Android App MarketPlace Limited to Smart Phones

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Android App MarketPlace Limited to Smart Phones

Non-Smart Phones, ie Tablets, Too Bad For You!

incrediBILL

10:17 pm on Apr 4, 2010 (gmt 0)

This is absolutely stunningly idiotic:

That’s because Google is keeping its app store off all Android devices that aren’t smartphones.

[gigaom.com...]

According to a Google Spokesperson:

We ask our partners to build compatible devices, and we provide handset manufacturers with a Compatibility Test Suite. ... Only devices that pass this test will be allowed access to Android Market, which ensures only compatible devices can download apps from our market.

Considering all the Android apps know what features they need, the marketplace could be easily filtered based on the capabilities of the device accessing the marketplace.

For a company that claims they want to "index the world" this should be child's play, instead they're being childish.

All Android devices should be able to access all the apps they are capable of running without making customers jump through hoops to download and install them.

Silly things like this will obviously help the iPad dominate the market.

gpilling

2:23 pm on Apr 5, 2010 (gmt 0)

the app store is a big disappointment in terms of usability too. Could the search company trouble themselves to put a search box in the market?

madk

2:33 pm on Apr 5, 2010 (gmt 0)

the app store is a big disappointment in terms of usability too. Could the search company trouble themselves to put a search box in the market?

The market app does have built in search. You can also use global search on Android to search the market. As far as I know this has been in the OS since 1.6.

incrediBILL

3:10 pm on Apr 5, 2010 (gmt 0)

the app store is a big disappointment in terms of usability too.

Supposedly that's being addressed real soon.

However, that still doesn't help Android laptops, netbooks or tablets coming out that don't get access to the Market at all.

If they aren't going to fix the Android Market so that any device running Android can download appropriate apps for that device, then they should stop building those non-smart phone devices now because customers without access to apps will be furious.

Sierra_Dad

5:29 pm on Apr 5, 2010 (gmt 0)

In the developer community, it is often suspected that the Android Market was written by a high school intern in a day, and the intern never checked in the source code - which is why it has never gotten better.

If they aren't going to fix the Android Market so that any device running Android can download appropriate apps for that device, then they should stop building those non-smart phone devices now because customers without access to apps will be furious.

Not entirely true. Apps can run on these "non approved" devices and there are third party stores, such as AndAppStore on the internet and bundled on some of these devices.

But I agree that this only coming up because Google is being silly about this. They don't seem to want to provide apps if there isn't a carrier around to collect 30% of the revenue. It has taken them two years to make apps available for purchase in *Canada*, not exactly a third world country.

There are reasons why some apps may not run on these non approved device - because in addition to the android framework, there are Google Apis - such as Google Maps, that aren't on them. But this is all clearly specified, or could be, in the app's manifest and the Android Market could figure it out.

I say more power to these third party stores if Google won't provide this service. It means I have to submit to twelve small stores instead of one big one, though.

IanKelley

6:34 pm on Apr 5, 2010 (gmt 0)

In the developer community, it is often suspected that the Android Market was written by a high school intern in a day, and the intern never checked in the source code - which is why it has never gotten better.

Reasonable explanation :-) The app store really is awful compared to other Google products and services.

The same goes for some of their other mobile-centric apps (Facebook for Android is a good example). Google's corporate size is definitely showing, some of these teams are far removed from the usual company standards.

I think it's safe to say the app store will be getting a complete overhaul some time soon, I can't imagine they would leave something so important to their goals in it's current state.

TheMadScientist

10:14 pm on Apr 5, 2010 (gmt 0)

I can't imagine they would leave something so important to their goals in it's current state.

Exactly, it's not like it's something petty like your privacy their forgetting about or playing around with it's their market share possibly at stake... I'm sure they'll probably get to fixing the issues as soon as they've made the uninformed people who still think privacy is important happy by having those of us who don't want Buzz opt out again when they ask us to 'confirm' our settings... Please Confirm: Did you really mean no thanks before?

harbs

7:22 am on Apr 6, 2010 (gmt 0)

the app store is a big disappointment in terms of usability too. Could the search company trouble themselves to put a search box in the market?

You have to use an Android phone to access the full functionality of the Market app store. I think you may be trying to access it in your normal browser.
IMHO, the market apps store has been awesome since Android 1.5 and now with Android 2.1, the UI is much nicer and I feel its much easier to navigate.

gpilling

4:11 am on Apr 7, 2010 (gmt 0)

I have an Android phone (Samsung Moment on Sprint) and I am still unimpressed with the Android market. The third arty sites are much better at apps than the market itself. Yes you can search (on the phone), but you can't filter your results. At least my kids enjoy playing "Abduction". Nothing beats bouncing cows for entertaining a 6 year old.