Posts Tagged ‘Android Market’

« Older Entries

Google Expanding Android Market Carrier Billing

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

In Google Android Market, the main billing method is Google Checkout. This means that a consumer that wants to buy applications in the Android Market first has to sign up for this service, in order to be able to make payments to the application developers.

Last December, Google also announced carrier billing for T-Mobile customers in the United States. Instead of signing up to Checkout, these users can simply buy an application with one single click, and see the purchase reflected on their monthly phone bill.

Now it seems Google is expanding this carrier billing to more carriers and countries. This was recently published on the official Android Developers blog:

Adjustment to Market Legals
Posted by Tim Bray on 23 July 2010 at 5:24 PM
Please note that we have updated the Android Market Developer Distribution Agreement (DDA). This is in preparation for some work we’re doing on introducing new payment options, which we think developers will like.
In the spirit of transparency, we wanted to highlight the changes:
In Section 13.1, “authorized carriers” have been added as an indemnified party.
Section 13.2 is new in its entirety, covering indemnity for payment processors for claims related to tax accrual.

Adjustment to Market Legals

Please note that we have updated the Android Market Developer Distribution Agreement (DDA). This is in preparation for some work we’re doing on introducing new payment options, which we think developers will like.

In the spirit of transparency, we wanted to highlight the changes:

In Section 13.1, “authorized carriers” have been added as an indemnified party.

Section 13.2 is new in its entirety, covering indemnity for payment processors for claims related to tax accrual.

It would be good to see more carrier billing coming to the Android Market for developers with paid apps. We’ll keep you posted when more news becomes available.

Tags: ,
Posted in Android Market | 1 Comment »

Android Market Goes Paid In Korea

Friday, July 16th, 2010

The Google Android Market is now available in 46 different countries. In all these countries free applications are available for consumers, but the number of countries where paid applications can be purchased is limited. Google is adding support for paid apps in more countries and now introduced this in Korea, bringing the total number of countries with paid Android Market content to 14. From the official Android Developers blog:

As of today, Android Market is open for business to application buyers in the Republic of Korea. We hope that this will make the outstanding Android devices now available in that nation even more useful and fun. We welcome the people of Korea, acknowledged everywhere as one of the world’s most-wired societies, to the world of Android.

As of today, Android Market is open for business to application buyers in the Republic of Korea. We hope that this will make the outstanding Android devices now available in that nation even more useful and fun. We welcome the people of Korea, acknowledged everywhere as one of the world’s most-wired societies, to the world of Android.

At this moment, developers from 9 countries can submit paid applications to Google Android Market. The addition of paid applications to the Korean Android Market is very welcome. Android has been gaining a lot of attention in Korea, with for example Samsung’s recent announcement that it sold 200,000 Android powered Galaxy phones in Korea within 10 days.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Android Market | No Comments »

Google Launches App Inventor for Android

Monday, July 12th, 2010

Yesterday, Google unveiled its App Inventor for Android. The service is basically a simple tool for everyone who wants to build an app for Android devices. Instead of having to learn code, App Inventor enables the user to create apps by visually designing the way the app looks and uses blocks to specify the app’s behavior.

The thinking behind the initiative, Google said, is that as cellphones increasingly become the computers that people rely on most, users should be able to make applications themselves. To start creating applications, only a valid Google Gmail account is required.

“The goal is to enable people to become creators, not just consumers, in this mobile world,” said Harold Abelson, a computer scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who is on sabbatical at Google and led the project.

While App Inventor is such a simple tool, it also offers some powerful features like access to the GPS sensor, SMS and data storage using TinyDB. The App Inventor team has even created simple gateways to services like Twitter.

As this enables consumers without programming knowledge to create applications themselves, this move may result in the growth of the number of applications in Google Android Market to accelerate even more. To stay informed, subscribe to our free monthly report.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Android Market | No Comments »

Google Android Market: Music, Web Storefront, Coming To TV’s

Friday, May 21st, 2010

Yesterday, Google’s I/O conference was being held in San Francisco. During the developer conference, Google made several new product announcements. Here’s a short overview of the most important news regarding Google’s app store strategy.

