“Manufacturers and software vendors are constructing their own app stores. Gadget maker Archos launched an independent Android app market, called AppsLib in September. Insyde Software, which makes embedded software for companies like Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo and Dell, opened an online store for Android netbook apps in late October,” Woyke reports. “Even handset makers are opening Android app stores. Brooklyn-based General Mobile has one called Storeoid. Motorola is said to be planning a market called SHOP4APPS. Several third-party app stores, like GetJar and Handango, also offer Android apps.”
Woyke reports, “The Android apps free-for-all is the opposite approach of Apple, which maintains a central store for iPhone and iPod touch applications. Google spokeswoman Carolyn Penner declined to comment on the company’s app store strategy.”
MacDailyNews Take: That’s either because they don’t have a strategy or they know it’s not a winning one.
Woyke continues, “Frederic Balay, Archos’ vice president of marketing, says the company wanted to use Google’s Android Market for its Android-powered Internet tablet, but couldn’t because it altered the device’s software to support high-resolution screens and high-definition content. ‘Devices that don’t fit Google’s requirements will have to go through third-party portals,’ he explains.”
MacDailyNews Take: Fragmented mess. In other words: PlaysForSure failure.
Woyke continues, “Many apps developed for Android phones aren’t suited for Android tablets or netbooks. Archos’ tablet lacks a camera and the vibration feedback popular in some Android games. Insyde’s netbooks don’t have accelerometers or global positioning system (GPS) technology.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Android is a clusterfsck. More info here.