Last Day of Android's 10 Cent App Celebration Ends Tonight

Earlier last week, Google announced that the Android Market had hit 10 billion downloads, and had an impressive growth rate of over a billion downloads per month. As a result, they have been celebrating by offering 10 (or so) paid apps for just $0.10 each day. Today is the 10th and final day, so if you haven't taken advantage of the promotion, this is your last chance.

This promotion is a pretty cool way to introduce a lot of people into the paid app ecosystem. The Android App Market, with its preponderance of free apps, doesn't always generate the same per-download revenue as the iOS market, and this could be a bet by Google that once people get comfortable with the idea of paying for quality apps that they will then make repeat purchases. I'll freely admit that I have recently begun to use Android, and that when I started I figured my data plan was costly enough and I'd rarely use a paid app unless it was something essential. I've been sorely tempted for the last 9 days though, and may give in today and try it out - $0.10 is just so harmless. I imagine a lot of other people have had similar reactions.

Google's methodology is interesting here when compared with what Apple did when it reached the same milestone back in January. Kevin over at ITWorld emphasizes the point that Google isn't covering the difference between the discount and the App's original costs - they have simply "partnered" with the developers, essentially offering them free promotion in exchange for the lower price. Apple, on the other hand, offered the person who made the 10 billionth download a $10,000 iTunes gift card. Kevin calls it apt but doesn't actually go into why, leaving it to each reader to insert his or her own Apple/Google stereotype into the comparison. Well, I'll bite. Apple and Google both have platforms rife with "fanboys" (and fangirls) who are devoted to the OS. In Google's case, you love Android for the large, open community feeling. In Apple's case, you love iOS because you feel it is curated just for you. So Google tries to reward the community, and Apple tries to reward you. It's the same thing, really, as an attempt to build loyalty, but the difference is interesting to think about. Feel free to disagree with me in the comments, but do tell me why if you do.

In any case, without any further ado, here are today's $0.10 Android Market Apps.

• Apparatus
• Camera Zoom FX
• Color and Draw for Kids
• HyperJump
• Heavy Gunner 3D
• Majesty: Fantasy Kingdom
• Puffle Launch
• Sentinel 3: Homeworld
• Star Chart
• Shine Runner
• Talking Ben The Dog
• TileStorm HD

See the Android Market for more.

This content was originally published on Yahoo! Voices by Danny Shain and is posted here with permission of the author.

Google publicly outs 'hostile, organized campaign' by Apple, Microsoft, others to derail Android

picture via android.com

That the success of Android has ruffled some feathers in the technology world is nothing new.  What is new, however, is the recent accusation by Google of a "hostile, organized campaign against Android by Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and other companies, waged through bogus patents," which Google goes on to say is an anti-competitive practice that will only result in more expensive Android phones and fewer phone options for consumers.

Controlling patents is a common way to protect yourself from - or arm yourself for - litigation, and Google claims its rivals are stocking up on patents big time, lamenting that "instead of competing by building new features or devices, they are fighting through litigation."  Google was a recent bidder in a large quantity of patents owned by Nortel, which had a pre-auction estimated value of around $1 billion.  Google bid $900 million, well behind the winning bid of a whopping $4.5 billion by a consortium including Microsoft, Apple, and others.  Google has recently picked up a cache of 1000 or so patents from IBM, but that is well under the 6000 or so owned by Nortel they missed out on.

Further reading: Take a walk down memory lane to read about the former friendly relations between Apple and Google and how they soured.

Via Google Blog

China renews Google's license, Google.cn to stay

Up until as recently as a few days ago, when China renewed Google's ICP (Internet Content Provider) license, Google was on the verge of going "dark in China," as Google Chief Legal Officer David Drummond put it.  This was due to a controversial decision made in January to stop censoring the results on its Google.cn search page.  The decision came on the heels of widely publicized hacking attempts on Google and other organizations originating in China, and shocked a great many people.  The Chinese government was obviously unhappy with this, and as China is the world's largest growing market of internet users, Google had a lot to lose with this gamble.

Initially, Google redirected Google.cn users to Google.hk, it's Hong Kong search page, which is still in Chinese but subject to different laws and which did not have to be filtered.  This workaround proved insufficient to appease the Chinese government, and rather than leave China entirely in the hands of Baidu, Google reconfigured the Google.cn landing page to what it is today.  A few links on the bottom allow for limited services to still run off the Chinese site, but that image of an actual search box is just that - an image - and redirects to the Hong Kong site.  This compromise appears to work for both parties, and Google.cn is on firm footing again, at least for the moment.

Google was already playing second fiddle to Baidu in China by a wide margin - when I covered this topic back in January, I had seen numbers in the low 30s for Google's market share - and their recent troubles have only made things worse.  According to BusinessWeek, its share declined from around 35% 3 months ago to around 30% today, on top of the fact that Google has lost several key sponsorships.  However, 30% is still a whole lot better than nothing.  All in all this seems like a good compromise where Google gets to feel like it keeps its integrity, and also at least a share of the Chinese market.

Further reading (googleblog) - Google enters China, Google leaves China, Google gets renewed in China