Slashdot Mirror
Android Gets Carrier-Operated European App Store
Andrew Smith writes "Android fragmentation begins: EuroDroid reports that Vodafone will launch an Android app store in June, to fill in the European gaps where Google hasn't yet launched the official Android app store. Worrying quote: 'All apps will be pre-selected and tested by [Vodafone's after-sales processor] Arvato Mobile for compatibility with our devices.' Just a few days ago Slashdot covered the suggestion by Barry O'Neil, ex-president of Namco Bandai Network Europe, that it could be wise for Google to 'hand over the entire management of the Android Market to carriers, OEMs, and trusted publishers.'"
It seems to me that Vodafone will simply be another repository for android apps - except that they decide what apps to show. What would prevent anybody else from just duplicating everything but the apps over which Vodafone has copyright control?
To me, this seems more like Vodafone creating a windows app store: yes, they control what is shown, but I can still go to download.com, private sites and individual developers to get Windows apps. Same thing for Android. Well, except for those who have Vodafone phones... I'm sure there'll be some trickery on there to prevent users from getting apps from anywhere but the Vodafone store.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
What about the contries that have neither Vodaphone or Android paied apps :(
www.aleo.no
What? I live in the Netherlands and my Android phone has this "Market" thing. If that's not the Android app store then what is it?
The 7th. comment and already Godwin's law!
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
So Vodaphone customers can buy apps that have been tested on their device and without paying by credit card (I presume it's harder to steal money from them this way). Of course, if you can't use other app. stores, then this might be a problem. But I wonder if Google would allow companies to use the Android name if it cannot connect to their marketplace.
If anyone has more info on whether it will be the only app. store configured/configurable, please let us know.
Having multiple stores is what nearly killed Windows Mobile until 6.5. The fact that users had to dig around and search for apps, find a website to download the .cab or .exe file, then install it manually made impulse buying of stuff (a big source of cash) impossible.
The nice thing about one app store is that if one wants an app, they can search for it and find it in one place. This also makes it easier to handle funding and selling of apps.
Having multiple app stores just means it is harder to find what one wants. Is the app on one cellular carrier's store and nowhere else? Is it on the generic Android app store? This also means that an app maker has to deal with multiple stores and their ways of handling purchases and returns.
When you say that a software ecosystem is fragmented, it means that applications written for one target device/distro/whatever, won't work on another without changes. The degree of fragmentation is how much effort is required to support each target.
Having separate app stores does not create fragmentation, as any user can still get the applications elsewhere. This is like saying the sky is falling because Walmart and Target both exist and sell different products, rather than there being one official retailer at which all comrades must shop. There is convenience in having everything in one place, but it also has problems with consolidation of power. This can be abused to force people out of the market, as Apple has demonstrated wonderfully. Even if the one true app store has an open and fair policy at first, time changes everything, so the ability to get apps in other manners is essential.
For the convenience of their customers, Google should open the main app store to worldwide ASAP, but it does take time to wade through the legalities of that. Till then, these other repositories can fill the gap, and the fact that they can exist at all is great.
Especially when different stores have different pay out rules. If android has umpteen different stores where you have make X in sales before they pay you vs. Apple's model of one place where we at least know the rules....we'll take apple.
But even with our current apps, the download ratio is about 300:1, iphone:android versions. Even blackberry to android is 22:1.
"The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
This shows yet again that no matter how open the consumer device is, as long as the carrier operator does not endorse some sort of net neutrality, openness will be only superficial.
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
This i almost like comparing the Linux community with just Ubuntu's software centre. Things on Ubuntu are going to work on Ubuntu, other apps might not. This is just going to help compatibility.
Yikes! These are the same guys that want to charge you $$$ for a 10 second ringtone when you already have the entire song on your phone?
No thanks.
I do believe I see a wall going up around your 'Android will kill Apple' garden.
Huh? Surely this is the antithesis of Apple's approach, the new store will be in addition to the Google one. Choice, choice! You can use either one, the walled one or the unwalled one!
"Android fragmentation begins"? I don't think so. It's in full-swing.
