The Android Market is becoming more mature.
Even though the Google (GOOG) Android Market significantly trails behind the Apple (AAPL) App Store, it is having some of the same problems. Today Google pulled an app out of the market for bypassing its own Google Checkout payment system and Google’s 30% cut. PhoneFusion, a visual voicemail app, was notified that it had violated section 3.3 of the Android Market Developer Distribution Agreement, covering pricing and payments. In the section, it reads:
…If you want to collect fees after the free trial expires, you must collect all fees for the full version of the Product through the Payment Processor on the Market. In this Agreement, “free” means there are no charges or fees of any kind for use of the Product. All fees received by Developers for Products distributed via the Market must be processed by the Market’s Payment Processor.
This is the same type of activity that Apple has recently be taking criticism for enforcing against, though this violation is much more blatant that what Apple is trying to enforce.
Although the Android Market lost an app today, it gained something much more valuable…
Books! Today, the Android Market got Books, just in time for new Motorola (MMI) XOOM users to sign in and start buying. Since it is in the Android Market, Google takes a 30% cut.
Finally, people called me crazy when I reported that BlackBerry(RIMM) was busy porting Android Apps to their platform a few months ago. Since then there have been various additional reports of BlackBerries running Android apps including this one today which Flurry by way of BGR says that three different BlackBerry phones have been caught running Android apps. Getting Android apps on the Blackberry would be a quick way to bring the BlackBerry back into relevance, at least temporarily.
Just don’t tell Oracle (ORCL)that Android is free for the picking.
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