Android Market to get paid apps this week?

11 February 2009 by Chris Davies

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android_market_rc-33 Paid applications will be arriving on the Android Market sometime this week, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The news – which would tie in with Google’s own public timescale of Q1 2009 – is likely to encourage developers to code new apps or port existing ones over to the Android platform; up until now, downloads have been free of charge.

While the paper does not quote its sources, only “people familiar with the matter”, T-Mobile has been pushing out the latest RC-33 to US G1 owners which includes new tools for the Android Market. The company is believed to be aiming to have the update completed by February 15th, which might suggest that they’ll flick the switch on paid apps straight after.

Google’s exact Market terms for developers wishing to charge for their applications are unclear. We’re also not sure about what charges developers may face; back in October, Google’s Andy Ruben laid out the bandwidth fees for free apps, but there’s still no official word on any upcoming changes.

[via Gizmodo; thanks Derek!]

Join the Discussion (13 comments)

Jayb222

02-11-2009 05:22 AM

Higher quality apps coming soon then, I hope. I wonder how many apps that are currently free will charge then? The developers will have to step their game up and that only makes it better for us I suppose.
DreamcastDC

02-11-2009 05:49 AM

I know I will probably won't be buying as much apps as I want to, because of the storage space issue.. T-Mobile has to allow us to install apps onto our SD card, or they will lose out on the 30% profit of each app sold.
chewtoy

02-11-2009 06:48 AM

If the market updates in RC33 are required for paid apps, then maybe there is a chance that those of us in the UK will actually get an update soon...
bhain3s

02-11-2009 07:20 AM

they MUST allow sdcard Apps or they will definitely lose more than a share of money, they will likely lose customers to the iphone since Im sure the new one is coming out this summer, we all know once Apple shows a shimmer of a concept that it drops in 2-3 months tops

rynosaur

02-11-2009 07:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bhain3s

they MUST allow sdcard Apps or they will definitely lose more than a share of money, they will likely lose customers to the iphone since Im sure the new one is coming out this summer, we all know once Apple shows a shimmer of a concept that it drops in 2-3 months tops

So . . . .how much do you get paid to troll for Apple, anyway?

benthomasg1

02-11-2009 09:07 AM

I don't know what kind of game im looking for to have on my phone buy 90% out there right now are crap, so maybe when you can buy apps/games they will get better. I know it takes time but still....

Come on now bhain3s no one in there right mind would go from a G1 to an IpHoNe, With all the freedom the G1 has it would be like putting yourself in jail, who would lock there self up like that? lol
munashii

02-11-2009 10:10 AM

It's a step forward for Android, regardless of whether we get better apps right away or not. I think the biggest boom of apps will occur once the G1 stops being the only piece of hardware that runs Android for so many people.

More Android phones, Android Netbooks... I think it's going to be a good year for us.
NPS_CA

02-11-2009 11:33 AM

any speculation on payment method? Tied to your cellphone acct (doubt it) or tied to Google Checkout payment method?
munashii

02-11-2009 01:25 PM

I'd say Google checkout makes the most sense. But I guess we'll be finding out soon enough!
Megabot

02-11-2009 04:30 PM

This is a great development. I wonder if this will make the Android Market a serious competitor for the App Store (hope so).

The quality factor of applications will probably go up this way, one would guess. All we can do now is wait and see.
stopcrazypp

02-11-2009 05:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NPS_CA

any speculation on payment method? Tied to your cellphone acct (doubt it) or tied to Google Checkout payment method?

I say Google Checkout since cellphone acct billing will require Google to work out deals with all the phone companies and it raises problems in how to deal with unlocked phones. Google Checkout would be quite straightforward.
Zeruel

02-11-2009 07:19 PM

I'm going to assume that billing will be tied directly to your cellphone account. The reason for this is that developers that sell apps in the marketplace get 70% of the sale, 30% goes to the phone service carrier and to cover billing settlement fees (the cut the credit card companies take) and Google takes 0%.
jerp2345

02-12-2009 09:21 PM

I think that it will be google checkout because the market app info says it can access your google accounts gmail, android services, google checkout accounts so I would say google checkout might be the way