Amazon Building Its Own Android App Market? 165
Thinkcloud writes "Speculation abounds that Amazon is planning their own storefront for selling Android apps, one in which they, not the developers, will set the price and decide which apps to feature (and which apps to exclude from the store all together). It's a shrewd move and smart strategy for Amazon, though its impact on app sellers is less certain."
The Android Market sucks (Score:5, Insightful)
The issue here is not just that Amazon might want its own app store, a reasonable desire. The issue is that the current Android market really sucks. Google does not have good expertise in the curation methods that an appstore needs; right now, you have two options browsing the appstore: you can look at top, all-time sales. Games that have been out for two years top these charts, not surprisingly.
Or, you can look at the raw feed of 'newest'. In games, that would be 64 underwear puzzle games, three things in Japanese, and a tech demo of rotating lines, controlled by some sensor or other.
Google's traditional approach to this sort of problem is search, but search does not work well here, and there's significant market opportunity. Hence, Amazon.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
So what will Amazon be offering that's different? (Score:2)
I'm asking because their terms aren't likely to attract too many top-end developers. Seriously, would you want Amazon to set prices for your product, and tack in DRM?
That last bit is uglier than the rest - even if you're a big fan of DRM, the fact that Amazon can literally modify your binaries at will (read: potentially break something) is enough by itself to drive off any developer with more than two working neurons.
Now if Amazon drops those two parts, they'd stand half a chance, IMHO.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm hoping they will offer Amazon products and media.
I'm not really interested in buying Android apps from them but I'll happily buy their books, music, movies, and other merchandise. And when I do I don't want some other company taking a cut or interfering in the process.
And though I doubt that I would be buying apps from them rather then the Google Market, I wouldn't rule it out.
There's nothing wrong with this (Score:2)
I love this model because if Amazon wants to offer something more appealing for creators and consumers, they'll sell more "stuff" and people will be happier. And if this is popular more merchants will set up something similar.
This is a good thing. Everybody getting more choices, everybody will make more money.
Re: (Score:2)
There are ways to circumvent this using foreign SIM cards or rooting the phone but that's rather cumbersome and I don't think I should have to do it. Come on Google, I want to pay money. It's the biggest no-brainer I've seen in quite a
Re: (Score:2)
Google today opened up market for more contries, both buyers and sellers.
What i would like to see tho is for them to seriously cut back, or perhaps make more fine grained, their "google experience" requirements. Right now any device that wants to have market and the google services apps (you cant opt for just market or just a subset of said apps) needs to have (pr android 2.2) a 2 mpix camera, 3 way accelerometer, 3 way compass, gps and bluetooth (no problem with that, as bluetooth have way more utility the
Re: (Score:2)
Search for 'Puzzle' in the market. Some douche uses puzzle as their developer name and apparently Google's search is so bad that it always ranks the developer name first, so you get pages and pages of this idiot's crappy waste of space applications. Yeah, the market is broken.
Why would amazon do this? (Score:2)
Doesn't make sense.. They have no phone, no tablet/pad/handheld device. Their ebook reader doesn't even run android. If anything, Barnes and Noble would be a better match to merge an ebook/app store within for some apps.. but amazon? Thats just fragmentation for fragmentation sake
Re: (Score:2)
That's like saying that Amazon doesn't make computers or game consoles so why do they sell video games? They can make money on software sales if their store offers things that the Android app store does not; things like content filters, price filters, a decent popularity ranking system, maybe even lower prices.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe they want to move into LCD tablets to at least have a product on parity with the iPad. If one really wanted eInk they get the standard models. If they want consumption then Amazon has that covered as well. Amazon now sells digital Movies, Music, soon apps, etc... having 'a store' to sell them all on an android device is compelling.
Fragmentation? No. (Score:2)
I don't think it's fragmentation but this nugget:
one in which they, not the developers, will set the price and decide which apps to feature
is a deal killer. No way would anyone I know work on an app and not be able to set the price. That's basically Amazon telling the developer what his/her time is worth.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Is that really how you think people will look for apps they need, by going to the Amazon App store? I know no one who works this way. When I need an app, I hit Google. Any developer worth anything is going to have a product page on the web. They might have a link to Amazon (or wherever) to actually buy the app, but it's just a place to put in my credit card. Why restrict your search to one storefront?
