Next week, in-app purchasing is set to debut on the Android Market. According to the Android Developers web site, the Market is opening up to allow developers to upload and do end-to-end testing of their apps that will be using the new feature. Developers can now upload apps to the Developers Console, create a catalog of in-app products, and set the prices for them. Test accounts can be set up to make sure that all is in working order prior to the launch of in-app purchasing. Although developers can upload these apps, they cannot be published until the day that the new service debuts next week.

Developers seeking more info on how to set up in-app purchasing should click on this link. The Android Developers site says it is essential for developers to read the security guidelines and if you have an app that will take advantage of the new in-app purchasing feature, the site encourages you to upload and test it “right away”.

source: AndroidDevelopersBlog via Gizmodo

The Android Developer's Blog suggests that developers with apps that use in-app purchasing should upload and test the software now, prior to next week's launch of the festure

Google has had its rottweiler chained until now, but the Android team was obviously fed up with the amount of malware in the Market and turned on the kill switch last week.

A “number” of apps which were known to report user data that could possibly be used for malicious purposes, have been taken off Android Market, and Google has used its remote kill switch to extinguish them from Android devices they have been already installed on. The Mountain view crowd has also notified the authorities about the evil software creations, in line with its ” Do no evil” moto.

While it’s a bit creepy that Google, Apple and Microsoft all have kill switches that can intrude in your personal smartphone space, in this case it’s for the better.

The apps have been reporting back to the mothership user-specific data: “For affected devices, we believe that the only information the attacker(s) were able to gather was device-specific (IMEI/IMSI, unique codes which are used to identify mobile devices, and the version of Android running on your device),” says Google.

Still, there might have been attempts to get into more personal details, and the Android team says they’ve patched the vulnerabilities that existed from the Android 2.2.2 version onwards. The type of exploits hackers use is now known, and Google claims it is hard at work to prevent such malicious codes in the future.

Android’s kill switch uses the same technology that allows Android Market on the web to push apps wirelessly to your device.

via Softpedia

It will come as no surprise to most of you that the App Store dominated the mobile markets revenue charts in 2009, but with the huge growth of Android you might not expect to see it record a second straight year of domination. Is this trend going to continue in 2011? With Android on the rise and the Windows Phone Marketplace getting the support of world’s biggest phone maker Nokia, the App Store will finally meet some serious competition.

Actually, its market share slipped more than 10% from the whopping 92.8% in 2009 to 82.7% in 2010. Nevertheless, the App Store had a huge growth of 131.9% on the year. Impressive? Not as much as the growth of Google’s Android Market, which skyrocketed 8 and half times to register a total revenue of $102 million and a market share of nearly 5%. But despite the popularity of the Android platform, the Android Market fails to generate much revenue so far. BlackBerry’s App World and Nokia’s Ovi Store actually had a bigger revenue last year – $165 and $102 million respectively. Nokia’s Ovi Store will merge into Microsoft’s Windows Marketplace ecosystem. Add that the Marketplace already has more than 5,000 apps, it could be a legitimate contender this year.

source: CNET

Depending on where you get your stats from, Android Market has anywhere between 150 000 – 200 000 apps. Google’s Eric Schmidt claimed the low end of that range yesterday at his keynote speech – 150 000, and it may be safer to stick with his story, the guy just seems so careful not to blow it out of proportion.

What’s more astonishing, though, is the astronomical pace at which apps are created. In April last year we wrote that the Android platform has hit 50 000, and it has obviously at least tripled that amount since. Given the pace of new Android activations (Google claimed 300 000 a day on Tuesday), and the advent of Android tablets, dual-core or not, that amount is poised to continue growing with the same breakneck pace.

Google has one huge challenge in front of it, though – monetization. Most developers prefer to make quality apps for iOS, which should now stand at about 350 000 apps strong, because they get greater adoption rates, and clearly make money.

