While it's exciting that the apps don't require approval, I'd be a bit concerned about getting buggy apps that slow down or crash the phone's OS.

RalphWiggum

@sigep440: This would seem like something the Linux/Android community might want to explore. I can run any linux distro on my mac, why not a linux distro on my phone (as long as it's technically possible, and I am not violating Apple's EULA?). For the mass, people will stick to the iPhone OS, but for the geeks, who have time to tinker, why not. If there was a specific usability issue, or an APP that just worked and ran better on the iPhone, I would probably stick with that platform, but the same would probably be true the other way. The screen, and usability and design of the hardware, sorry to say is unmatched right now.

beekerstudios

@sigep440: I was thinking the same thing a couple of days ago.

On a side note, I hope they still monitor for malicious code sans approval process. I'd hate to see an app submitted by say, the NSA, CIA, FBI, NRA, AARP, RNC, DNC, AT&T, NEA, ...NOAA that monitors your conversations/emails/web-traffic/installed apps.

newgalactic

@beekerstudios: Well that's another side of the argument.

takashimiike Ultimate

@Kim98: And this is a surprise that people wouldn't want to get all of their apps from MS. Because MS always makes ground-breaking, secure, usable applications. Yah and totally different from what linux distros, and stuff like fink do. You know like store all information about all applications in one-place for people to download and install and work-out dependencies within it's own system. Sounds LIKE A HORRID concept.

beekerstudios

The only problem with Apple's store is they approve way to much crap.

joebobfunguy

But where Apple has two phones to deal with, Android will eventually have hundreds

Joseph

Jesus, it's going to be a PORNfest.

Noobs-R-Us

@Kim98: Exactly.

I don't think the point is a 'single point for apps' but rather ability to browse, download and install them from within the device itself.

Yes it's possible on a Treo Palm OS but try to navigate PalmGear website using Blazer and you'll quickly give up. (Symbian isn't much better.)

A better solution is what Linux has, which is a list of repositories that you want to use (what Cydia I understand does). With an Installer app that has Repositories listed, the apps are not centralized but access and installation are both easy.

future-proof

So how long before all teh pr0n appz show up on my handset?

bobojuice

@Kaiser-Machead on the Edge: @takashimiike Ultimate: HIVEMIND!!

bobojuice

No comment

ugar

I wonder how long it will take for someone to get it working on the iPhone?

I would imagine that many of the apps will be on both stores/markets. I love my iPhone OS and all, but it would be interesting to try a new platform on a great piece of
Apple hardware.

sigep440

It's interesting how people think a single-place for apps is inherently better than being able to get apps from many different places. I wonder if the same people would like it if the only place you could get apps for a PC was from a Microsoft -controlled store. Probably not.

Kim98

@Kaiser-Machead on the Edge: What the fu..

takashimiike Ultimate

Excellent.

takashimiike Ultimate

Excellent.

Kaiser-Machead on the Edge

this is very awesome...but there should be SOME sort of approval system to make sure the application isnt malicious.

anyway if they come up with an android phone that has good hardware, comes unlocked, and is reasonably affordable, i really think ill buy it.

jewsrock

@beekerstudios: Uhhggg and triple posting..uhhhhggg

beekerstudios

@beekerstudios: damn it "programmers" even

beekerstudios

@beekerstudios: damn it programmers even

beekerstudios

This will be a great test case actually-not of Google, or the Android system, but of the telecoms who have signed up to be Android carriers. Will they accede to the same laissez-faire attitude Google seems to be taking? Could be a game changer. Looking forward to the free SMS/MMS apps, the free VOIP apps, and the free tethering apps, and how the telecoms will respond (or embrace) them.

dogcow

@newgalactic: Man I doubt any official Linux Distro is going to put a whole crack team of programs/OS developers behind getting it's slimjim OS onto the iphone, without some sort of blessing or allowance from Apple. That was my point. You might be the linux god of all gods, or even android, but the same reason we haven't seen FF or Adium on the iPhone is the same reason why we won't see linux or android on the hardware, Apple won't sanction it.

