Tuesday, January 27th, 2009
Android Market, a good idea?
So I’m not going to lie, I own a G1. I never got on the iPhone bandwagon. Wasn’t interested in switching a provider i’d been with for 6 years just for a new gadget. So I was pleasantly surprised when T-Mobile announced it would be the first to carry a phone running Android, also made by my secret favorite phone manufacturer HTC. This is my 4th HTC made phone (most sold under the T-Mobile band name, as HTC is a Euro brand with not a lot of stock over here in the US), and again, they’re not the iPhone, but they do more of what I’M looking for in a phone. So anyway, back to what I was getting at, Android. In drastic contrast to the iPhone app store, Android does NOT have a screening process to control what can and cannot be listed in their store. THe idea is its all open, users comment and rate the applications, they can even flag as Malicious or Inappropriate, so this should potentially alleviate any concerns around what applications you’re downloading, right? Well yes, it does a pretty good job of helping me decide whether I should download the app or find another, but one of the big downfalls is that there’s no way to really tell what a NEW application may do without waiting for a myriad of guinea pigs to get destroyed first, you know? So recently, the Android Market had its first invasion. A little application called “Memory Up” was released, claiming to better manage your memory, allowing your G1 to run much more smoothly and efficiently. Well, it did that in the sense, because it wipes your phone then spams all your contacts. Not good. So what happens in a situation like this? How do you get an app removed from an ‘open’ market? Well the app has been removed and neither the development group or Google will disclose who or what caused the app to disappear. So this raises the question, can the Android Market really stay ‘open’ or will a level of moderation need to be implemented to ensure no malicious activity… and if so… does that kill the concept of ‘open?’
Either way, there’s a good article over on Wired about this. Check it out: http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/01/rogue-googlepho.html
