Android Market Will Shortly Allow Developers to Charge for Software

Google has promised developers that the Android Market will soon allow them to sell applications. As it stands now, companies can only use this store to distribute free software.

The Android Market was intended from the beginning to allow for the sale of software, but the first Android-based device, the T-Mobile G1, launched before the store was ready.

An email sent to developers by Google's Eric Chu says:

I would like to confirm that Android Market will support priced applications starting early Q1 2009, as we'd originally stated last fall. Given the country-by-country work required to set up payment support for developers in different countries, we will enable priced app support in Q1 for developers operating in these countries in the following order: (1) United States and UK; (2) Germany, Austria and Netherlands; (3) France, Italy and Spain. By the end of Q1 2009, we will announce support for developers operating in additional countries.

In the mean time, other software stores have stepping into this gap. The Brighthand Store offers a variety of games and productivity applications that aren't on the Android Market because the developers think their software is good enough to charge people for it.

More about the Android Market

The Android Market a service -- hosted by Google -- that is available directly on Android smartphones.

It is intended to give developers an open and unobstructed environment to make their content available, whether they want to sell or give it away.

The model Google is using is YouTube, and like that online video sharing site developers are able to post content in the Android marketplace after only three steps: register, upload and describe the content, and publish it.

Via TalkAndroid