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Android Market

If the T-Mobile G1 is Google's answer to the iPhone, then Android Market is its answer to iPhone's App Store. Launched in October 2008 with the G1, Android Market is an application that acts as a distributor for third-party software designed for Google's open-source mobile device operating system, Android. The Market application is downloaded onto the G1 and the applications are also viewable on the web (Apple's App Store is intended to viewed by the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iTunes when using a computer). Applications available for download include tools like GPS mapping and weather forecasters, mobile versions of web utilities like MySpace, and games such as PAC-MAN. Some of the applications, such as the song recognition software, are Android versions of existing iPhone apps. Others, such as the barcode scanner that can compare in-store prices to online ones, have since been imitated by developers for the iPhone. 

Currently, there are far fewer applications available on Android Market than the App Store, but all of the former are free. Google plans to include paid applications in first quarter 2009, and intends to match Apple's revenue-sharing rate of 70% of profits going to the developer. Like Apple, Google distributes a software development kit to would-be application developers.

 

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