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DiggIt would seem that the word “Android” pops up everywhere nowadays. It’s the in word when it comes to anything mobile related, a true challenger to the iPhone throne as king of the smartphone heap, so it is perhaps a little surprising that its creator, Google, seems to have been unwittingly holding it back from even greater glory.
Two years ago Android was but a pipe dream on the mobile horizon, with most people writing it off as simply another attempt by a big company to cash in on the burgeoning growth of the smartphone market, with little chance of it gaining much traction.
In those two short years, however, Google’s Android platform has gained traction and then some, performing a feat nobody really thought possible; taking on and in some cases actually overtaking the phenomenon that is Apple’s iPhone.
It has certainly not been an easy road for Google’s OS, however and there are still numerous issues like platform fragmentation -where phone manufacturers get sloppy and don’t keep their phones up to date with the latest versions of Android – for example. To be fair, Google seems to come out with a new version of the operating system every few weeks, much to the chagrin of developers and handset makers alike.
While platform fragmentation has been catching all the headlines, however, what is really holding Android back is the Android Marketplace.
Sure, the Android Marketplace sports thousands of new apps being added daily and has seen phenomenal growth, but Google’s app platform faces a significant problem, namely the lack of international support for Google checkout, an important part of the app submitting process.
Of course we’re all aware by now of the nonsense rules and regulations imposed by Apple on its iPhone developers, with apps seemingly rejected simply because the wind is blowing from the East the day it is reviewed for approval. We’re also all aware of just how open and supposedly developer friendly the Android marketplace is, but as it turns out, that’s not entirely an accurate perception.
If you’re a developer living in, say, Australia and you want to submit a paid app to the marketplace? Well, tough luck, because you can’t!
Unless you live in Austria, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, the U.S. or the U.K. - the only countries which actually support Google Checkout to sell applications on Android Market -
then you are a developer out of luck. Developers in other countries can only submit their apps as free applications, which certainly doesn’t spur motivation.
Indeed, developers world-over are getting rather fed up with this approach which seems to be either neglecting them or forcing them to either give away their foreign work for free. Many have decided not to bother with Android at all, a great loss for the platform.
While Apple may have its issues, at least the Cupertino firm ensures its developers across the globe can submit their work and set a price for it, which seems more fair to content makers.
This also generally shows in the lack of quality and polish of most Android apps, which generally look horrific in side by side comparisons with their Apple counterparts. This of course is because many developers simply do not want to put in the time if they don’t see a monetary advantage – which is fair enough.
In the case of Australia, Google also saw fit to snub the Android developer community during a five day Google developer event held early this month in Sydney. The conference was utterly devoid of any Android related workshops, which doesn’t say much for Google’s interest down under.
The result of this Google nonchalance is that many developers in Oz and elsewhere are being pushed into Apple’s arms simply because the search engine giant is dragging its feet when it comes to giving developers a chance of being compensated fairly for their hard work.
At the end of the day, Google, you’d do well to heed the mantra: “you get what you pay for.”
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By the way the fragmentation issue isn’t really just an issue with lazy manufacturers, in fact the main problem is the hardware requirements of new versions of Android. As a person who doesn’t work with the hardware/software on a System level, porting roms and such to your existing phones, you wouldn’t know this. But for me developing new patches to different features of new Android OSes as they come out. I see serious lag issues with phones with less than 384MB of ram. Our company had to rewrite the Android OS in many ways just to get 2.1 onto our existing phones that had serious performance issues when we ported to the new version.
That’s really great feedback, thanks for sharing that with us and our readers! Keep it coming!
Its not a hardware problem as the first android phone the G1 is running 2.1 with a hacked rom with no trouble.
But you don’t need to go through google’s marketplace at all. It might be that they’re trying to encourage other markets like Motorola’s. I know that Mot has a marketplace for latin america as well as asia. Or you can just sell the apps yourself… (like developers normally do with pc programs). Most people don’t ask microsoft when writing a pc program.
That’s really the intent with android. Change the mentality of how users view mobile phones. Right now it’s more like cable… you do everything through your service provider. You buy the equipment through them, you sign a contract, etc. Android isn’t even owned by Google… you don’t have to go through them at all. I got an android phone so I could write my own apps on them. I write em up and install right away… no need to ask permission, no need to pay a fee. It’s my phone.. right?
Off-topic: it is very hard to read the article on the mentioned Android phone. Could you allow scaling on there page? The font is very small and scaling is disabled.
It has been more than two years since Android was launched. All along they have been saying ” We are working on bringing international support for paid apps”. How long does it take? For god sake hire somebody from PayPal, WesternUnion or even one of those guys from Nigeria! They can help out with international money transfers issues
Good story. It made me think about a dynamic regarding Android I don’t pay much attention to. Even still, I think the premise might be slightly overstated.
I have to agree with Random, the hardware specs change as often as the OS updates which makes it impossible for a manufacturer to keep up. If I recall, Google even said they will ease up on the gas a bit, making fewer updates, which is a good thing for the most part.
Can’t argue against the point though about foreign developers, however, knowing Google, that point will be made right eventually.
What I can argue against is this idea that somehow developers will abandon Android in favor of Apple or the next big thing. True, they may face frustrations, but the bottom line is software developers must be where the consumer is. So, if a billion users are on Android – developers will find a way to get onto Android’s platform, regardless of obstacles.
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