Android Market gets Music
The Google Android Market will be getting a new section in its content catalogue: Music. It is not yet clear when this will be introduced in the Android Market, but consumers will be able to purchase music that get’s automatically synced to their phones:

You go to the Market on the web, find a song you like, click the download button, and just like with apps, the song starts to download on your Android devices. So it’s iTunes, over the web, with auto-syncing. No word on who the partners are for this, what the prices will be, etc. Undoubtedly, we’ll hear more about that soon. (via TechCrunch)

Web based Android Market
During it’s first year, the web based access to the Android Market was very limited. Initially, Google was only displaying a set of featured apps, with no way to download and purchase content from the web storefront. Recently, a new web based Android Market was launched, improving Android app discovery from the PC. Now, following the Music announcement, Google also said that Music will be downloadable from a web storefront of the Android Market. It is very likely that this web storefront will not only contain Music, but also the current Application and Games categories. No details on the launch date yet. See a screenshot of the new Android Market in this I/O presentation sheet:

Google TV
One of the biggest announcements: Google is launching Google TV, “a new experience made for television that combines the TV you know and love with the freedom and power of the Internet.” See the introduction below:

Google TV will be running on Android, and Android applications will run on it. Google plans to extend the Android Market so that you can install third party apps on a Google TV setup just as easily as you can install them on a smartphone. During the keynote today, a Google rep said that any app that doesn’t specifically require phone functionality should work on Google TV (via liliputing).

Chrome Web Store
Next to all the Android news, Google also announced the Chrome Web Store. This will be  an application store for Web apps that are built with standard web tools. It will be available later in 2010. Not many details are available yet, although Google confirmed that developers that sell content in the Chroms Web Store will get the common 70% revenue share. We added the Chrome Web Store to appstores.info.

Tags: ,
Posted in Android Market, Google Chrome Web Store | 10 Comments »

Google Launches New Android Market Website

Monday, May 17th, 2010

android_market_webToday, we saw a new Android Market website. The new site now enables all visitors to get an idea of what kind of apps are available through the Market app on Android devices, which obviously is a good thing for the platform in general and developers specifically. While the new website shows more information than the previous one, information about apps is still very limited: ranks and applications prices are not displayed for example. Additionally, the content is not localized and therefore shows only apps that are popular around the globe.

For developers, it is still difficult to find out how their applications perform in the different localized Android Markets around the world. To gain more insight, they can use Distimo Monitor to view their country specific rankings.

Tags: ,
Posted in Android Market | 1 Comment »

Distimo Monitor: iPad and Google Android Market Support

Saturday, May 1st, 2010

It is our pleasure to announce the release of our new version of Distimo Monitor, which now has full Google Android Market and Apple iPad support. The most important new features of this update are:

iPad Support

Last month Apple released their iPad and developers are now able to publish apps for this device. In this release of Monitor we offer all functionality that was already available for iPhone applications, but now also for iPad apps!

As of now, Distimo Monitor distinguishes between iPhone and iPad rankings. iPad rankings are displayed as an icon that shows the back of an iPad.

Google Android Market: Downloads & Revenue

Distimo Monitor is the first analytics tool that provides detailed insights in your Google Android Market download & revenue figures. Monitor now offers stand-alone support for Google Android Market; also available if you do not have applications in other stores. Monitor now automatically imports your Android download data and calculates the downloads & revenue per day.

Improved Filter Bar

As a developer, you want to quickly find the information you are looking for. That’s why we redesigned our filter bar. The new filter bar now lets you easily find the application you are looking for by entering a part of its name in the search field.

Additionally, the new filter bar lets you sort the applications or countries based on either the name or number of downloads, enabling you to quickly analyze the applications that are performing well.

Chart Exports

You can now export any chart from Distimo Monitor as an image. After exporting you can use this image for your internal or external communication.

We hope you will find this new Monitor version useful!