The fact that Amazon wants to set the price is insane. Even Apple isn't that stupid. Imagine the uproar in t
Re: (Score:2)
I work this way. Amazon's prices are on par with anybody else's, so any more I just go straight to Amazon to search and buy. For big purchases I may price shop elsewhere to be sure, but they've always been dependable. So now I have one place where pretty much all of my purchasing history is, which makes it really easy to do warranty exchanges, etc.
If Amazon brought a similarly good user experience to an Android App Store (The Amazoid store?) I would jump ship and never look at the crappy Google store again.
Re: (Score:2)
Exactly. If there were one thing I could explain to Android app developers, its to put a big qrcode link [kaywa.com] to their app's Market entry on their website. That one thing lets me download their app quickly and easily while sitting in front of my PC.
Amazon can bring a lot to the table (Score:2)
Google is an awesome company but they have really bungled the social aspect with quite a few of their services (probably because they fear to assume the big-brother role that Facebook and Amazon don't mind adop
Re: (Score:2)
I can see them using it as a retail market tool, like hey this week apps X,Y,Z are 30% off. Go rush out and get them!!! Type of things that use the power of their marketing channel as a way of enticing sales. Still, I'd like some form of control over the powers that Amazon wields in this way.
Re: (Score:2)
More importantly... doesn't this come under price fixing?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
No, this is nothing like price fixing. Price fixing is when the majority of sellers of a given product to a certain market agree to set the same price, to artificially control supply and demand.
It could be price fixing if Amazon and Google where fixing the price between themselves and sell the apps for the same price, regardless of the app developers' wishes.
(this is horizontal price fixing. There is also vertical, when the producer colludes with the retailers. This also doesn't happen here, and besides it
Price fixing and the List Price clauses (Score:2)
But what of this "List Price" system in the terms? The formula in the leak makes no sense to me, but it looks like Amazon's aim is to prevent developers pricing their apps lower at competing app stores.
If I could charge what I like when selling my app elsewhere, I wouldn't care what margin Amazon takes. But if they sell the app for $10, and I get $7 back from them, I may want to sell the app for $8 on my own website, so my return is about the same no matter where it is bought. There would be no cross-sub
Re: (Score:2)
Think of this in terms of other industry: Barnes and Noble could freely decide that every book that they sell will cost $50, despite the fact that those books come from a number of different authors. This would not be price fixing, and I imagine that many customers seeking cheaper books would go to stores like Amazon, etc.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
It's a travesty that stores get to set the prices for anything that they sell! And they get to choose what they sell! In the name of freedom we must force stores to sell what we want them to sell and at the price we want to sell it at!
Re: (Score:2)
The stores set the prices based on demand and what they pay for the item. In this case, it sounds like Amazon is setting the price from the get-go with no developer input.
On Apple's AppStore you could submit a $999.99 Fart App. They would likely reject it but remember the "I Am Rich" app that did nothing for $1k?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Some will not, but it depends on how they handle this. If you submit your terribly complex application and Amazon says it's worth $.99, I expect you'll have the option not to list it. If they come anywhere close to your estimated selling price I'd guess you'd be pleased to broaden your reach... especially if Amazons service becomes popular.
I don't think this discourages development for the platform, so long as you can list the product with Google either way. Exclusivity could prove to be the real deal bre
Re: (Score:2)
Strange how developers of boxed desktop and notebook software have been happily going with that deal for decades.
Re: (Score:2)
Amazon's scheme is to have them set the price for both themselves and the app developer.
Re: (Score:2)
If you've ever sold to a retailer you'll find that you can try to set any price you want, then the retailer will tell you how much they're willing to pay and you either take it or leave it.
You can ask Amazon to sell your app for any price you like. Amazon will then tell you what price they're willing to sell it for, and you can take it or leave it.
Re: (Score:2)
The programmers (Score:2)
Except, what developer would willingly agree to hand over his product to this kind of a store?
Is having an app that's featured in a walled garden store where other people have control over your app a desirable thing nowadays?
In other words : are there programmers who would like to take in the ass from amazon?
Re: (Score:2)
If Amazon could sell more copies of each app, it could compensate the loss per individual sale.
Re: (Score:2)
http://www.amazon.com/software-business-education-finance-childrens/b/ref=sa_menu_sw4?ie=UTF8&node=229534 [amazon.com]
Apparently lots of them. Big names too.
What's really needed... (Score:2)
(disclaimer - I currently don't own an Android device, and don't have access to the store, so this may already exist)
... is a community-centric app evaluation system, so that rogue apps can be flagged up and possibly pulled from the store. We keep hearing about how Android apps are apparently harvesting data and shipping it off to some website or another. Or accessing people's phonebooks.
