Android Market Updates: Free/Paid Apps In New Markets

With Google’s phased rollout of the Android Market we all know the routine – first come free apps and then come paid apps. Folks who are patiently waiting will be happy to know that they’ve sent out an email notifying developers of new targeting capabilities meaning consumers in those countries win too.

Here is the skinny:

• Priced Apps now available in Germany and Australia
• Priced Apps will be available in Germany, Austria, Netherlands, France, and Spain in a few weeks
• Free Apps will be available in Italy in a couple weeks

While Developers can offer their apps to these areas by selecting “All Current and Future Locations”, they cannot yet target these countries individually. This capability will come in the near future and as with everything, roll out gradually.

Here is the full email:

Hello,

I’m writing to let you know that priced apps are now available to users in
Germany and Austria. You can target your priced apps to these users by
selecting the “Germany,” “Austria,” or “All Current and Future Countries
with Payment” location options in the publisher website at
http://market.android.com/publish. If you select “All Current and Future
Countries with Payment,” then your priced apps will automatically appear
to users in all countries where priced apps are available.

Also, I am pleased to let you know that free applications will become
available in Italy over the next few weeks. Italy will join the other
countries where users currently can download free applications: US, UK,
Germany, France, Austria, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Poland, Australia,
and Singapore. You can make your free apps available to Italian users by
selecting “All Current and Future Locations”. We will add the option to
target these countries individually when we add the ability to add French
and Italian application descriptions in the publisher website, which we
expect to be complete in the coming weeks.

Finally, I want to let you know that we are hard at work to enable
developers in Germany, Austria, Netherlands, France, and Spain to offer
priced applications in the coming weeks. Once merchant support for priced
apps are live in these countries, we will announce our plans for launching
support for developers in additional geographies.

Thanks for your support, and we look forward to continue working with you
on Android Market.

Eric Chu,
Android Market

We love being able to tell readers that the market has hit their region so keep those Emails coming Mr. Chu!