If you have an application for iPhone, iPad or Android, start using the free Distimo Monitor now on: http://monitor.distimo.com

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in General | 1 Comment »

Google Android Market Goes Paid In Canada

Friday, March 19th, 2010

Right now the Google Android Market is available in 25 countries. In each of these countries free apps are available, but the support for paid applications was limited to 11 countries. Last Tuesday Google added support for paid apps in Canada, bringing the number of countries with paid content to 12.

Since the availability of paid apps for Canadian consumers, these are the most popular paid Applications and Games in Canada:

Most popular paid content in Android Market Canada (2010-03-16 to 2010-03-18)

Most popular paid content in Android Market Canada

Note: in Android Market prices are displayed in the seller’s home currency.

The availability of paid apps in Canada does not mean that Canadian Android developers can already sell their apps in Android Market. Right now, developers from these countries can sell paid content in Android Market:

  • Austria
  • France
  • Germany
  • Italy
  • Japan
  • Netherlands
  • New Zealand
  • Spain
  • Switzerland
  • United Kingdom
  • United States

You can visit the Android Market support pages for more information. We expect Google to announce support for selling paid apps from more developer countries, including Canada, soon.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Android Market | 3 Comments »

Distimo Report – December 2009

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
It is our pleasure to release our monthly Distimo Report, based on December 2009 data. Distimo Report Logo
This report covers five application stores: Apple App Store, BlackBerry App World, Google Android Market, Nokia Ovi Store and Windows Marketplace for Mobile.

This month’s most important findings are:

  • In Google Android Market, 65% of the publishers are located in the United States, 12% in the United Kingdom, 20% in Europe and 3% in Japan.
  • Publishers located in Europe price their applications highest with an average of $4.42, which is 49% higher than publishers located in the United States.
  • Applications in Apple App Store, Google Android Market and Nokia Ovi Store are priced at around $3.50. Windows Marketplace for Mobile and BlackBerry App World are more expensive, averaging $6.99 and $8.26 respectively.
  • Because of Microsoft’s market validation guidelines and additional fees for distributing applications in more than one country, the number of applications available in some countries is only a small percentage (<5%) of applications available worldwide.

You can download the report here.

This report was covered on TechCrunch here.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Android Market, Apple App Store for iPhone, BlackBerry App World, Distimo Report, Nokia Ovi Store, Windows Marketplace | 1 Comment »

LG Releases Its First Android Device

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
LG's First Android Device: GW260

LG's First Android Device: GW260

As announced previously, LG just released its first Android device, the GW620 (LG InTouch max). Interestingly, LG touts the personalisation options of the phone through Google Android Market:

Personalise your phone with a series of apps to suit you, from news and weather apps, to games apps, and your favourite social networking apps including Facebook and Twitter.

The release follows LG’s announcement that Android will power half of the smartphones they will launch in 2010. This is bad news for Microsoft, as LG has shipped many Windows Mobile devices to date.

It doesn’t seem that LG is planning to include its own application store on the device, which currently supports applications for Windows Mobile only.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Android Market, LG Application Store | 1 Comment »

T-Mobile Announces Operator Billing For Android Market

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
Operator Billing T-Mobile on Android Market

Operator Billing T-Mobile on Android Market

T-Mobile announced it will enable customers on post-paid accounts with devices running Android 1.6 to pay using their T-mobile account. Beginning December 9th, customers will receive an update to Android Market that enables them to choose between paying using their Credit card or T-mobile account.

All customers will receive the update by early January 2010. One small thing though; customers will only be able to pay for applications using operator billing when the application developer has set the price in USD.

In Google Android Market, publishers have to sell their applications in the currency of their home country, being either Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom or United States. So for developers from any other country than the US, the T-Mobile Operator Billing will not be available yet. In these cases, customers will have to pay using Credit card.

As many customers see credit card billing as a barrier to purchase applications, we expect the addition of operator billing to increase the amount of application purchases from US developers in Google Android Market.

Tags: ,
Posted in Android Market | 2 Comments »

« Older Entries

Switch to our mobile site