More Payment Options in Android Market

[This post is by Eric Chu, Android Developer Ecosystem. —Dirk Dougherty]

A key to a great purchasing experience is providing users with simple and fast payment methods. The Android Market team has been working hard to deliver more forms of payment to further reduce purchase friction.

Today, I am pleased to announce the availability of AT&T Direct Carrier Billing for Android users on the AT&T network. AT&T Android users can now easily charge their Android Market purchases to their monthly accounts with only a few clicks. With the combination of Android Market’s new app discovery features and a carrier-backed frictionless payment method, users will find it significantly easier to discover and purchase applications of their choice.

We’ve been rolling out Direct Carrier Billing to all AT&T users over the past several days, as part of a general update to the Market service. Also in the update, please watch for the arrival of new features we announced recently, including the 15-minute refund window, dynamic Wallpaper and Widget categories, new 50MB max .apk size, and more. In addition, we’ve added even more categories to make it easier to find great apps in popular categories, such as “Media & Video”, “Music & Audio”, “Business”, “Sports” (in “Games”), and more. If you have one or more published apps on Android Market, please take a look at these new categories and decide if they are more suitable for your products.

We strongly believe carrier billing is a great way to make it easy for users to purchase and pay for applications. In addition to the availability of AT&T and T-Mobile US carrier billing, we’ll continue to partner with more carriers to offer carrier billing options for their subscribers.

2010 has been an awesome year for Android due in large part to your support. We have seen tremendous growth in Android Market both in terms of application volume and quality. In 2011, we remain committed to making Android Market the best mobile application store possible. As always, please don’t hesitate to continue giving us feedback through Market Help Center.

Best wishes for the new year!

2010 The Year of Android OS

Google finally has its day of triumph in smartphones market. The latest set of figures on purchases of smartphones released by Nielsen indicate that 2010 is the year of Android OS. It is quite an interning find given that wherever you look, everyone seems to be using iPhone! But the reality is that the share of current sales of smartphones running on Android OS is 50% higher than that of iPhones! The following graph clearly illustrates the trend.

True, iPhone still commands the largest overall share of the market but Android based phones are gaining rapidly in popularity. It’s the battle of “one versus many” – the following graph highlights the trend – relatively stable share of the market held by iPhone but rapidly growing share of Android OS. It indicates to me that all those who meant to buy iPhone have already done so. So, there is not much potential for Apple to find many more new buyers for its phones! The only way for them to make money now is to release new models with increased frequency – to maintain sales revenue by selling “must have” upgrades to existing group of very loyal users. Although it appears that Android OS expansion comes at some expense of BlackBerry, the bulk of new users are most likely those switching from older mobile phone technologies to the latest generation of smartphones. If current trends continue, Android OS based smartphones will soon dominate the market.

Android Market Action

Almost instantly after I joined Google, it became obvious to me that the number-one area where Android developers wanted to see action and progress was in Android Market; your concerns in this area vastly outweighed whatever issues might be bothering you about the handsets and the framework and the programming tools. In recent months there has been a steady, quiet, incremental flow of improvements and upgrades. They add up. This is by way of a glance back at developments since the arrival of Froyo last summer.

First, we introduced error reporting to Market, so developers can see if their apps are locking up or crashing; and if so, exactly where.

Second, we upgraded the Market publisher site to include user comments, so you can read what people are saying about you, or at least what they’re saying in a language you understand.

Third, we added the licensing server, which, when used properly, tilts the economics of Android apps toward you, the developer, and against the pirates.

Fourth, we cranked up the number of countries people can buy and sell apps in: as of now, you can sell them in 29 countries and buy them in 32.

Fifth, we rolled in a “recent changes” feature, a place for developers to put their release notes. Android Market has a zero-friction process for app update, and the really great apps have followed the “release early, release often” philosophy. As a developer, I like having a place to write down what’s behind an app release, and as a person who downloads lots of apps, I like to know what the goodies are in each new update.

Sixth, Market now has a “draft upload” feature; this removes a lot of the tension and strain from the app-update process. Get your screenshots and feature graphics and text and APK all squared away with as much editing as you need to, then update them all with one click.

You’ll notice that I didn’t say “Sixth and last”, because this is a team on a roll and I expect lots more goodness from them; if you care about the larger Android ecosystem, or are already a developer, or are thinking of becoming one, stay tuned to this channel.