News from Funky Android

We read with great interest Google’s announcement of a new licensing system for Android which was released yesterday and were surprised to find a number of similarities between the “new” Google system and the licensing system developed by us for use at AndAppStore which we offered to Google as a starting point for a cross-market licensing system in March 2009.

In early 2009 we developed an RSA secured licensing system for Android and made details of it available to the android community (one of the earliest posts about it can be found here). We could tell that it addressed an issue Android developers were facing and in late March 2009 we offered it to Google as a starting point for a cross-platform licensing solution which would allow developers to have write-once, use-anywhere licensing for their Android applications.

In early April 2009 we were told, by a member of the Android team, in a private email, that the Market team were “looking at a slightly different route”. We were disappointed, but we had hoped that the route would be open for use by third party Android application directories.

During the rest of 2009 the AndAppStore licensing system was used by developers and we saw some very positive public comments indicating the AndAppStore licensing system was considered a robust solution. During this time we also made it clear that the offer was still on the table for Google to work with us on developing the AndAppStore solution further.

Given this history it was with great sadness that we read the Google announcement yesterday that they chose to use the same RSA secured licensing design we developed a year and a half ago (and offered to them 16 months ago), provide some extra client-side functionality via a library (the LVL), make it a closed solution which is only available to apps distributed via their Market, and added a requirement that their Market client to be installed in the device in order to operate.

We would have hoped that a company such as Google, who like to promote “openness”, would, when working on solutions which could benefit all Andriod developers, would have worked with, and created something usable by, any group, such as AndAppStore, who are trying to promote Androids’ use, but alas it would appear this is not the case.

Our response to Archoses press release over the AppsLib / AndAppStore dispute can be found at http://press.andappstore.com/20091106-AndAppStore-Archos.pdf

Vobis, a Russian provider of cellphones, has started shipping their Highscreen Zeus which comes with the AndAppStore client pre-installed.

The Highscreen Zeus is a compact Android device with a WQVGA screen, slide out keyboard, and support for Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, WiFi, and all of the major cellular standards. The device is targeted at the Russian market and to support this the AndAppStore client was modified to include a Russian translation of the user interface.

The AndAppStore client is a royalty-free client and is available to any company or group who wishes to pre-install it on their device or in their Android distribution. Funky Android can provide customised versions of the client if required.

Distimo, who are known for analysing trends in app stores, have added AndAppStore to their app store overview and will be tracking AndAppStore alongside the app stores from the likes of Apple, RIM, Nokia, and Google.

If you’re a Zii EGG owner you might want to follow the example of Grahm Skee over at anythingbutipod who is using the AndAppStore client to get Android applications.

AndAppStore has launched a payment system that allows Android developers to list pay-for applications and provides the ability for applications to verify purchases at runtime. This provides developers with the ability to ensure that even if their application is copied they can take measures to prevent their application offering the full range of functionality to users who have not paid for it.

The payment system makes use of PayPal which allows developers to specify the price of their application in different currencies (if they want to) and allows users to choose to purchase in a currency they are comfortable using. The use of PayPal also means that developers can benefit from the added fraud prevention methods that PayPal offers.

AndAppStore, unlike other application directories, do not charge a fee for paid applications which means that once PayPal have deducted their fees developers receive 100% of the funds, making AndAppStore the most profitable per paid sale Android application directory currently available to developers.

More details can be found in the application submission page available to registered developers at AndAppStore.

Version 1.4.6 of the AndAppStore client has been released and is the first publicly available Android application directory client to specifically include support for devices with resolutions greater than HVGA.

Version 1.4.6 has been developed to work on all versions of Android but includes modifications which will be supported in the next version of Android (labelled the Donut release) which will allow higher resolution devices to determine if an application can provide users with a full screen experience.

AndAppStore is committed to providing applications to users on all Android devices and developers can list their applications for free. AndAppStore also offers a build of the Donut SDK to Android Developers which will allow them to include support for high resolution devices in their own applications.

The new version of the on-device client can be downloaded from AndAppStore.com.

We just released a new version of the AndAppStore client which includes a major updates to the update checker and download manager to improve the overall use experience.

You can download the latest client here.

AndAppStore now allows users to score applications they download providing developers with a quick metric of how much their application appeals to users.

AndAppStore is now offering application hosting. This means that developers do not need to have their own application hosting in place in order to list their applications at AndAppStore.