When the Samsung Galaxy S3 was first released in certain markets the handset had exclusivity to the popular iOS application, Flipboard, but today we have the news that Flipboard for Android has been released to the masses via Google Play.

The application has been available for a while now on the iOS platform, and as The New York Times are reporting the company behind it was actually co-founded by a former employee of Apple that had worked on the iPhone. Flipboard is a free application that turns Web content into a magazine format, and it has also been announced the app will be available for the likes of the Kindle Fire, Android tablets, along with Nook tablets and smartphones around the world.

It has also been revealed that the application will come pre-installed on the Samsung Galaxy S3 for all the major US carriers, which have been seeing some delays ahead of the release. This move may cause some tension between the company and Apple that had picked Flipboard as one of its favourite applications back in 2010, but the team behind Flipboard said it was important to expand its audience.

This new version of the app is different from the beta and it now has Google+ and YouTube integration for both the Android and iOS versions, and works in a similar way to how Facebook and Twitter works on the app. YouTube on Flipboard brings in all of your subscriptions for easier browsing, and other features include sharing, liking, and subscription support from within the app.

Flipboard for Android now offers support for twelve countries after adding support for Germany, Italy, Korea, Spain, and The Netherlands. This follows the likes of Instagram and Temple Run that were popular Apple iPhone apps that finally made the jump to Android, and to download hit Google Play.

Will you be downloading Flipboard?