Google Android developers can sell apps to consumers through Android Market in only 13 countries. That's a major disadvantage for developers trying to compete with Apple's iPhone App Store.
Google's Android Market is criticized for spam, piracy
and inadequate security, but there is another big issue that is hindering the
application store's growth.
That snafu is paid applications, or the lack thereof in
Android Market. Android developers can sell apps to consumers through Android
Market in only 13 countries.
These countries
include the United States, Canada, U.K., Australia, Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands,
New Zealand, Spain and Switzerland.
Missing is support in much of Europe, including all
Scandinavian countries, and China, where mobile apps are consumed like
water. Google has said it is working hard on boosting its paid app
support, but details are vague.
Considering that Android phones are available in 46
countries, users can purchase Android apps in fewer than 30 percent
of the available market, as Royal Pingdom
pointed out Aug. 16.
Meanwhile, Apple's App Store, considered the template for
the mobile app era, supports paid apps in 90 countries.
People can snicker, quibble and bicker all they want
about the advantages and disadvantages between Apple's proprietary iPhone
ecosystem and Google's open-source platform.
But Pingdom correctly noted iPhone developers have a big
advantage in selling their wares over Android developers because they have more
users to target.
Pingdom further posited that this discrepancy between the
number of free and paid apps is the reason why there is so much application
piracy in the Android Market, which offers 70,000-plus apps.
When people can't buy what they want, they steal it.
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