

No launch date has been officially announced yet, but the leaked (and later pulled) teaser vid was shown running on an N8, so it can’t be too far away.

We’ve already seen some ZTE phones make their way over to these shores: the Orange San Fransisco / ZTE Blade being probably the most well known.

The Chinese manufacturer is hoping to strike out on its own now, though, and has teamed up with distributor Brightpoint to get their handsets onto UK shelves.

The ZTE Skate (which is the Orange Monte Carlo) will be the first handset to bear the ZTE logo. As a mid-range Android handset, there’s not too much to complain about when it comes to features and form-factor, given that it runs Android Gingerbread and has a large 4.3-inch screen.

Brightpoint apparently has deals with some of the leading retail sites like Tesco, Play.com, and Amazon, so expect to see China’s finest available to purchase soon.

We don’t normally pay too much attention to surveys here in the Pocket Picks prison, but this latest one commissioned by LG for the launch of the Optimus 3D piqued our interest.

Out of 2,000 people surveyed, one in six admitted to watching ‘adult entertainment’ on his / her mobile (the mental images that are produced when you factor in holding a phone with one hand are not pleasant).

A ‘shocking’ (that is, entirely predictable) 64 per cent, meanwhile, admitted to playing with their mobile when they were meant to be working.

Let’s hope that the latter figure isn’t related in any way to the former.