Priced Android Applications Coming Within Weeks

I received an email from the Android Market earlier today containing some very pleasant and eagerly-awaited information. First, the Android Market will be expanding to many more countries in the coming weeks, with Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands leading the way in early Q1 '09 followed by other European and Asian countries. These rollouts will no doubt coincide with T-Mobile's launch of the G1 in these countries and developers will have the ability to make versions of their app available only in those markets.

Second, and more important, Google confirmed that the Android Market will start supporting priced applications starting with the US and UK in early Q1, followed by Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, France, Italy and Spain as the local payment systems are set up. A lot of people have noted that the Android's Market is currently somewhat outclassed by Apple's App store, both in terms of the number and quality of the applications available. However, with the arrival of priced applications, and the profit motivator, we should finally see a competitive answer to Apple's App Store as developers start releasing apps they've been working on but were unable to easily sell.