The most awaited feature in Android Market have just been launched today offering to UK and US developers the ability to add priced applications. Developers from these countries can go to the publisher website at http://market.android.com/publish to upload their application(s) along with end user pricing for the apps. Initially, priced applications will be available to end users in the US starting mid next week. More countries will be supported in the coming months.

Eric Chu, Google Android Mobile Platform, send in email to Android Market Support:

We will also enable developers in Germany, Austria, Netherlands, France, and Spain to offer priced applications later this quarter.  By the end of Q1 2009, we will announce support for developers in additional countries. You can find more information about priced applications in Android Market at http://market.android.com/support/

The second news is that Google Checkout will be used as the payment and billing mechanism for Android Market. Developers who do not already have a Google Checkout merchant account can easily sign up for one via the publisher website. Currently only US and UK are able to sell their products using Google Checkout, so if more countries will be able to sell on Android Market this mean that Checkout will support more countries very soon.

Finally, Android Market for free applications will become available to users in Australia starting February 15th Pacific Time and in Singapore in the coming weeks.  You can now make your applications available in these countries via the publisher website at http://market.android.com/publish.

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Happy new year OHM readers ! Yesterday Android Market Support sent an email with important changes, mainly the support of new countries in the market download, a new country targeting feature, and the availablity of priced applications in Q1 ‘09. Here is a briefing :

More Countries Support

The first news is that Android market will support additional countries download starting early Q1 ‘09, and to be more precise European countries. Countries that will be initially supported include Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, and the Netherland.

The email mentionned also Asian countries support but without precising any country, this will be most probably in 2009.

Country targeting

In  Mid-January, Android Market will support country targeting; so that Android developers will be able to specify if an application is specific to a country or another. This feature will be available in the publishers website after update.

Time is very short, but developers can start thinking about making applications available to specific countries with default localization for example.

Priced Applications confirmed Q1 ‘09

Finally another confirmation from Google that the Android market will support priced applications in early Q1 2009.

Developers from these countries will be able to sell on the Android market  in the following order :

1. United States and United Kingdom
2. Germany, Austria, and Netherland
3. France, Italy, and Spain

They should be ready to launch their applications and determine a pricing strategy for their apps. It seems that the Android market will support different pricing strategies.

More countries will be announced by the end of Q1 2009 according to the email.

Best wishes for the new year

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