(yes, yes - I know that people are warned about these things, but a lot of end users are dumb and blinding press "YES" w
Re: (Score:2)
I downloaded it just to mess with you!
Google == goggle (Score:2)
Google has really had their goggles (or blinders) on about the whole app market.
While they've managed to create a lot of market momentum behind what is fundamentally a hardware platform, they have been unable to tie that to their software based platform.
Is this because of their 'open' stance? Perhaps, but that's only going to be able to be discerned over time.
As hardware has become 'commodotized', so has software, and so too will the 'great' web services like google.
It's only a matter of time.
A more important question (Score:2)
Is Amazon building it's own Android phone?
Re: (Score:2)
or android tablet, ebook reader...
competitive advantage (Score:2)
Amazon is already a major e-retailer, so they have some advantage there. I think the real question is whether they'll add value to the user/customer's app-selection process. yes, Amazon already has some you-may-also-like, and user reviews, but can Google do a better job of mining such data to produce value? Amazon doesn't seem to take this as seriously as Netflicks, for instance. can Google obtain some advantage from, for instance, crash reporting? perhaps they're in a better position to profile, for i
Amazon Building Its Own Android App Market? (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't know. Are they? You tell us...
How about we post the news article if they announce one? I really hate these speculative 'question' posts.
New Android phone to have six buttons?
Display manufacturers to use synthetic sapphire glass?
Tommy Lee Jones to star in new motion picture?
OT: Why can't we link to actual sources? (Score:3, Insightful)
What about international taxes? (Score:2)
I seem to remember discussion about a big problem with the Android Market being that each app seller had to work out the international tax issues for each country they were selling to. If so, that's a huge problem and maybe Amazon has an opening if they take care of all those messy details like Apple does.
Re:Joy, another app store... (Score:5, Interesting)
> Just what Android needs, more fragmentation.
Yes. Because another STORE represents "fragmentation".
I can't believe anyone modded you as insightful. You're retarded. Another store just means another source of stuff to buy.
It's like the Cydia store but you don't have to hack your device first.
Yeah. That's what Frys, Best Buy, CompUSA, Tiger Direct, MicroCenter, NewEgg, Target and Walmart mean.... "fragmentation".
Re: (Score:2)
Where are my mod points when I need them?
More app stores is a good thing. Each user can use one or several stores, depending on the use they have to their devices.
The average /. user already have mikandi's app store installed alongside google's.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
It would be especially good if all the apps were thoroughly tested. With all the stories lately about Android apps
grabbing/using personal data it might be nice to have an app store where they tell you exactly what data it uses.
Even things like how much processor & memory it uses while active would be useful info. Or how well it runs on
different screen sizes. I have no idea if any of the stores already do this as my 11 year old nokia phone doesnt
have apps.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
It would be really awesome if somebody took it upon themselves to build a store rather more like Apple's than what Android currently has. There are a lot of strengths to that model, where each app is thoroughly tested and run through a vetting process to ensure it performs as advertised, is malware free, and doesn't eat through system resources so as to make the phone a piece of worthless slag once installed. The weakness comes in the fact that, on iPhone, it's mandatory (without a jailbreak); questionable
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm a luddite because my phone does everything I need it to do (work as a phone)?
When I want a camera I use a camera. When I need internet access I use a PC.
I have nothing against technology, I just dont see the point in paying for something
I wont use.
Re: (Score:2)
He wasn't calling you a Luddite. He was comparing your commentary on an app store while never having used one to a Luddite's commentary on technology. I'm not sure I agree with his comparison, but it wasn't saying what you think it was.
Re: (Score:2)
Luckily not everyone think like you, or we would still be on the farm, riding buggies around. I mean who needs more than a farm producing your own food.
Maybe this is not the right site for you.
Re: (Score:2)
this assumes amazon won't lock things to it's store.
Re: (Score:2)
"Things"? What do you mean? They are going to lock my account to their store? Or my Android phone that I didn't buy from them?
Re: (Score:2)
Yes and no. Competition between stores is good, of course. But the OP expressed fears that manufacturers and networks might lock their devices to Amazon's store (in exchange for a piece of the pie, no doubt), and I think those fears are entirely justified.
Of course most of us will just root our phones and go elsewhere, but that's not something your average user is likely to do. And I'm sure Motorola would love to prevent it completely.
