Following last week's
announcement of the Android 3.0 Preview SDK,
Google today announced the Android Market Web store.
Starting today, Google have extended Android Market client from
mobile devices to every desktop. Anyone can now find and share
applications from their favorite browser. Once users select an
application they want, it will automatically be downloaded to their
Android-powered devices over-the-air.
Android Market on the Web dramatically the discoverability of
applications through suggestion-guided searching, deep linking,
social sharing, and other merchandising features.
Google is releasing the initial version of Android Market on the Web
in English and will be extending it to other languages in the weeks
ahead.
The Android Market on the Web is available at
http://market.android.com/
Android Market lets users sell applications in 32 buyer countries
around the world. Google is also introducing today Buyer's Currency
to give usersmore control over how they price their products across
those countries. This feature lets users price their applications
differently in each market and also shows prices in their home
currencies.
Google will be rolling out Buyer's Currency in stages, starting with
developers in the U.S. and reaching developers in other countries
shortly after. Google anticipates it will take approximately four
months to complete this process.
Today also marks the arrival of the In-app Billing on Android Market.
This new service gives developers more ways to monetize their
applications through new billing models including try-and-buy,
virtual goods, upgrades, and more.
The In-app Billing service manages billing transactions between apps
and users, providing a consistent purchasing experience with familiar
forms of payment across all apps. At the same time, it gives users
full control over how their digital goods are purchased and tracked.
Users can let Android Market manage and track the purchases for them
or they can integrate with their own back-end service to verify and
track purchases in the way that's best for their app.
In-app Billing will be launching in stages. Beginning today, Google
is providing detailed documentation and a sample application to help
users get familiar with the service. Over the next few weeks Google
will be rolling out updates to the Android Market client that will
enable users to test against the In-app Billing service. Before the
end of this quarter, the service will be live for users.
The announcement of the store came at a media event for a new version
of Android. Called Honeycomb, the free, open-source operating system
is geared toward tablet computers, which are growing more popular
amid Apple's launch of the iPad last April.
Google showed off a Honeycomb version of its Android operating system
that will debut on the upcoming Motorola Xoom tablet.
Disney Mobile general manager Bart Decrem said the US entertainment
powerhouse had held off bringing its hit "Tap Tap Revenge" music game
to Android devices until songs could be sold to players.
Tap Tap Revenge was one of three Disney games for Android unveiled by
Decrem at the Google event.
The slew of applications for Honeycomb demonstrated after the
presentation included interactive software to link tablet users to
CNN news stories, images and video.
The Honeycomb event took place on the same day that News Corp.'s
Rupert Murdoch unveiled "The Daily," a digital newspaper created
exclusively for the iPad.
The Daily will be sold through Apple's App Store and iTunes and cost
99 cents a week or $39.99 a year.