Each application includes a description page chock full of images and information for each application. The web-based application profile includes high resolution graphics, including screenshots and icons. It is excellent for developers looking to put their best foot forward. These descriptions also include user reviews and a barcode to help you locate the application using your device. If you enjoy an application by a particular developer, the description page also includes a list of other apps created by the same developer.

If you find a “must-have” application, you can purchase the app directly from the website. The purchase process is similar to that on an Android device, complete with the familiar list of permissions. Once you complete your purchase on the website, the application will automatically download to your Android device. The list of personal Android devices available for this cloud-based app delivery mechanism can be found in the My Account section of the website.

Overall, this web-optimized version of the Android Market is an excellent addition to the Android platform. It makes browsing and finding applications a breeze and the cloud-based delivery mechanism is extremely convenient.

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First and foremost, you’ll see a carousel of promoted applications on the home and category screens. Widgets and Live wallpapers will get their own categories. The application content ratings will go live, and you will get all of an app’s information on a single page, instead of on several tabs. In addition there will be better filtering for devices – if your phone can’t handle the application, it won’t see it. Now, here is the catch - currently, you have 24 hours to uninstall a paid app and get your money back. But Google says most apps are refunded within 15 minutes, so that is what the new window will be. Remember – you will have 15 minutes to try an application and uninstall it for a refund. You can still purchase an application on a trial basis, it’s just that you’ve got 15 minutes to check out the goods.

Look for the Android Market update soon.

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The rating levels will include:

• All
• Pre-teen
• Teem
• Mature

Starting next week all applications that get submitted for update or initial entrance into the Android Market will need to have a rating included by the developer. In addition, developers will have the next few weeks to give a rating to all of their current applications on the Android market, if they fail to do so they will be labeled “Mature” until the proper rating is submitted.

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If so, here’s the email I received earlier from Google Android group:

Hello

We are writing to inform you of the unavailability of projected service affects Android market, which requires your attention.

We plan to perform the service console developer Android market on Thursday, 18 November 2010 from 10 am to 4 pm Pacific standard time; during this time will only have access to the console developer http://market.android.com/publish. you can view a list of applications and error reporting; however, you won’t be able to download new applications or upgrade existing applications should not be impacted the publish status of your application and use Android market app on the phone.

Thanks, and we appreciate your patience while we work to improve the Android market.

With respect,
Android market group

So a couple of things to note here:

1. If you are a developer, do not schedule any major launches or updates on November 18th.
2. This could be a simple housekeeping exercise or can we see enhanced features and additional functionality

Earlier this year at Google IO, we heard some awesome plans Google had for Android market in the coming years. Yesterday at the Web 2.0, Eric Schmidt talked about the possibility to build upon the “application level” as he called it, and even discussed possibilities for the distribution of digital media.

Combine that verbage and I immediately think – Google’s version of iTunes?. I wouldn’t jump to that conclusion straight away, but remember that back in July we were promised Google music service to launch at the end of the year (or early 2011). When they promised “a day you will never forget”, Apple announced that the Beatles were finally available on iTunes. Although it may have strong monetary effects, in terms of strategy it is not that big of a deal. Google might be building the foundation for their own version of “the day you will never forget “?

I’m sure they are working on something big, but I doubt we’ll see anything significant. Nevertheless, we have a lot of Android market goodies look forward …

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It’s only been a few short weeks since Google first announced this new licensing technology, and it has already been broken. Android Police has already cracked the new licensing technology. Not only did they crack it, they also made it clear that the process was fairly simple, going so far as to suggest that the crack could be packaged into an application that would be able to break the licensing protection on every program on the phone with ease.

This is great news for anyone looking to get some paid applications for free, but it’s not good news for the Android community as a whole. Piracy is one of the reasons that applications just don’t sell as well on the Android Market as they do on Apple’s App Store. Android users have yet to see programs from major software publishers due to the lack of security inherent to the Android Market. Until Google can come up with a copy protection scheme that actually works, it’s unlikely that we’ll see any of those big developers and publishers bringing their applications and games to Android phones.

Google now finds itself in a sticky situation. The new licensing service turned out to be underwhelming, and they pushed it out the door with full confidence that it would help ease concerns over piracy. To have the service cracked wide open in such a short amount of time makes them look ill-equipped to protect the developers who want to sell their products on the Market. Despite Android’s ever increasing adoption rate, Google may find themselves in hot water if they can’t come up with a firm solution to the piracy problem. If developers don’t bring new quality products to the platform, Google will have a hard time keeping users interested.

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57% of Android Applications are Free

Google App Inventor for Android

Android Market vs AppStore

Google seems to be very keen to make Android the most popular mobile operating system. Few days ago the company announced new revolutionary service, which allows all users to easily create applications for their phones. Basically users will not require any programming skills or knowledge to create an application, and anybody will be able to do it.  This service is called Google App Inventor and is available for users to register their interest. The official website says that users will be given access to the service in the coming weeks. Users will be able to create and download applications to their phones, but not to other Android users at this stage.

In the application’s main window you see building blocks, which are used to create applications. You will get access to various settings, access to all phone functions, such as SMS messaging, Twitter, motion sensor, etc. Basically we are getting a powerful tool to freely express our individuality. After playing with the App Inventor for a whole evening, I can say that this application can and will change our perception about writing applications as a whole. Google is giving  a very powerful tool to non-programmers, and I am sure that many of them will use it to show off their creative potential.

No other company on the market offers such a tool to its users and they are not even close to be able to offer such functionality. I strongly recommend you to try this application – it is a revolution, which should not be underestimated. Latest figures show that Android Market has around 70 000 applications, and that the next milestone barrier of 100 000 applications will be reached in the near future. I will not even try  to guess the number of applications that will flood the market, when the App Inventor goes out of the beta stage. It will be stunning. For the first time the company turned not to the developers, but to all users, and provided a tool for creating programs for their phones. This is a truly amasing offering. Below is a video, which explains the process of creating a simple ‘meow-meow’ application. Personally, I am delighted of the number of opportunities that App Inventor opens for Android.

Distimo is a company that specializes on mobile application market analysis for different platforms. They have recently released interesting statistics on the proportion of free vs. paid applications for the Android Market, AppStore, OVI Store and others. They have also listed top 10 most popular free and paid applications for Android. The results are quite interesting, and in the case of our beloved “Market” entertaining.

First let’s look at the free vs. paid application comparison chart.

It is easy to notice in the above chart that the percentage of free programs on the Android Market is higher than on any other mobile platform – 57%. By the way, not so long ago this value was closer to 50%, so it slightly increased over time. This statistics has its positive and negative aspects. The good news is that free software for Android is thriving. Bad news – the quality of most programs is far from being “good”, many applications just copy each other.

Two interesting tables below are showing us the most popular programs for Android. As you can see, Google Maps and Pandora Radio are the most popular free apps, while Beautiful Widgets is the top paid application.

[via Distimo]

[Android Market image via resnickscity.wordpress.com]

Although the online version of the Android Market, is still inconvenient and almost useless, Google made one small, but important improvement – category selection. This is a small step in the right direction, and, hopefully, one day Market will become similar to the AppStore and provide users with advanced features.

When you open the Market web page, you will not only see three tabs with the featured,  top free and top paid applications, but will now also be able to view categories. Categories are only available in top free and top paid tabs. When selecting a category, you will be presented with the best applications from this category in the left pane. Once you select an application you are interested in, its description and screen shots will be shown in the right pane. Quite simple and elegant solution.

I’m hoping that Google will make few more improvements to the website before the Google I/O conference.