Re:Joy, another app store... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
That's not exactly how it works. First of all, its not exclusive [engadget.com] of Google services, and secondly, anyone can install third party apps on their Android phone without rooting it. Feel free to install some other search apk instead.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
That's not exactly how it works. First of all, its not exclusive [engadget.com] of Google services, and secondly, anyone can install third party apps on their Android phone without rooting it. Feel free to install some other search apk instead.
I guess it kind of depends on how much the provider locked your phone down. If they removed the Google Marketplace and the ability to add a store, I guess you're wrong on that count. What the parent says is that Android's openness gives liberty to the carrier. The carrier will decide what liberty is left to you and what liberty is kept from you. In other word, it's not Android that gives you liberty but it is the phone maker+carrier that may give you freedom. Or rooting, but on that count the iPhone is as o
Re:Joy, another app store... (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah. That's what Frys, Best Buy, CompUSA, Tiger Direct, MicroCenter, NewEgg, Target and Walmart mean.... "fragmentation".
Yes, they do mean fragmentation. In fact, fragmentation is exactly what it is. Fragmentation of electronics sales into separate and competing entities. The mistake is believing fragmentation is automatically bad instead of a driving force to present the best, safest and cheapest option.
Re:Joy, another app store... (Score:4, Interesting)
Brick and mortar stores are not relevant to this discussion.
Say I have an app I am actively developing and maintaining. One central distribution mechanism means that I can focus my time on writing and updating it, upload the .apk file, and go on my merry way. I eyeball the reviews, and make sure to take heed of any constructive critiques for the next revision of the app.
With multiple app stores, each of which has different rules, each of which are present or absent on different phones, in order to have my app available to as many users, I have to jump through every store's hoops. I also have to pay each store's ticket to entry. Google's store is very reasonable, just pay your $25 and you can play. However, with other stores in the mix, they can set prices any way they feel like. They can also set many restrictive conditions.
Want to know where the shit will really hit the fan? When stores demand exclusivity. If store "A" demands I only can use them, then any Android device that ships with store "B" and only store "B" on their device, my app is locked out of that market. This definitely will fragment Android far worse than it is now.
Don't forget that as of now, one can sideload and install via ADB on almost all devices. However, both of those abilities can easily be removed in a new model of phone forcing people to either get their apps from the store or do without.
Of course, there is the slippery slope: What happens if cellular carriers want to hop in this pool? More stores are not better in this choice, because I'm sure some carriers would only allow access to their specific store and no others.
Re: (Score:2)
Until yesterday I couldn't legitimately sell applications on the market. This was an outstanding issue FOR YEARS. I don't have faith in Google's market and I welcome any competition in the ecosystem. If you don't want to sell on Amazon or Hanster, or whatever the other stores are then don't and live with the fewer sales.
"What happens if cellular carriers want to hop in this pool?"
Nothing has changed since android started. If AT&T really wanted to reinvent their utterly failed business of hosting a carri
Re: (Score:2)
at Frys, you tend to buy brands that you recognize. why? because the brand engenders a certain amount of trust. the difference with app stores is that we're treating the store as the brand, in part because app suppliers don't have much in the way of brand/trust identities of their own.
which is why Amazon opening an Android app store makes sense, and is not much of a problem for Google. Google may well be able to come up with some competitive advantage, but otherwise, they'll probably just get out of tha
Re: (Score:2)
At this point, "app stores" have really done nothing that warrants assigning individual developers any sort of trust based on their association with a particular store.
They really are only electronic equivalents of B&M stores that might perhaps give a little extra control to the owner of the store.
They do squat for "trust".
The idea that something in the Apple App Store is necessarily more trustworthy due to it's association with Apple and their so-called vetting process is nonsense. It's time to stop dr
Re: (Score:2)
One issue with multiple app stores is... multiple notification of upgrades. I have received this as I have apps of 3 stores on my phone.
Re: (Score:2)
You are correct, the only fragmentation issue is with regards to developers, who may now need to submit there apps to several different stores, maintaining relationships with a number of different companies, and getting payments all over the shop.
How many will do that? The major ones sure, but it is still a hassle. Maybe this is the intention.
Maybe most people will just wait it out until the biggest store gets traction.
More apps to buy. (Score:2)
You won't be buying my apps there as I am not prepared to accept the terms of the Amazon developers agreement. You can use any of the other 5 shops where you can get my apps from.
Re: (Score:2)
What, like the App selection for the /iP.*?/ is any better?