Eric Schmidt said that this is the next thing Google is focusing on – finding ancillary ways for developers to monetize their efforts, so as they make quality apps, instead of flooding Android Market with quickly scribbled free apps to test the water.

via AndroidCentral

Better late than never applies in full force about the Web-based version of Android Market. It is pretty plain, and looks rushed out of the gate, but the OTA app-pushing functionality is quite the treat. If it works properly, that is.

We have a few phones we have used with out test Google ID, and they appeared in our account list. Our biggest complaint is about syncing the info what’s actually on your phone, and what is not. Some of the apps we had installed didn’t show on the Web as installed, but the stranger thing happened when we deleted our test account and master reset the phone. We looked into Android Market online, and these apps still showed as installed.

You want to push new apps to your handset that you just did a master reset on and haven’t logged into yet? No problems, Google can do that too, just that they aren’t going anywhere, but still show as installed on the Web. We thought that the apps we just pushed are hanging somewhere in the air, waiting to be delivered the second we sign-up again with our Google ID. Alas, we weren’t graced with their presence on the handset. We had to log out of our Android Market Web version, sign back in, and then push the apps again. This time everything worked fine.

Other users are reporting problems with OTA installation of apps when you have a custom ROM on your device, but we never expected that to work like a charm either. Overall, Android Market on the Web has its quirks and teething problems, but it is definitely a step in the right direction.

Anybody else having issues with the Web version of Android Market?

ndroid’s head honcho Andy Rubin got up on stage today to say a few quick words about open source and the bright future of tablets, especially the pilot Motorola XOOM. Then he gave the word over to the Android 3.0 Honeycomb development team. They dove into the interface, which we preview here, and then started going into details.

The new Renderscript engine allows for rather smooth animations and transitions, which were demonstrated mainly as 3D carousels for browsing YouTube videos, the book library, and the music player album art. All the action on the XOOM tablet screen was rather smooth, but given that this slate with its dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 chipset has been used as a reference platform for Honeycomb, we’d expect nothing less.

Then the 3D graphics capabilities of the Honeycomb platform were demonstrated with the hack-and-slash Monster Madness, and a new 3D strategy game, Great Battles, which has actually been created from the ground-up to use both cores of dual-core chipsets, thus allowing for hundreds of on-screen battle units working in sync. Great Battles had a dazzling amount of action going on at once on the screen, without the chipset breaking a sweat. Pretty cool that Honeycomb is the first Android version that natively supports multi-core, and actually there will be apps that take advantage of it out of the door.

Then they demoed the camera interface, which now fits much more settings on one screen (duh!). Video chat was demonstrated, but a buddy named Lady Killer was not available, so they called a guy called Anand for 10 seconds to demo that video chat actually works. The usual hissing and voice cracks you can expect from these chats were not spared in the demo conversation, but that’s how it actually works anyway.

CNN took the stage to announce an Android video app they’ve been developing specifically for Honeycomb. Obviously the Honeycomb apps thing is screen fragments, since in a pane on the left we had the news categories, and on the right up to 350 stories as videos or articles, arranged in a scrollable grid. The streaming video enhancements of Android 3.0 have come in handy while developing the app.

CNN’s iReport was a part of the application, mainly by showing you the latest iReport thingies uploaded, and two capture buttons down left for you to contribute, and upload right away to CNN’s website whatever is happening around you (try overthrowing a government with both hands grasping at a tablet, though). It will keep uploading your iReport even if you do something else in the meantime. Courage under fire is what we call it.

The other big things we were expecting today were Web-based Android Market and in-app purchases, and those were indeed announced, although the in-app purchases are coming a bit later. Finally you don’t have to have an Android phone handy to browse, buy and push applications OTA to your handset.

Video review of the applications are also a part of Android Market for the Web at market.android.com (it is active right now, so you can check it out immediately). Finally, a Disney guy got on stage to announce that they are bringing Radio Disney to Android Market for kids to stream music to their Android devices. Jelly Car and TapTap Revenge are also on tap for Android from the Disney studios.

