Android developers have received an email with the good news that more markets are arriving, the bad news is they’re not saying which.
If you selected to publish your paid apps in all locations then this is for you. The email (below) sent from the Android Market Team on 24 September tells developers that Android paid app support will be including extra countries “in the coming weeks”.
Hello,
We’re writing to inform you about some changes to Android Market that require your attention.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be adding paid apps support for additional countries. If you have selected to publish your paid apps to all locations and intend to support all new locations as we expand the number of supported countries for paid apps, you don’t have to do anything. If you have selected to publish your paid apps to all locations but intend to only target the currently supported 14 countries, please update your location selections to target these specific countries.
Please look for follow-up emails when we introduce paid apps support for specific additional countries in the coming weeks. At that time, you’ll have the option to target these specific countries.
Thanks, and we look forward to continue working with you on Android
Market.
Sincerely,
The Android Market Team
Currently the list is very short – it’s just nine countries – and it’s a shadow of the Apple iTunes list and even of the Ovi list, so any increase is good. If Android really is going to be serious about building a credible platform for developers, it has to add lots more countries “in the coming weeks” and it has to do it fast. Not everyone wants to be free, and not everyone can live off the pittance brought in by in-app advertising, or has the time to go and do the big sponsorship deals.
At the time of writing priced applications are currently only available to users in the following countries:
- Austria
- France
- Germany
- Italy
- Japan
- Netherlands
- Spain
- United Kingdom
- United States
The definitive countries list can be seen here
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