8 ms·

Android Market Web Store just Launched

142 points by jdavidson 16y ago

jonursenbach 16y ago
Did they get this design from OSWD?
aristidb 16y ago
I cannot log in. Others experience the same problem?
- mitchellhislop 16y ago
  I managed to get to the sign-in screen (click to install an app), but other than than, a bad request on the cookie check
- jerhinesmith 16y ago
  Yep. "Invalid request."
- PureSin 16y ago
  Yep, tried in FF4 and Chrome. Both gets invalid request.
- dogas 16y ago
  I get the same results.
- jlgosse 16y ago
  Ditto. I was about to buy some random stuff, too.
  - bad_user 16y ago
    Me too, I was willing to spend 10000 USD, but now I guess I'll go elsewhere.
- nickmolnar2 16y ago
  +1
- WesleyJohnson 16y ago
  Looks like it's working (kind of) now. I clicked sign-in and Chrome gave me a certificate warning because it's signed by *.google.com. I ignored the error and Chrome started churning, eventually give me an 500 error or something of the sort. Hitting refresh finally got me logged in. I was able to install an app at that point by sending it down to my Incredible.
- darthg0d 16y ago
  Had the same problem with all browsers in the morning (Chrome, Opera, IE, Firefox). But it seems to be working now (no certificates/cookies issues). Tried pushing a random app to my phone, and it worked seamlessly.
- StavrosK 16y ago
  I can log in now, but it won't show my phone (it says I don't have one). Weird.
nhangen 16y ago
I can't get over how amateur it looks. Really expected more.
- jlgosse 16y ago
  Based on my experience using the iTunes App Store, it is quite usable and looks a lot better than none at all. Some things that make it instantly better than purchasing iPhone apps from your computer: 1. This web interface is lightning fast, iTunes is horribly slow. 2. You get to use the standard browser controls over the random clutter of controls in iTunes. 3. Pressing "install" installs to your phone without having to plug it in, or sync, or worry about losing your shit. I think it's a great first iteration, and it's definitely something that has been a long time coming.
  - masklinn 16y ago
    > Pressing "install" installs to your phone without having to plug it in, or sync, or worry about losing your shit. From your desktop web browser?
    - jsnell 16y ago
      Yes (and it works, just tested it).
      - masklinn 16y ago
        That is an absolutely fantastic feature.
        koushikn 16y ago
        Its good but doesn't work on the corporate wifi wonder what port they use for this?
    - jlgosse 16y ago
      I have a feeling it only works with 2.2+ (Chrome-to-phone styles), but regardless, it is badass.
marcc 16y ago
I like it, and it's certainly about time. What's going to happen to AppBrain, etc now? They were definitely filling a niche and now will be forced to compete with the source.
- tensor 16y ago
  Better having to compete than being completely banned from the platform as would happen on iOS, I suppose.
moskie 16y ago
So, is this meant to be accessed from only Android devices? Is there a use for using it through Chrome on a desktop? Would I be able to purchase an app from my desktop, at which point my Android phone would (potentially) automatically download and install the app?
- StavrosK 16y ago
  It's meant to, from what I can tell, it just doesn't work now.
iqster 16y ago
I also got the invalid request error. I just watched the Honeycomb event, and am boggled that Google can't be bothered to hire decent graphic designers. The icons and general feeling on Android looks unpolished compared to my iOS devices. The app prices on Android market seem to be x2 what they are on iOS. I've probably spent 100 bucks on apps on my iPad/iPod touch. Money spent on apps for my Nexus One (shitty phone) and Nexus S so far: $0. I also don't understand why they need a web store. I buy apps on my iOS devices all the time. Is the point that general usability on Android devices is so bad that you need to use a desktop to purchase apps that will then get transferred to your mobile device??
- dpcan 16y ago
  First, I sell apps in the Android Market and do well. Lots of people pay. Second, having a web interface just makes it easier for people to search and find apps with ease from their computer. It will REALLY help me because I can now easily link to my apps from Facebook and Twitter, and it looks like users will be able to click INSTALL and have the app go right to their phone so the next time they are ready to play, it's there waiting for them :) I love it.
  - iqster 16y ago
    dpcan: You make a good point about linking to apps from Twitter and web sites. I didn't think of that. Thanks for your thoughts. Glad to know you are doing well on Android Market. I'm still confused at my personal tendency to readily make app purchases on my iOS devices but not on my Android phones. But then again, I guess we aren't the average mobile user these days.
    - StavrosK 16y ago
      Eh, I never bought anything for iOS but I've bought a bunch of stuff for Android. Tastes differ.
    - dpcan 16y ago
      I make far fewer purchases on my Android devices over my iPhone as well. It's just that the AppStore continually updates their Featured pages, and I'm constantly buying from there. On Android, the same scrolling apps at the top have been there a long time, and all you have are the categories that seem to stay the same (like the AppStore, BUT there isn't a Featured This Week section or anything)
nrbafna 16y ago
First thoughts. Seems neat. Cannot login. Some useful details listed - last update date, minimum android version. much easier to browse the reviews than on the mobile version. search has spell-corrector. related apps listed on details screen. useful.
lucasr 16y ago
It somehow resembles Ovi Store (not a good sign) but slightly better. The design is a bit too busy. Not bad for a first iteration though.
rst 16y ago
The bigger news from the announcement, to me, was that in-app purchases are promised "soon". EDIT: docs here --- http://developer.android.com/guide/market/billing/index.html http://developer.android.com/guide/market/billing/index.html
