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OEMs have to license Google Apps and the app store commercially.

Well, no, they don't _have_ to. They may choose to. For example, there's this little shop that sells Android tablets with their own store. Or here's a third party appstore that OEMs may choose to license and integrate. Then there's Opera's appstore, GetJar...

OEMs can and do release Android devices without licensing anything from Google just fine. And no, it's not limited to smalltime OEMs, and it doesn't seem to mean you lose the chance to get to Playstore with this. HTC released a few devices with SlideMe for example, and I believe they still have GApps on other gadgets.

I don't know if they continue to host 'banned apps', but slideme.org is an alternative marketplace that seems to have a lot of stuff. It is ostensibly for those in countries who are banned from the market or those who don't like the Google TOS.
I used it briefly as I could not get the market running on my new phone at first. It would not associate with my Google account on WiFi or data using any of the ordinary means. It was not until I logged into YouTube that I got the association working. Even the gMail app would not log in until then. Isn't that strange. You would think Google would have their shit together better than that, but I digress.
My brief experience with slideme.org lead me to think that many of the apps are older, or cracked and possibly mal-ware, security problem laden versions, but I don't have enough experience to qualify that judgement well.

http://slideme.org/

It even has an app on the homepage that you can install you give you a market app on your phone.

It doesn't matter. Android doesn't need the Google Marketplace. It can install any APK files. There are even alternatives to the marketplace with dedicated ranking, sorting, tracking, etc. One example is http://slideme.org/

I thought Android's biggest selling point was wobbling.

Then use a different app store. If you are not a dumb user, you should be able to manually install one app. And I believe I CAN trust the Android Market to (at least try to) make the right decisions. Because, if they don't, then people (including me) will stop using them. That is the advantage of allowing (and encouraging) competition.

It seems you want the Android Marketplace to be OK for everyone, but good for no-one (or very few). I prefer it be good for most people and terrible for some. But, for those people there should be other, easily accessible, options that are good for them. I don't want the "don't be evil" motto to have to be enforced on Google (either internally or externally). I much prefer they set up their business models so it is in their best interest not to be "evil".

Uh... no. Moving to another country takes a lot of time and money and effort. And you have to leave all of your friends, family, and connections behind. Installing another repository is as easy as installing another app and going about your business.

Thank you for appropriately labeling your post. You have indeed set up a strawman argument. The only things Google can remove from your phone are things which Google provided via the Market. You agree to that as a condition of getting stuff from the Market. Don't like it, don't use the Market.

With your strawman, you are arguing that they don't have any right to take things they didn't give you in the first place. You're correct, and Google doesn't claim to have any right to take things you installed by other means. Feel free to use the ADK or a non-Google alternative. You can decide whether their TsOS are more or less onerous than Googles.

Crap, I buggered up the app store links:

• SlideMe
• AndAppStore

i swear, both apple and google are badly mismanaging their respective app stores.

still, there are alternatives to android marketplace. http://slideme.org/ is probably the biggest, with http://andappstore.com/AndroidApplications/apps/!index close behind.

Android market is not the only venue to sell/buy/download Android apps.

Just look at the list here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_digital_distribution_platforms_for_mobile_devices#Third-party_platforms

If an Android developer does not like the Android Market he can use another.

An example of a free App market --> http://slideme.org/
If a author doesn't like a publishing house he can shop for another, even if all are Draconian, there is nothing to prevent someone starting a new one offering better terms for authors.

But, can you point to another App Store for the iPhone? And no, Cydia doesn't count, because Apple believes jailbreaking is criminal and has DRM'ed the iPhone to hell with TPMs to prevent other channels of distribution. I know you won't believe me, so please read http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2008/responses/apple-inc-31.pdf before calling me out on this.

It's just sad how many people make up and believe false rationalizations because of something almost like Stockholm Syndrome when it comes to Apple.

Oh, but one can: http://slideme.org/application/i-am-rich

Hell yeah. It's worked before. andWobble is fucking great.

I've been using SplashID for the last 5 years or so. One of the best apps I ever paid for. It exists on pretty much any major OS you might be using on a PC or - and here's the selling point - any mobile phone.

I've had it successfully synchronize between my PC and Nokia E61i. Before that it was syncing with my Sony Ericsson P990i and P910i. There is an Android version of it out, but unfortunately Android Market is not available in Singapore. I was forced to use SlideME to use the very barebones but still functional gbaSafe.

SplashID uses the 256bit Blowfish encryption method and comes with a built in password generator, with quite a few options like limiting the password to lowercase and numbers and even checks for "pronounceability". It comes with a nice set of icons, you can create custom templates with multiple masked fields and the layout is intuitive. There are several export options, with some compatibility with other formats as well as the standard unencrypted CSV excel file.

I hope this move raises people's awareness of the fact that the Android Marketplace application is a Google proprietary application, and the Android Marketplace is in fact restricted to a small list of countries, even for free applications. There are better alternatives, but unfortunately not many developers upload their applications there, I suspect because they assume that everyone can access the official marketplace, and Google doesn't exactly make the restrictions widely known (try finding them from the Marketplace home page, or even from all their legal pages).

Exactly right. There are several popular sites hoping to help here with alternative markets. SlideMe is likely the closest alternative. But if you check you'll find there is something like a half dozen alternatives available and even then authors are completely free to host/push/provide applications from their own websites.

Options galore for sure.