I bought an iPod Touch earlier this year, and ended up returning it because I could barely get it to do anything useful (there was a subnet calculator app I kind of liked, but it wasn't worth paying $300 for something to replace a pen and a bar napkin) that even my piece of crap Palm Pro phone couldn't. Even after jailbreaking, it didn't seem like there was much to it except shovelware games that reminded me of early DS and Wii games (using touch/wa
Re: (Score:2)
Does it have iTunes ;)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Wait a minute ... Amazon gets to set the price? So you want to sell at $3 and they can decide you can only sell at $0.49? Or at $10? WTF am I missing here
It's a shop. You must use shops some times. The shop owner typically decides the selling price. The price you are willing to see at to Amazon is up to you. The price Amazon is willing to pay you is up to Amazon. The price Amazon is willing to sell to the public at is decided by Amazon. The price the public is willing to pay is decided by the public. Amazon can have loss leaders or 200% mark ups. It's a shop.
Re: (Score:2)
6 Android Websites You Should Check Out
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-android-websites-you-should-check-out/ [makeuseof.com]
For this reason, it’s important to find a few Android websites that can keep you up to date on your Android device. Recently, I wrote an article about 5 Awesome Android Applications That Could Make Life Easier, and now I’d like to tell you which Android websites I’ve found useful in my experience as an Android user.
That is a list 6 sites that sell android apps that do not include amazon. If you don't want to sell your apps on amazon, there are more than one alternative of where you can sell your app.
Re:Joy, another app store... (Score:5, Insightful)
Just what Android needs, more fragmentation.
Yea its terrible ... like having more than one shop in a mall or something
Fragmentation - in Amazon's dreams (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, because when more stores open up in your town, it's not economic growth and development, it's "fragmentation."
The funniest part of this comment is that Amazon is only going to be likely to gain much relevance for their own app store in their dreams. They're going to have reach, of course, but a job of convincing developers to accept their terms and come into their marketplace when they are already in _the_ marketplace used by tens of millions (soon to be hundreds of millions) of Android users. They will have to spend big to get out of the zone of irrelevancy. It sounds like a miscalculation born of arrogance to me.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Why not be on both? There's no reason why Google should have a monopoly for selling Android applications.
They don't have a monopoly.
There's already the gameloft store for games (that doesn't ever work) and that Mikandy store for porn apps which I haven't tried but probably has similar problems. There are probably a few others I haven't heard about, too.
Not to mention that anybody can just host the .apk file on a website for people to download on their phone. A few OSS apps that I use do exactly this. The whole web is their marketplace!
Re: (Score:2)
For Wi-Fi-only devices (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
You'll find that $600 is more or less what a smart phone costs. You get them much cheaper in an expensive, restrictive bundle because that's where the company subsidizing your phone makes back it's money. It's not because of where you live.
An iPod touch 4 costs 229 USD (Score:2)
You'll find that $600 is more or less what a smart phone costs.
An iPod touch 4 costs 229 USD. Do the cellular radio, camera, microphone, and GPS really cost $370?
Re: (Score:2)
Of course not. Those jeans at the mall don't cost $100 to make either. Nevertheless, that's what the manufacturer and retailers have decided the market will bear.
You're absolutely correct, cell phones are hideously overpriced, most likely because very few people ever buy one unsubsidized. It's not your country though, it's everywhere.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I live in a country where Android phones are either hideously overpriced ($600 for a Galaxy S? Tigger please.) or bundled with a service plan offering more voice minutes in a month than I'll use in a year.
You mean you live in one of the countries on the planet earth. Yeah, you are right, everything should be free.
Re: (Score:2)
You mean you live in one of the countries on the planet earth.
For the record, I was not complaining about the price of smartphones because I was not planning to buy a smartphone. I was complaining about the lack of Android Market access on devices other than smartphones, such as Archos tablets, and trying to cover my bases should someone reply "just import an unlocked phone and never use it with a carrier".
Zii vs. Archos 43 (Score:2)
I'm not aware of one Android device without a cellular radio that Google has officially approved for use with its store.
The Creative Zii Egg
I didn't see any mention of Android Market on the page you cited. As I understand the ordering page [zii.com], one must order on behalf of a company that will be branding the Zii EGG as its own product. Or do I misunderstand it? Does it have any substantial advantage over Archos 43 [archos.com]?
Re: (Score:2)
Just what Android needs, more fragmentation.