I am jailbroken and unlocked and sitting pretty with my 2G iphone on t-mo. I j-walk everyday on my way to work, and speed on the freeway.

beekerstudios

Finally, a way to test my phonephish app.. I mean, LOOK IT'S SHINY AND FREE!!

5thAveCocaine

Sorry, my last post was in response to HeartBurnKid, creepy morbid freak's post mentioning free speech.

Tank

Only the government can violate your right to free speech. If you come into my house and offend me, I can tell you to leave and if you don't, I can call the police. Eventually, I win.

Google does not allow "free speech" as much as Apple does not violate your right to free speech. As of today, the apps for Android don't require approval. Tomorrow, it could change and there isn't a darn thing anyone can do about it.

Tank

No approval eh?

Expect a huge load of shitty apps with a sprinkle of spyware.

Just like Blandroid, what a joke!

aussie

I agree this is great. I have an iphone and love it, but the more people out there making mobile apps the better. I just hope that there is some sort of testing done by google to protect end users from crippling software. Im sure there is going to be some kind of joint set of rules by the carriers that allow android on their phones to what they can and can not have in the market place.

dorkboy

I don't think that's a good idea at all. I don't want to sift through hundreds of apps that don't have the same look and feel as the phone GUI?

I like Apple's, maybe a tad monopolistic and controlling, approach towards the screening and approval of apps - not matter how mysterious it is. It provides the better customer experience imho.

jlindenbaum

@Poison_Shroom: This is one of those "free speech v. free beer" things. Google takes a lassiez-faire approach to the marketplace, allowing apps without approval (free speech), but devs don't necessarily have to give the app away; they can charge if they wish (not free beer).

That said, from reading the article, the checkout system isn't ready for version 1.0, so all the apps in the market right now will be free. Later they'll add the capability to charge for an app, and then some apps in the market will not be free.

HeartBurnKid, creepy morbid freak

@Poison_Shroom: You mean the whole "Store" thing right?

takashimiike Ultimate

@beekerstudios: "(as long as it's technically possible, and I am not violating Apple's EULA?)

EULA??? Are you serious?
I'm more concerned with not breaking j-walking laws then violating EULA's, especially Apples!

F-EULA's!!!

(don't take this as a slam on you. In fact, I'm proud of your law abiding spirit. I just don't share your view that Apple is in any position to dictate any laws/rules/funny-feelings to me, regardless of what I buy from them)

newgalactic

I think this would be a good time for Jobs to remove Eric Schmidt from Apple's board, don't you?

yoshi

You know there CERTAINLY WILL be some element of control. No carrier in the US is going to pick up a handset with a billion apps to tether your mobile computer to your 3G/4G internet connection... then watch as their entire network gets crippled as half a million users bit torrent an entire DVD collection.

Never gonna happen.

ducati9x

If its a market because its free, then why does it say free next to every app? If everything is free, then I wouldn't see the need.

Poison_Shroom

@sigep440: Dual boot anyone?

Regarding having one app store available on the phone itself: it is a great idea, which is why Apple set up the second app store. It makes apps immediately available very easily, exposes the work of developers to more people, reduces the amount of advertising app developers and sellers need to attract attention, and reduces the cost of apps by competition. For Google, it gives them a source of revenue other than ads, and simultaneously it gives them something to advertise on Android's built in ad space. It also pretty much requires all carriers to accept the fact that there is and will be only one Android app store (sorry ATT).

I have no doubt that Android will be on hundreds of (slightly different models of) phones. I mean, there are how many versions of the HTC phone that is also the Cingular 8125, etc.?

cobaltage

I think the initial mix of apps will be about 50/50 malware and pr0n.

daveNYC

Are they really expecting to have hundreds of phones? That seems like a high expectation.

mricpx

@Kim98: The single app download paradigm that the Insaller.App uses comes from the open source community. Apple and all these guys have just taken a simple package installer and put a business system around it. Package installers are WAY better than having to hunt around for crap all over the web.

