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| When he's not saving Galaxy S, S II, and Galaxy Note users from what ails them, rock star dev Supercurio is busy thinking up ways he can save all Android users and developers... |
Amongst the many things I have to be happy for, living in New Zealand rates pretty highly. Apart from beautiful scenery and all that other stuff the tourism advertisers will push onto you, New Zealand also happens to be one of only 32 countries where Android users can actually purchase paid apps in the Android Market (and one of a mere 29 where developers have the option to sell their apps in the Market).
For the most part up to now I've been terribly unaware of exactly what this means to users outside the few locations with unfettered access to buying and selling apps in the Android Market. But then I had an eye opening experience the other night that really revealed what a big issue this is.
You see, I was at a local GTUG meeting that was attended by nearly 50 Android developers, and also a Google Developer Relations staffer on that evening. One of the attendees hailed from the Philippines and mentioned that there are a massive number of developers who want into Android, but can't monetise their enterprise because of where they live. The Google staffer responded to say that each country has their own regulations, ratings schemes, carrier obligations and so on and so forth that Google has to negotiate a way through in order to get paid apps in the Android Market for that country. Fair enough, right? But who loses while that is happening? EVERYONE. End-users lose, developers lose, and the Android platform and Google lose.
Well, the other day I had an interesting piece of correspondence from him in relation to a support query on getting Voodoo LOUDER on my Galaxy Note [Aside 1: Rooted SGSII and Note users really should get this fantastic app, Aside 2: He responded extremely quickly, great service from such a busy developer!]. I had asked him whether it was possible to just make him a paypal donation in exchange for the APK, since my current Note ROM has some issues with paid apps in the Market. Sadly the answer to that question was no, but the rest of his response removed any minor personal disappointment...
...because he included this link in the reply.
Here is the opening statement in the document that links to:
Alternative and independent in-app billing system for Android apps for developers
Presentation:
This project is the solution to the main android developer current headache with Android Market billing: absence of PayPal compatibility, or more generally absence of any kind of control.
It consists in an open source server-side solution any developer can install for free on a Google App Engine, replicating Google in-app billing process but allowing PayPal payments and some more extra data recorded to make solid trial period implementations.
As you can see this is a pretty ambitious undertaking, but the potential is amazing. This could single handedly solve monetisation issues the world over (or at least nearly the world over, there are a few countries like Egypt with no access to paypal either, but Supercurio is actively looking for ways around that too). Furthermore it could allow developers to select their own trial period on apps, independant of the Android Market's rather useless 15 minutes, or enable in-app purchasers without dumping you back out to the Android Market in freemium-modelled apps, and much more besides.
All I can see here for users and developers alike is big piles of win. Who knows, maybe some of those legions of presently-disaffected developers will even write us some tablet optimised apps? Please?
This is pretty big news, so obviously we'll be staying on top of this story here at the blog - to keep up with the latest on this (and all our other fantastic content) be sure and subscribe to AndroidNZ in your RSS reader of choice, Like us in Facebook, or follow us on our Twitter account @Android_NZ
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