I don't think that word means what you think it means.
Fragmentation is where Android itself splits up. Like having one version of Android on a Verizon phone, and something different on an AT&T phone, and they may not even work with the same apps.
That's bad for Android as an OS, because then consumers aren't sure what will or won't work on their phone. It says "Android" on the phone... But it isn't actually Android, it's Verizon's flavor of Android.
This is another app store. It isn't going to fragmen
Re: (Score:2)
Just what Android needs, more fragmentation.
The Amazon store brings some walled garden stuff, but my fear is that cell phone makers and providers will end up locking phones only to Amazon's store. Of course, they can be rooted so one could use the Google App Store.
In any case, this isn't a boon for developers, mainly because they now have at least two places they must keep their apps updated in.
Um, you have heard of Android tablets, haven't you?
How many of these can access the Google App Store and download apps? I don't know for sure myself, but I cannot do it on my Android tablet. So I'm pleased to find other stores where I can get apps. Heck, I am pleased I can get the Amazon Kindle app without going to the (for me) non-functioning Google App Store.
Re:yay. Literal market fragmentation. (Score:4, Interesting)
Yeah, Android will be fucked. I mean the ability to buy apps from a variety of sources completely and utterly destroyed the PC and Mac ecosystems. If only they'd been able to limit PCs and Macs to single stores to buy apps from, then nowadays we wouldn't be using the internet and having to work on...
Oh wait, nevermind.
BTW, I had no idea who John Gruber is, so I had to Google him. For anyone else wondering, apparently he's a blogger from Philadelphia, who graduated from Drexel University, and worked for Bare Bones software. Big names there, obviously a person that matters in the technology world.
Re: (Score:2)
PC and Mac apps worked on any PC and Mac as long as the hardware met the requirements. Dell/HP didn't do too much customization of the OS except for including drivers and wallpaper/BIOS for branding
with android the manufacturer first makes a deal with a carrier and then customizes the OS for that phone based on the carrier's wishes. AT&T is already locking their android phones out of some app stores. i bet in the future we'll see android phones won't run apps just because it's from a store the carrier d
Re: (Score:2)
i bet in the future we'll see android phones won't run apps just because it's from a store the carrier doesn't approve of
So your argument, essentially, is that maybe someday we might see an example of a single vendor (out of many) doing what Apple does to every single device it sells?
Even if they ALL did it, you'd still only be at the level of 'same' rather than 'worse'.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Back in the days of DOS before Win95 took over the PC world, when the PC market was growing, while what you say was largely true as written, you have to remember that there was a lot less abstraction of hardware, and that the diversity (in the PC world) of hardware was at least as significant as the diversity of
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
If the store has apps that people want, there will be a pressure for the carriers not to lock it out, or their phones sales will suffer.
Re: (Score:2)
If the store has apps that people want, there will be a pressure for the carriers not to lock it out, or their phones sales will suffer.
Well, carriers preload their phones with huge loads of crap from the dawn of times. Users don't like it, but they keep doing it. Go figure.
Re: (Score:2)
What you are describing is a very important process that is not likely to go away. However, the average joe doesn't necessarily want to tinker with his phone. You know, he just wants it to work. A second (or third?) store, that some carriers will lock in, others lock out, others will propose exclusively isn't necessarily something from which Android will benefit.
Re: (Score:2)
I not your uneducated consumer; I know a thing or two about the Android platform, yet it's still murky as hell to me with all the different flavors of UI by different manufacturers that don't all look or smell the same!
It's no different than all the various linux distributions available; sure they're all Linux under the hood and can be customized to your liking, but many have different UIs and different ways of doing things which scares your typic
Re: (Score:2)
Do you suppose Amazon's going to put the in-phone app available via the Android Marketplace?
Amazon doesn't need to unless it is specifically targeting the Backflip and other Android phones sold by AT&T, which hide the "Unknown sources" checkbox that enables APK installation.
Re: (Score:2)
I assume we'll have the same shrill cries on here of "WALLED GARDEN!! RESTRICTIONS ARE BAD!! WHAR FREEDOM AMAZON WHE!!" and Amazon will be added to The Official List Of Evil Companies That Hate Software And Freedom And Puppies.
Or is it only bad when Apple does it?
So you're not seeing the difference between:
A) A vendor offers a single device that uses one tightly-controlled source of applications
and
B) Devices from various vendors are offered that can access a variety of sources of applications (and one of them is tightly-controlled)
Seek help.