Seems like every week some marketing dweeb comes up with the brilliant idea to create yet another app store. Motorola and Lenovo have their own, as does China Mobile. That's not even counting the dime-a-dozen independent entries with names like Handango, Cellmania, AndAppStore, MobiHand, GetJar, Nexva, SlideMe, etc. etc.
I am an Android developer, and get an email every week from yet another app store. Each has its own custom requirements and contract overhead, and they expect us to do the work for free for the "privilege" of joining their flock and whatever scheme-of-the-day they are concocting as their business plan.
No thanks. I dump those emails and stick with the Android Market. For all its flaws, developers need to show solidarity and work towards improving it. The alternative is to give away your work and place it in the hands of the likes of wireless carriers, who will continue their land grab game at the expense of the developers, innovators, and consumers.
Especially when different stores have different pay out rules. If android has umpteen different stores where you have make X in sales before they pay you vs. Apple's model of one place where we at least know the rules....we'll take apple.
But even with our current apps, the download ratio is about 300:1, iphone:android versions. Even blackberry to android is 22:1.
How do you know that? you can measure the apps that I installed from the web? Oh apple doesn't let you install apps from the web? maybe that's why the store has more purchases.
Android based phones have been available in my country for over a year now. Google still hasn't gotten around to enabling paid apps for this region.
Yes, I know it's because of Checkout, but I honestly don't care at this point. They've had enough time to get Checkout going, if they can't be arsed to do that they should use one of the gazillion payment services that already _do_ support this region. Just let us bloody buy apps!
I wonder when all these gazillion different app stores realises that they're just repositories and as such, they should just fix one (branded?) client that uses repositories similar to how synaptic/apt works? It's bound to happen sometime.
systemd is not an init system. It's a GNU replacement.
I can't see where in the summary or the article it says that the phones won't also carry the standard Market.
I'm sure the carriers would attempt to muscle in anyway, but there would be less room for them to make this move if Google did a better job with the market.
Here are just a handful of ways the market is crap
1) No way to browse on the web and download to your phone. I can't even post an http link to my app that will work on the desktop and on the device*.
-Apple does it through iTunes
-Palm does it by sending you an sms link to your phone
2) Actually, you can't even browse the appstore on your desktop without going to some third party scraped site. I challenge you to find VLC Remote on the android.com/market
3) Developers have to price apps in the currency they live. Seriously - I live in the UK, so you have to buy my app for £x. It's insane. And particularly after apple have demonstrated a simple tier-based model that is simple for consumers
4) Loads of countries just can't buy stuff. If this is hard for you google - just talk to Mobihand or one of the many mobile app-store companies who have figured out how to take international payments
5) Even if your country does support sales, the international billing means that credit cards keep getting declined (us credit cards don't want to authorise $1 for an international sale via google checkout).
This would be excusable for a few months as the store rolled out.
It is long past a joke now.
*I built a site that at least lets you create an http link for your android app which will work on the device and on the web.
http://and-download.hobbyistsoftware.com/
VLC Remote for iPhone and Android
Having multiple stores is what nearly killed Windows Mobile until 6.5. The fact that users had to dig around and search for apps, find a website to download the .cab or .exe file, then install it manually made impulse buying of stuff (a big source of cash) impossible.
It also made it a viable platform for internal business applications. As far as I can see, Apple does not provide a mechanism for this, and WM7 taketh it away.
Correlation is not causation. If having multiple app download places is a problem, how come it isn't for Nokia at 40-50% of the mobile market? Or for the 95% of the market that isn't Apple? Or for 100% of platforms on the desktop?
The fact that users had to dig around and search for apps
Um, no, you're confusing things. By all means have a store where it is easy to find applications, but I fail to see how an additional store makes it hard. And I fail to see how using Google or just visiting the website is harder than using an application store's search engine. Any half decent bog standard phone has been doing web access for the last five years now, if your phone can't handle that, that's a problem.
Is the app on one cellular carrier's store and nowhere else? Is it on the generic Android app store?
Blimey, I wonder how you ever managed to use a computer with questions like these. Do you even have any applications other than those installed by the company you bought your PC from? I remember when Slashdot used to be a place for computer geeks - not anymore.
Wow, the second to least popular company in the mobile market is more popular than a company that's even less popular than it.
