Connect with us

Apps

Third Party Android App Markets Need To Go

Published

on

Phil over at Android Central pointed out a trend the community over there is experiencing with regards to apps bought from the Amazon App Store. It seems that Android devices are getting a little confused about who should handle updates when a new version of an app comes out.

A couple scenarios appear to be playing out. In some instances, the Android Market sees an app that was purchased from the Amazon Appstore, knows an updated version is available, but then fails on updating because the app wasn’t actually purchased from the Android Market.

…the Amazon Appstore app can see that you have an app installed and offer to unassociated it [from] that other market … so that you can get updates and such through its services instead.

Neither situation is ideal. And it’s unclear whether Amazon or Google know about it and will care enough to fix it. Add this to the many reasons why I give third-party app stores the side-eye on a regular basis. Amazon in particular.

Amazon App Store

I stopped downloading Amazon’s free app of the day when I discovered that developers have had a hard time getting their money out of the company. Payouts don’t match the number of apps downloaded, according to the devs. And at least one company discovered that Amazon did not want to live up to their own contract terms.

Devs were promised that if they participated in the free app promotion that they would still get 20% of the money they would have made if customers paid full price for them. But after ShiftyJelly signed on, they discovered that Amazon did not want to pay them their 20%, and instead offered “valuable placement” as compensation.

Another annoyance I discovered with Amazon Apps is that if you move them manually from one Android device to another, the app won’t work unless the Amazon App Store is present on that device.

It’s not a huge problem to install the app, but it makes me wonder if someday Amazon will refuse to let me download something I’ve bought because I’ve put it on too many devices. Something similar happened with Kindle books, so this isn’t just random paranoia.

It also irks me that currently most Android apps don’t provide you with an independent key once you buy them. Switching between phones and other devices with the Android Market is no problem because you can re-download purchased apps. But switch over to a device that doesn’t have the Android Market, like the Nook Color, Nook Tablet, or Kindle Fire, and you have to purchase that app all over again.

For expensive apps, like QuickOffice, this is really annoying.

Some tablets that come with the Android Market also include an app store run by the manufacturer — Lenovo, Toshiba, and Samsung come to mind. This makes even less sense to me because the selection in these stores isn’t as robust as the market and very few offer a compelling reason to use them.

Lenovo is an exception as their store has apps that were tested for Lenovo’s tablets specifically to ensure that they work. And for ThinkPad users, the app store can be controlled by the IT department, which is valuable. If everyone else offered something similar, this wouldn’t be so eyeroll-worthy.

Just think, a few years ago we hoped for alternate app stores worth our time. Now we’ve got app store fragmentation. Wonderful.

Since most Android tablets come with the Android Market, I see less need for these third party stores. For end-users, anyway. For tablets that don’t come with the Market, it would be so wonderful if customers weren’t backed in to double dipping.

12 Comments

12 Comments

  1. Kevinspacey74

    11/29/2011 at 6:00 am

    my congratulations!freelance academic writing jobs

  2. Anonymous

    11/29/2011 at 8:23 am

    No they don’t.  The only ones who get confused are people like us who DO have more than the Marketplace installed.  The common user probably doesn’t care and doesn’t even LOOK at Amazon’s store.

  3. Tracy Cooper Jr.

    11/29/2011 at 9:43 am

    I will download free apps of the day as long as they last but I will never purchase an app from anything except the Android Market. I figure that if a developer wants to keep making money they will stay on the main marketplace and keep it updated even if they leave other marketplaces or let the updates slip.

  4. JustAGuest

    11/29/2011 at 10:17 am

    That sounds like a simple bug in the Android Marketplace app.  Android Marketplace shouldn’t be expected to update an app purchased through Amazon.  That would be like asking Mike’s Car Wash to clean a spot Sparkling Image missed for free.  If it wasn’t purchased through Android Marketplace, Android Marketplace update functionality should simply ignore it.

  5. Tim Hutchinson

    11/29/2011 at 1:28 pm

    This first link (about getting money out) refers to an issue with Google, not Amazon.

  6. Anonymous

    11/29/2011 at 4:01 pm

    I disagree with this. Freedom to compete is good, even if it’s poorly done, or causes confusion. It increases innovation, and allows new entrants opportunities based on shortcomings in the market. This case is no exception. While it may not be ideal, Amazon’s efforts put pressure on Google (and others) to continue to innovate to remain competitive.

  7. android user

    06/05/2012 at 8:29 am

    me, personally, can’t really use the google play store because my phone is a china android phone, namely, the fruits phone 4s, don’t let the “made-in-china” branding fool you though, specs-wise it’s quite on par with the SG Ace, except for the camera, so i rely on apk hunting on the internet.

    i think people who download from alternative app markets, or sideload apps into their devices, especially those ARMv7 games ported to run on ARMv6 devices, never really think about updating their apps, or the apps won’t run on their device anymore,

    the update functionality of the google play store is more like a privilege for those who officially downloaded or bought their apps on the official market. something apk hunters respect very much.

  8. mrmomoto

    06/15/2012 at 11:20 am

    Errrnt (buzzer) Wrong!

    The pc market didn’t make any impact on home users until “3rd party” machines, peripherals and software (like PC/DR Dos) came along. While it’s true the consumer has to wade through a lot of crud, in the long run they’re the winners. The same will be true of the tablet market as is easily seen by the amount of below $200 tabs of fine quality that have come out recently and will continue to do so in the future.

    Soon you’ll probably see <$100 tablet that blows anything the "google experience" can offer straight out of the water. And that's a GOOD thing.

    Android is open – so should the hardware it runs on be.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.