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Android Market Opens To Developers, But Many Games, Apps Fall Short

The Android Market opened up to more developers this week and the applications and games are starting to flood in—but so far at least, they’re of limited appeal. At last count, there are 124 applications and 28 games available in the mobile storefront. Google (NSDQ: GOOG) requires developers to register and pay a one-time application fee of $25. (The number of applications is nothing compared to the App Store’s early days; perhaps that’s because Google isn’t allowing developers to sell applications until early 2009.) For the time being, everything is free and it shows. One example: The app OB Pregnancy Date, designed for primary care providers by a chief resident at St. Johns Family Medicine Residency in Minnesota, helps pregnant women determine their due date. There are also a number of applications that are either demos or expire after a week.

Meanwhile, other applications that debuted on the Android Market this week that are notable for other reasons:

—GoTV Networks launched four applications that pull in content from their existing music magazine channels: True Country, Rock on Altitude, Hip Hop Official and Es Musica.

—WhitePages launched Caller ID, which improves upon carriers’ caller ID features by expanding it to WhitePages’s catalog of more than 200 million listings in the U.S. The application also can give users information such as the caller’s address or city where the phone is registered even when the caller is not in his/her contacts list.

—Wertago is an application that lets users search for nearby clubs and check out pictures uploaded by other users to get a sense of the scene. Users can rate the vibe of the place up-to-the-minute, privately communicate with others, create a personal profile and browse profiles of other patrons.

Oct 28, 2008 5:52 PM ET
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Posted In: Entertainment, Media & Publishing, TV, Social Media, Video, Companies, Apple, Google, Android, T-Mobile

  • Although some of the initial offerings for the G1 look questionable, it’s great that Google has managed to get people talking about applications in this way.  With only free applications available at present, it’s perhaps understandable that a lot of these aren’t going to set the world alight.

    However, things should hopefully get more interesting in January, when Google releases all of the G1’s paid-for applications.  Google has been making all of the right noises about the G1 as a serious business device, and so one would assume that there’s a host of really innovative corporate applications ready to be unveiled.  There’s a massive potential market there for Google to exploit, so let’s hope it manages to do so.

  • Just wanted to let you know that PlayScreen has launched 20 ad-supported games for the G1.

    Thank you,

    William Volk

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