Android App Market News and Android Market Alternatives Report Update
The world of Android app markets is always in motion – app stores closing, new ones opening, and changes to existing app stores. I rounded up a few recent changes to share with you here.
I also took the opportunity to update the Android Market Alternatives Report (part of the Advanced Package in the Android Income Series, not currently available) with all of this information.
App Store Updates
Google Play just made the announcement at the end of January that they will move away from paying two days after the end of the month, and will transition to paying on the 15th of the following month. I know some developers count on that revenue in a timely manner, but keep in mind that most app stores pay a full month later, so Google is still treating developers well.
A number of app stores have closed, and I don’t believe they are coming back – for example:
- Andspot
- PocketGear
- Appsnips
- Verizon VCast
- MobileApps
- Vodaphone
A few of those closed gracefully (and even still offer developer resourced), but some just disappeared.
Another item of interest is the launch of BlackBerry 10 on January 31st. While Android apps could be run on the PlayBook tablet already, now we can expect phones to have access to our Android apps ported to BlackBerry. I hope to see some increased download counts in the near future.
Report updates
I updated the Android Market Alternatives Report (not currently available, contact me if you would like information) with all of the above and scrubbed all of the obsolete and dead links due to those closed app stores.
And, as always, I’ve found a few new app stores to research and add to the list.
In addition, I updated the action plan and added information on using the open source Android Market Manager library to handle all of your cross-app linking within each app store (and to help you pass QA tests in those app stores).
With all of the above changes, not to mention numerous minor tweaks and updates, the Android Market Alternatives Report is more helpful than ever to get you on the right track to earning income from your app from the right Android app markets. Take a look!