Pretty exciting, and we were most psyched about the fact that Android tablets with Honeycomb already have games, and maybe other apps, that have been created specifically with dual-core in mind. The Web-based Android Market was the cherry on the top, and we are off to take it for a spin. Whenever we stop getting “Invalid request” while trying to log in, that is.

It was only the end of December when the Android Market reached the 200,000 app milestone. Now, only a few weeks later, the Android Market has over 225,000 apps.

We don’t mean to overstate its significance, but app counts are an important means of judging an operating system’s success. Of course there are exceptions. The still-strong BlackBerry OS has a relatively meager 17,000 apps, but that’s because it’s used differently than Android or iOS. BlackBerry users still download 2,000,000 apps per day, but the OS just isn’t as game-friendly.

Apple’s App Store still leads with 300,000 apps, but the Android Market is showing impressive growth considering Apple’s head start. Microsoft is surely jealous, with only 5,000 available apps. Then again, Windows Phone 7 might show growth like BlackBerry, building more of a corporate consumer base.

With Apple’s iPhone expanding to new carriers internationally, and to Verizon here in the U.S., it will be exciting to see how the Android Market keeps pace. Will Android truly overtake the iPhone in 2011? Or will the iPhone’s expansion cement its smartphone dominance?

source: MobileSyrup via AndroLib

AndroLib’s latest count shows that there are now 200,000 apps in the Android Market. Like watching an infant grow up and learn how to walk and talk and head into puberty, the Market has undergone some changes recently, as we reported. The Market has grown a bit faster than predicted. An article from a year ago called for 150,000 apps in the Android Market by year end 2010. The amazing thing is not that the estimate was topped by 50,000 applications, but that at this time last year there were only 16,000 apps in the Android Market.

That stunning growth gives hope to users of Windows Phone 7 models. The Windows Marketplace celebrated a milestone of its own and now has 5,000 apps available. Unlike the apps available for Android a small minority of 28% are free for the Windows Marketplace and 22% are games. AndroLib’s breakdown shows that the free downloads in the Android Market control 63.3% of the pie, and only 14.8% are games.

So what is in store for these two markets for the next 12 months? With the better game playing capabilities of future Android handsets, more games should make their way into the Market. Many Android apps are supported by ads, which explains the large percentage of free apps. But as other payment options become the norm for the store, the future could see more paid apps for Android. As for Windows, the amazing parabolic growth of the Android Market will be a goal to aim for, but it will all come down to handset sales and whether or not phones using Microsoft’s new mobile OS can ring up sales at the same rate as those handsets using Google’s open source OS.

source: AndroLib, WP7applist via Engadget

The Android Market (L) has had parabolic growth while Windows Marketplace (R) shows slower but steady growth

AT&T now has the system for carrier billing of Android Market purchases up and running. The app charges can be automatically added to the monthly phone bill, instead of having to enter your credit card number, or use Google Checkout.

Google has been pushing for this for while now, and T-Mobile implemented the feature about a year ago. The update is being rolled out to users as we speak, and includes the new Market features like new categories, larger app size allowance, as well as the infamous 15 minutes refund window, instead of the oh-so-generous 24 hours, when we could kill a game or two, and then ask for our money back.

Those were the days.

via Electronista

It seems that the Android Market is getting a stealth face lift. Some handsets running Froyo are finding an extra tab on the app listings, offering users the chance to search for related or similar applications to the one that you are checking out. Interestingly, the language between devices is a little different. For example, on the Motorola DROID X. the third tab reads “similar” while the HTC EVO 4G says “related”.

This update to the Android Market could be related to the upcoming Android 2.3 software release. A video of the Gingerbread O.S. shows this change in the Market looking very similar to what can be seen on the video. If your Froyo device was the recipient of the changes and update in the  Android Market, let us know by writing a few words in the comments box below, and let us know what changes you can detect.

source: AndroidCentral

The new third tab on the revised Android Market listing reads “similar” on the Motorola DROID X (L), and “related” on the HTC EVO 4G (R)