If you're a commercial company, maybe you could read the rules of the different stores, and choose the best? And I'm confused - on what basis do you "know the rules" for Apple, and not any of the other stores? Oh yes, that's right, because you did read the rules.
And heaven forbid, maybe you could have a website for people to download your application. Commercial stores that take a cut should be in addition. Are you actually a developer, or are you just making this up? If everyone acted like you, one wonders how people could ever have released software without Apple to hold your hand:
"But how can we possibly release an application for Windows, without Microsoft to allow us to release it on their site, and take a cut!"
Actually, Apple does provide a way for companies to build and deploy internal apps that do not need to be distributed through the app store.
http://developer.apple.com/programs/iphone/enterprise/
If you don't want any choice in where you get your apps from, buy an iPhone. Presumably since you have an Android phone, choice, flexibility and openness matter.
I've bought programs for PalmOS and Windows Mobile (5 & 6) from PalmGear, PocketGear and the like. It wasn't difficult, payment was straightforward and 'it just worked'. Perhaps if people find that too complicated then they need to get an iPhone, and make sure they get rid of that complicated PC and buy a Mac and only use the software that Apple provides (since it would be too complicated to go shopping for anything else).
it doesn't, but the "DEAD ZONES" are places where there is no access to the marketplace
Wait! Whats a sig?
In this case, we're talking about a carrier app store, at the exclusion of all other app stores.
So, you can only download Vodafone-approved apps.
This would be like buying a computer from AOL (I know AOL doesn't sell computers, but bear with me here,) and they only let you install applications that they feel don't use too much bandwidth, or that they can make enough money off of. For example, you'll never see a torrent client, and you might see a streaming movie program, but only if the developer charges a large monthly fee (that they get a significant cut of) for it.
And, you'll have to jump through major hoops to get your app approved by the Vodafone app store, most likely, and only get a small cut.
So I've been trawling the android forum, and apparently the lack of market app in certain countries is due to the carriers removing the market from the firmware. Reflashing the firmware apparently includes the market irrespective of location:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Android+Market/thread?tid=77c72b9d5214d01b&hl=en.
also worth noting (for those of us with the market) - check out ePetition Open Android, a petition to google to ensure everyone gets the market
Wait! Whats a sig?
I don't think fragmentation is just beginning on Android. Half the phones run v1 and updates are rare. It's fragmented!
One reason businesses are cool to Android is the malware. Until there is an app store with an approval process, businesses are going to stay away from Android. So these guys are going in the right direction with apps.
But the phones can still only hold a small number of apps and there's still no C apps.
Actually, you can download the .apk on the phone and automatically install it. As far as I know, that's not possible on the iPhone. I think this is an important feature. Also, I like that I don't need iTunes to install my apps.
Having multiple stores is what nearly killed Windows Mobile until 6.5. The fact that users had to dig around and search for apps, find a website to download the .cab or .exe file, then install it manually made impulse buying of stuff (a big source of cash) impossible.
What you describe is having no stores, not having multiple stores.
The nice thing about one app store is that if one wants an app, they can search for it and find it in one place. This also makes it easier to handle funding and selling of apps.
Do you seriously expect any app developer to submit his apps to this Vodafone market thingy, but not to Google's Market?
But only if they have more than 500 employees. In my experience, these apps are usually written bespoke by a smaller, outside company.
But not even Apple has a single application store.
The one I access, which is the Swedish store, does not have the same applications as the UK store or US store has.
I had a bug in my Iphone for a while where it would always connect to the UK store when opening the "App Store" application. When trying to buy an application, even free ones, I'd get a message that I was not allowed to purchase applications in this store. It was really annoying when the application I'd found wasn't available for purchase in the Swedish store, which happened from time to time.
Personally, I don't see much difference in having country-specific stores with similar but not identical content and having operator-specific or brand-specific stores with similar but not identical content.
Actually, there might even be some benefits to having operator-specific stores, since these can reside inside the operators network and could thus, if the operator so chooses, offer application downloads without a traffic fee.
(Like how many operators offer free SMS or voice traffic to other handsets inside their own network.)
/.Mattsson - My native language is not English, so please don't whine over linguistic errors. (That's lame anyway...)