Proving that TIME Magazine subscribes to the same dose of “stupid and misinformed” that so many other online publications have a direct tap into, Anita Hamilton exposes her ignorance with regards to the iPhone and Google’s Android offerings in a hilariously titled piece “Google’s Dream, Apple’s Nightmare?” – a play on the news that the first phone offering Android as an operating system is going to be the HTC Dream.
The sweetest part of the Dream is the Android Market — Google’s answer to the Apple App Store. Whereas many Apple apps cost money (typically anywhere from $0.99 to $9.99), at launch all Android Market apps will be free.
Sorry, Anita, but that’s completely wrong. The Market will be a “market” – there will be some apps that are free but some that will cost money. It’s not about free as in price, but freedom as in the ability to put any app you want on there – which has good points and bad points but I’m sure the more astute of you can guess what they are. Helpfully, Anita fleshes this out.
While Apple takes a top-down approach to app development — the company must approve every program that makes it into its App Store — Google will allow creators to upload any application to the Android Market without its review. Sure that means some duds will make it in…
Oh my god. When you see the crap that Apple has permitted into the store (never mind their in explicable removal of some applications which have some real utility or merit), then thinking that the App Store won’t be quickly filled with poorly audited, untested crap which will infest your phone is the wet dream of a naive would-be technology writer. This democratising approach will mean the Android Market will look more like Sourceforge than the App Store – filled with half-baked approaches to applications.
The big announcement is officially today. Won’t it be exciting?
Thanks for mentioning my article in your blog. Unfortunately, you are mistaken in your critique. As noted in a post on the Android Developers Blog on Aug. 28, all apps in the Android Market will be free (unpaid) at launch. Perhaps Google will change its mind on this point closer to launch, but this info comes straight from Google’s Eric Chu. See quote and link below:
“Some decisions are still being made, but at a minimum you can expect support for free (unpaid) applications. Soon after launch an update will be provided that supports download of paid content and more features such as versioning, multiple device profile support, analytics, etc.”
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2008/08/android-market-user-driven-content.html
Hi Anita, the problem being that “at launch” the apps are only free because they don’t have the back end built to get people to pay for stuff, not because of any great altruism.
And yes, it’ll be filled with duds, just like the Apple App Store,