Today Google officially launched a new version of their Android Market website at a press conference hosted at their Mountain View based headquarters. The new website offers a fully featured Android Market experience with the ability to browse, purchase and download new applications direct to your Android device. The new website is expected to be welcomed by Android users as the previous offering was extremely limited and only offered the ability to view the details of a small handful of featured applications and games.
Users can explore new applications and games in a way never seen before on Android (officially anyway!). Search for new applications, hit the download button and watch the application get pushed over the air to your device.
For a long time users have been forced to browse the Android Market and download applications using Android’s mobile client. Much like Apple’s iTunes App Store client, users have more freedom in how they choose to browse applications with this new Android Market website.
Along with this new market experience Google have looked to improve the purchasing experience for users by enabling buyer currency which enables developers to set custom application prices for different currencies. This will be rolling out to various currencies around the world in the coming months.
Lastly, Google have announced In-app purchasing which will be landing in Android market this Spring and will allow developers to bring premium content driven applications to the Android Market, such as Tap Tap Revenge that was demoed at todays press event.
Google confirmed last Friday that they are hosting a press event on Wednesday to discuss their upcoming Android Honeycomb release and share some details on the future of the Android ecosystem. While manufacturers have already detailed their upcoming Honeycomb powered devices at CES in Vegas, Google have yet to share any detailed information about Honeycomb itself other than teasing developers with a preview SDK. So, other than an in-depth look at the Honeycomb release what else can we expect tomorrow? I’ve put together a few ideas of my own to bring you some predictions below.
Android Market Web Client
This was first teased at Google I/O 2010 by Google’s Vic Gundotra. This will bring a simple but comprehensive Android Market experience to users that has not been designed to comply with the limitations of the mobile form factor. Simply visit the Android Market on your computers web browser, find new applications and watch them automatically download to your Android device. Much like the recent device client update, I’d expect this to work on device running Android 1.6 or greater.
Android Music Player
Another product that was demonstrated at Google I/O 2010 was a significantly improved music player. Not only does the application have an overhauled user interface that’s similar to the Gallery application the improved application will have the ability to stream music from any computer that has a special music streaming application installed. Watch a hands-on of a leaked early build of the application below.
Android Market Paypal Support
It seems like a long time since Paypal accidentally blogged about Android Market gaining Paypal support, that’s because it was a very long time! When Paypal does eventually launch within the Android Market not only will it provide another mechanism for users to purchase applications it might benefit users living in countries not fortunate enough to have paid application support as Google may look to benefit from Paypal’s 90 million customers and roll out the Android Market to more countries.
Google Certification
One question that always crops up with newly announced products is “does it have Android market?”. Now that Android has officially expanded to both tablets, TVs and has Google’s full blessing expect greater diversity in devices that carry the Google logo. Previously, for a device to be Google certified and carry the Android Market it needed to fall into the phone category. Since Google is expanding into the tablet business expect Android devices in all sorts of shapes and sizes to now carry the Google logo and provide users with the true Google experience they expect to see on their Android device. Maybe we might even see the long rumoured WiFi-only Galaxy Tab launch soon.
This is just a small portion of some of the Android Ecosystem updates I expect we might see tomorrow however I know many users would be more than happy to see something simple like the elusive Nexus One 2.3 over the air update!
Tune into youtube.com/android from 10AM PST / 6PM GMT to watch the event live.
