Evidence suggests that the Android Market has
a long way to go to be a profitable enterprise for would-be developers, but the good news is that Google seems to understand -- and they're doing something about it. Those
in-the-wild shots of a totally rethought interface have turned out to be legit, being made official today by Android's official dev site; the beautified UI itself isn't really anything to write home about, but what makes it all worthwhile is the addition of screenshots and improvements to descriptions that should do a much better job of letting users know what they're getting for their hard-earned cash. Otherwise, there are a few new app categories and Italian support, all of which should bow with the release of Android 1.6
Donut.
Sholes,
Morrison, you fellas can't come soon enough. Follow the break for official video of the new Market in action.
[Via
Phandroid]
posted Sep 3rd 2009 8:11PM
FINALLY!
first 2 reply
Google is evil just like Apple.
Can I get a motion?
Yeah... Google is evil for giving you great tools for free. How dare they not take our money like Apple.
There are no evil companies, if you don't like what they make or its too extensive then don't buy it, actually on second thought car insurance companies are evil and sexist but only because you are required to have insurance to drive.
I won't bite the "Google is Evil" sandwhich. I'm no apple fan, nor am I a hater (I have a Mac, and love it, but it's not my only PC) but even THEY aren't really what I'd consider evil. A bit money hungry, yes, but not evil. Google is fantastic, in my opinion. So far :)
I agree with James. There really isn't a real "evil" company. Except Hell Inc. Their production of fire chairs and demonic baby-killing machines have just GOT TO STOP!
And maybe McDonalds.
Android Marketplace will be great - and profitable to developers - as soon as this next wave of phones comes out on other carriers. I am anxious to get my hands on a phone that intigrates well with gmail, Google Voice, and eventually Google Wave.
smart developers would have there apps on more than the android market like http://www.handango.com for example there are others
So much hype for android and no high end phones to buy that support it , Release 2.0 already and phones that support it or you can kiss your business goodbye for real.
I know what android is capable of and i heard about it for years but no phone that interest me support android yet ( and i dont blame them since there is no muli-touch and weak media playback so far which android 2.0 promised to fix)
By the time Android 2.0 is out it will properly have to compete with windows 7 mobile/New sympian/New iphone+OS 4.0/etc
The only thing that made me drool was Xperia III "Racheal?" and known SE they will properly release it by 2010 holidays.
Tell me about it. Did you see that painful stutter when he tried scrolling down? I want to try other devices than my iPhone, but I need something that will give an experience as smooth and attractive.
I want an Android device with Tegra or Snapdragon! I want 5+ MP Camera with flash! It's 2009. Is that too much to ask for? I would ditch the iPhone in a heartbeat for something like that!
That seems kind of off since it has been stated that Eclair will be released before the end of the year. iPhone OS 4.0 wont be released til June/July, WinMo 7 STILL doesnt have a definite date, and the new Symbian is not even seen for in the future.
There is multitouch on HTC Hero though I think it is something that HTC has implemented. Still, that means there is multitouch on android just not necessarily with the basic OS distros.
Lol at stupid insecure fanboys who rated me down, you realize that i love android and i love open source platform? what i stated was facts not opinion.
HTC hero can not be compared to how amazing phones like Samsung omnia HD/n97/ or the upcoming Xperia II with windows mobile 6.5 this fall, hero screen resolution is crap, flash support is buggy/slow etc
Give me High end phone with multi-touch/great multimedia playback and i'll get one so far IT does not exist.
TMPRIDE: Yeah that stutter is ugly. The iPhone is an order of magnitude smoother. However I think this is due to Android's use of interpreted (!) Java rather than native code for the UI. The differences in hardware are probably quite minimal.
It's the one thing that makes me hesitate to buy an Android phone.
@Tim:
Well, if you put it that way, just solve it the Microsoft way--throw more hardware onto it.
Hurry up Cyanogen. Want now.
I know! I'll be checking periodically for updates to his ROM
I love CMod, except the new HTC-coded update to Sense has just been leaked. It is EXTREMELY fast. Thanks to Paul@MoDaCo. I'd like to see it merged into that...
Yes it is EXTREMELY fast. I am shocked.. it feels like Im on cupcake with seven screens loaded with widgets and no lag... props to all the devs working on the baked goods at XDA
sweet, wonder if Hero is able to upgrade
His (Cyanogen) latest tweet says he's baking the fresh donuts now. I can't wait.
So 1.6 is donut?
omg yes
My G1, it weeps because it most likely will never see anything past cupcake and won't get the new market...
