Google is doing an HTML5 web store, so there isn't much point putting tons of effort into their Android Market place client. An HTML5 web store will have global reach and combine that with paypal support and the alternative markets that are doing nothing more than selling applications (pretty much all of them) will get flushed away overnight.
Apple is on shaky ground on it's international sales, but they have some provisions in their dev agreement that allows them to attempt to recover from the developer if they get hit by the IRS. Places like Handango are on the other extreme. They collect the royalties from devs and remit them to the respective countries, even when they may not need to. One alternative Android marketplace manages it because they don't make copies of the applications and thus aren't subject to royalty payments (if you've ever wondered about their token system with out of stock messages). In my opinion, Google is on pretty shaky grounds in the US, with the position that they dev is 100% responsible for managing taxes. It's not that this is an unreasonable position but with Android becoming so big, states in the US may see Google and Android as something they can take a bite out of. Given that Google seems not to like to do support, I don't think they'll go the Handango route. Likely, they will move toward the Apple model, which will be less risky for them when they start allowing more international devs to sell their apps. On Tue, Sep 7, 2010 at 11:20 PM, mort <m...@sto-helit.de> wrote: > On Sep 8, 12:01 am, Kevin Duffey <andjar...@gmail.com> wrote: > > I have to ask.. in the last year since I started learning Android > (haven't > > had much time the past several months to do much other than read some of > > these emails), how many more markets has Google got Android into that > offer > > apps to be purchased in, and more so, pay the developers in other > countries? > > http://market.android.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=138294 > lists the countries you can get money as developer: Austria, France, > Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom, and United > States. > http://market.android.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=143779 > lists the countries where you can pay as customer. It's the same list. > However, I'm not sure if those replies are really up to date, for > example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_Market lists more > countries where purchasing apps is possible: Australia, New Zealand, > Canada, South Korea, and Switzerland. > According to that Wiki page, U.S. and U.K. were available right from > the start, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, France, and Spain did follow > very soon. So Google did manage to add Japan during the last year. > > > I am still baffled why Canada can't buy apps or developers there can't > put > > their apps up for money... > > According to that Wiki page, they can buy apps. But maybe it's > available only for certain providers? > > > So is Google moving beyond slow into these markets.. if so.. why? It > seems > > crazy to me that with so much potential, and Apple in way more markets > for > > both app sales and developers to write/earn money in, that google would > take > > it so slow. > > I'm really surprised to see how little efford Google seems to spend to > the Market, if you think about the money Apple collects with its > AppStore. If Google plans to do it similar with its planned music > store, they'd better stop the project right now... > I mean, it's not just the low availability, there are so many weak > spots that are nagging since the start and shouldn't be that hard to > fix/add. Would it really hurt Google's gigantic server system to allow > a longer description? Why can you mark comments as spam from a FroYo > phone, but not in the developer console? (And it took ages to see them > there in the first place...) Why is there no developers respond to > comments? Why can't a company that's known for its search engine offer > search results with some tolerance, keywords, filter options (no more > live wallpapers from that guy that uploaded 100 similar ones, thank > you; only 4-star apps since last week; ...), and so on? There are tons > of long threads about stuff like that already... > One really could get the impression Google wants people to use > alternatives. Is it part of their "don't be evil" (= monopolistic) > motto? ;) > > > I won't pretend to know the issues behind making it work.. but > > if Apple could do it already, I would think google would have very little > > trouble as well. > > Especially if you compare the small steps in Market to the giant leaps > in Android. > I can understand international proceedings can take a while (but > almost a year?), but at least some of the technical troubles could've > been fixed by now. Some alternative markets seem to do it better in > 2-3 months total development time of a much smaller company... > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "Android Developers" group. > To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<android-developers%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en > -- Shane Isbell (Founder of ZappMarket) http://apps.facebook.com/zappmarket/ -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