Joseph

So I guess I'd better start learning the android software to keep spyware off of my friends' and family's phones.

qbrad

@newgalactic: they sell protection from that at walmart, its called tinfoil and you can make a fancy hat from it.

pradster

It i the end result that counts. the user of a phone does not want to search the web for apps, but wants them all in one place. But he also want the place to be trustworthy.
I'm all for openness, but it will only work if it is safe an reliable. If not it will backfire.

sos10

apparently the real way to go is with the unlockers way, cydia is the more stable and the installations of the are more fast and reliable, and i havent seen an app that is no good in its performance even though some do the things that apple says are hard, like background process, and multiprocess, with no problem i feel that the real problem with the iphone is not the the soft/hardware, but the bureaucracy, i was thinking, and trying to remember when was the last time that we heard the words "think different" straight from apple???

esh-satril

@Tank: I'm not saying that you have a guaranteed right to free speech on the Android phone. I'm saying that Google is allowing free speech in their marketplace. Right now.

Seriously, if you think that free speech (not just a guaranteed right to free speech, but free speech at all) only exists in the context of the Constitution, then... I don't even know how to finish that sentence without insulting you, so I won't.

HeartBurnKid, creepy morbid freak

@Poison_Shroom: Two things. First, it's a central location (with ratings and comments!) that people can go to if they want apps, rather than hunt on the internet. Second, while all the programs are currently free, sometime after the first phone comes out there will be an update that allows non-free software to be on the market.

@aussie: So... pretty much like the rest of the internet then.

bluemonq

@mricpx: no thats how much they expect to sell!

/kidding!

pradster

i just want to know if verizon will support android

hillaryh8tr

@beekerstudios: +1 insightful
@pradster: +1 funny

newgalactic

Will there be any oversight to this "market"? I'm thinking along the lines of the guy that writes one BS program and then completely mislabels/tags/misrepresents it to gain more exposure. That's probably the most benign example I can come up with. Apples process is too restrictive, but this seems like a knee-jerk reaction to far in the opposite direction.

It'd be similar to going to a very large torrent site and searching for an episode of a very popular TV show. Which one is real? Which one is good quality? Which one is malicious? It can be hard to tell. It'll be the same way with the Android store if there's absolutely no oversight.

Enochrewt

@hillaryh8tr: Only if they can brand it with their own OS ;) Wait then it's not android.. DOH!

P.S. I know verizon has SOME non verizon branded phones, but not many.

beekerstudios

@Enochrewt: Oversight is a slipery slope. I'd rather have to avoid bad/malicious apps than to see something useful (netshare) disappar only to be replaced by the oversight comittee by something they want to charge more for to do the same things

BanMeAgainBrianLam

There will need to be some order or phones will get destroyed. Every economy has rules and regulations. There needs some.

altus

Open store is the way to win. That being said, a rating system and certification stamp are ways to help filter. Browsing and sorting will help as well.

I would buy certified apps from developers I do not know. However, if there were a depth of high rating from an unknown developer without certification, I may take that risk if the value is strong.

I wasn't going to look at Android phone personally as I believe it will take 3-4 generations to mature the tech and I do not find the UI as exciting as what Apple has brought out...

BUT, open market for apps wins. Palm did this correctly--I did not love the Palm OS, but 3rd parties improved the app, and in some use cases, these solutions are still better than the iPhone and equivalent smartphones (no, don't argue this extremely minor point about equivalence!).

brutek

Hopefully the rating and commenting system will help ease some concerns over bad apps. Just because there is no approval system doesn't mean that google can't remove apps they identify as malicious. Maybe they may add a "flag" function so that people can flag apps as malicious and google can have someone check it out.

stopcrazypp

spyware, virus, malware...android app store is gonna screw up a lot of phones!

sho38

google is making it open but they are still going to screen for malicious apps you wankers there just saying that there not going to turn it down for any specific reason for example its made my ms and we dont want there apps on our iphone if you guys really think google will commit corporate suicide by screwing up a bunch of people phones you are truly stupid my friends.

charger08

time to go back to tmo.

Stacky Botrus

@Kim98: cause not everybody is born in 1998 and they got stuff to do, one place for all ur apps is better than waste all the time searching around

sncm3

@ducati9x: Because that doesn't work for computers. Superior apps will spread more frequently, it will be self regulating.

SgtToastie

HURRY CALL 911 !!!!! I would........but my phone has a virus

Kevin