Thats why you should root
The g1 is planned to get the rest of the 1.x updates but probably won't see anything in the 2.x line.
There is nothing conclusive on this front, and won't be for a while. But it is correct, if you root your phone you will be guaranteed to get updates well into the future thanks to XDA.
You shouldn't need to root your damn phone to get an upgrade. Just as you shouldn't need to root your iPhone to install apps that YOU want on your device.
I find it extremely unlikely that the G1 is going to be left out of the loop on this year's software updates. Google knows full well that the vast majority of their users are still on two year contracts with the G1, they will do whatever is necessary to keep the updates coming until the G1 is at least two years old.
I'm guessing that by the time they drop support for the G1, we'll be on to the true second generation of Android hardware running vastly more powerful chips like Snapdragon or Tegra, and you'll probably be better off leaving the G1 behind anyway.
I remember a post about the G1 not getting updated past 1.5.. if
that's the case, lets get on the ball with updated hardware!
I love Android but I m still stuck wit my G1 becos no compelling upgrade yet(my hardware keyboard is important to me). Eyeing d Nokia N900>>>>price is d only barrier dis holiday season or a Android device in N900 specs range
I agree. The physical keyboard is a must for me as well.
Looks great, cant wait to update my phone... Come on Cyan!
Previous market updates didn't necessarilly require an OTA update -- I remember a few changes to market that just showed up when you accessed the market again -- I wonder if this is how the new market will be, or if it actually requires a full on update due to the intense GUI makeover?
/ponder
I believe the market will be updated OTA simultaneously with the 1.6 donut or will be updated individually as an app kind of like google maps was updated with the new features.
Most market changes require an OTA update. The addition of paid apps required a client update because they had to add screens and client-side functionality for Google Checkout.
Because this isn't a web app where screen layout and client-side code are being streamed down alongside the data, a software update is required for almost all new functionality. In a rich app like this one, only the raw data is sent to the client and the app decides how it is displayed and what to do with it. If Google just started sending down images along with their text-based descriptions, the existing Market app wouldn't know what to do with it and it would either ignore them or it would break, depending on how it's designed.
You would probably be able to see the additional categories without a software update, though. I just did a quick test where I cut off the data connection to my phone and attempted to load the market. The two root categories of "Applications" and "Games" are hard-coded into the app, but the following screen of sub-categories wouldn't load without a data connection so I assume that list is streamed down from the server and thus able to be changed without a software update.
Really, they couldn't run this on a somewhat faster simulator? What's with all the lag? Is this what the Android experience feels like?
The emulator has always been slower than the actual OS on the phone. This is because in addition to running the Android OS (which runs virtual machines itself) the emulator also has to simulate the hardware. So being it's a virtual machine running on top of another one, it's a bit going to be a bit sluggish if you don't have a decent PC.
However in the video it looks like it's loaded into some hardware already, so probably it's only because it's an early build.
Are we going to get more options for sorting/filtering, like sort or filter by rating? It'd be nice if I could, say, only look through recent apps with a rating of four stars or more. Even if not, it's still a welcome change and I'm liking the new look-- polished, but not flashy.
I believe I read that there will be more ways to search for the apps and more categories to view and filter through them so
i guess my answer to you is a yes.
Yah the market is for complete shit in its current incarnation. Trying to browse is virtually impossible and searching? Yah right. we will ignore the fact that you can't browse outside of the phone either. finally there is the fact that after you uninstall an app it still appears in the apps you downloaded. Creating a nightmare of a list of apps.
Oh and to top it off. You can bet your right nut that 1.6 will not come to G1 owners. I'd have less of a problem with this if there was a real replacement for the G1....read: a keyboard damn it. Instead with have to deal with new Android models that use only a onscreen keyboard that, IMHO, is for crap.
Stop complaining the G1 will see future updates. Go root your phone and there's nothing to worry about. By the way the Morrison and the Samsung InstinctQ are both going to be Android phones with full qwerty keyboards. The X3 (Rachael) looks really promising, but who knows when that phone will be out.
Still missing sorting by ratings it seems :-(
Good to see that android is catching up in this growing smartphone market.
I have worked a bit on android and faced few difficulties in making some applications. Lets see what all changes they have made in the next product.
KIRF store.
It's about freaking time. I have been in love with Android since the G1 came out, but the Market is pure trash. I'm really seriously hoping that they've rewritten the search engine too, because finding something in the market even when you know exactly what program you're looking for isn't always easy. It seems weird that Google would flat-out fail so badly with a search engine on one of their premiere products.
Anyone know *how* to update the OS yourself?