Android Market Now Converting to Local Currencies

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localcurrencyandroidmarket

We have all been there. Surfing the Android Market only to stumble upon an app listed in a foreign currency. Sure, we can do some deductive reasoning to try to pinpoint where the price lies on a local scale, or we could even bust out a currency converter to figure out the exact price. But Google is making that predicament irrelevant as the Android Market is now doing the math for us and spitting out approximate local values for apps published in other countries.

Prices that have been converted will show a “~” in front to denote an approximate rate based on current exchange values. If there is no “~” then the app was already locally priced. The interesting part arrises when you go to purchase the app. Google checkout will revert to displaying the pricing in the currency of the country it originates from. Not a huge deal given that you most likely didn’t forget the conversion on the way over, but still a little hiccup in the system.

Has anyone else noticed the change in the Market? Good to see Google is finally beginning to address some of the bigger issues that have made the Android Market a less than stellar resource for purchasing apps.

[via Distimo]

Kevin Krause
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15 Comments

  1. This is great to me now I can see how much I’m spending with U.S. Currencies with Euro’s.

  2. Thank god for this! :) Saves us time lol

  3. It probably reverts to the original pricing because they don’t do the final conversion until after checkout and it could be confusing if you see ~1.43 on the checkout screen but then get charged 1.47.

  4. The only problem is that you cannot purchase Apps that are other than $ with your T-Mobile account…very inconvenient.

  5. Never forget that the credit card conversion fee is cheaper than paypal’s. So being billed in the original currency is a good thing.

  6. Other changes? Well, Sweden got support for paid apps today! ;)

  7. i noticed this last night. it definitely saves some time and allows people to purchase things without losing interest just trying to find how much are going to be paying for an app

  8. I did notice the change last night but still can’t purchase apps that are not from the US through my credit card on file.

  9. I was wondering what all those tildes were for. I just wish I could buy non-US software without having to pull out my credit card. It’s so much easier to just bill it to my T-Mobile account.

  10. why does it still charge the original fee – in the original currency? I’m starting to get really annoyed with being charged a conversion fee by my bank for buying an app. This is the only place that I’d say Apple’s app store is better than android.

  11. “? Good to see Google is finally beginning to address some of the bigger issues”

    The biggest one is still not solved. It’s called global availability of paid apps.

  12. Okay, nice feature, but it wasn’t that hard to figure out the price before this. Just click on the Buy button, and on the screen where you have to confirm the purchase, it shows you the price converted to local currency so you can see how much will be charged to your credit card, no currency apps necessary. Oh well, it’s still nice to be able to see the local currency amount right up front.

  13. I just noticed the tildes last night while going thru the market. I was wondering what the heck those were for. I really don’t see how it was a major issue; even if you don’t have a currency converter, the market (at least in the US) shows how much an app costs if you decide to purchase it before actually going thru with the purchase. It is a bit more convenient, but certainly isn’t “The-market-fix-whose-coming-was-foretold.” One thing at a time, I suppose.

  14. I always just pressed buy to see the price. (It doesn’t actually buy it, you still have to say ok on which credit card). But this is nice to see.

  15. I like that they show prices in our local currency. And that in google checkout is the orginal currency make total sence, because thats local currrency that we are paying the developers in i guess. And 0.99$ is always 0.99$, but the local will always change because of constant change in currency exchange rate

    Anyone else with Android 2.1 that have gotten a upgraded market? I suddenly have the froyo style market, with autoupdate and different comment layout

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