streeter 16y ago
Not only is the store 8 months late (announced at Google IO last May), it's buggy and I can't log in. I'm not quite sure what took Google so long to get the store up and running, but it's been really frustrating to wait this long for it.
bjonathan 16y ago
This Market is a good news BUT it seems so much like an unfinish product. That another proof of the difference in the attention to details between iOS and Android. This is a screenshot of the Market from France: http://i.imgur.com/lchpI.jpg http://i.imgur.com/lchpI.jpg Half the page is in the french, half the page is in english and IMO the worst is the "~" before the price (they convert $/€ so it's ROUGH price wtf! ). The website doesnt feel that it can be trust IMO if you look to it like a John Doe. This is definitely a step in the good direction but please Google please polish a little more your android products so that they appeal the masses!!
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- veeti 16y ago
  It's worth noting that they announced a new pricing system too - developers will be able to specify different prices for different currencies, like with the App Store.
- albemuth 16y ago
  Not quite as bad as from a market-unsupported country: http://i.min.us/iemx0U.png http://i.min.us/iemx0U.png
- estel 16y ago
  In fairness, their announcement does say: "We are releasing the initial version of Android Market on the Web in English and will be extending it to other languages in the weeks ahead."
  - dchest 16y ago
    But where can I get the initial English version? I can only see menus and no apps in the country I'm currently in.
  - delackner 16y ago
    That's pretty hilarious considering it forces geo-location-based language localization on me, despite my google account being set to ENGLISH. Can't count the number of times that a google product has spit a local language UI back at me despite being logged in.
GBKS 16y ago
A big problem I see is the focus on popular apps, instead of a mix of new apps, curated lists, etc. The home page solely focuses on top and popular apps, just like category pages. This might not be good for new apps to enter the system and get discovered through the market
- zacharycohn 16y ago
  Popular is not JUST by number of downloads, or else it'd be a self-perpetuating problem. Age, number of downloads, number of ratings, actual rating, and I'm pretty sure the delta of all of these play a part (as in how rapidly it's growing). [edit]Not to say I don't agree with you. There should be some sampling of new applications there too.
hkuo 16y ago
Very clean and simple overall. The green and white make it feel a bit XBox to me, but that's neither here nor there. The details page probably needs some tweaking. The Related column takes up way too much space and shouldn't be on the left side commanding so much immediate attention. That should come visually last in the flow of what the user is looking for on this page. The main column with details, images and reviews thus feels awkwardly scrunched, particularly with the thin About This App column seeming haphazardly floated right. The worst is the lightbox function when enlarging an image, which forces me to click the small X button to close the lightbox, rather than being able to click in any dead space. But overall, I think it's fantastic this is finally available and a great first iteration.
kenjackson 16y ago
Is it just me or do the product "posters" look really pixelated? Like they were done at 3/4 the resolution and then scaled up to what they're at on the screen (64x64?).
- estel 16y ago
  That's probably because they were. Developers previously have uploaded various promotional images at resolutions suitable for the mobile Market, but the web market seems to use resources at a range of different resolutions. Whilst I haven't tried it yet, I imagine that there will be a few more fields to upload appropriate images to, and frequently updated apps and popular apps will not suffer from this within a few days.
sharmajai 16y ago
We should take a breath and mark this day as when Google fully jumped into the mobile app business. Apart from giving Android apps the visibility they deserve, this site will be a great boon for the in-market app rankings, since Google can now use their magical web ranking algorithms to rank apps using the rankings of their corresponding pages. Brilliant.
hkuo 16y ago
Just happened to go to the Chrome Web Store, and suddenly thought, why didn't they just imitate this layout? Of course they had different teams, but their own Chrome Web Store's layout beats this Android one by a mile. Link for comparison: https://chrome.google.com/webstore https://chrome.google.com/webstore Just a thought.
- sandipc 16y ago
  this isn't a great reason, but perhaps this is because users of the Chrome Web Store are guaranteed to be using a modern web browser (Chrome), while regular computer users of the Android Market can be using any browser. (Does the new Market work in IE?)
- pedanticfreak 16y ago
  The Chrome Web Store looks like the native iTunes store. That is not a compliment. Despite that it is still better looking than the Android Market Web Store. The best thing I can say about the Android Market is that it is remarkably fast.
eagletusk 16y ago
Google has kept a record of all of the apps that you have downloaded over the life of your Google account. What does that mean? If you loose your phone and need to re-populate it you know what you had. Nice, paid apps as of now will re-download after a few clicks. I have not found a easy way to re-populate my android with the unpaid apps, hopefully that is coming soon. Update; You can remotely updated apps from your computer: Awesome.
dangero 16y ago
Quality is definitely lacking compared to the App Store in a number of ways. I wonder if the poor quality stems from the fact that Android is probably not even paying for itself internally at google and they don't properly account for all the mobile web traffic it brings to google.com, so the team size is really small right now. This is certainly not the place for using the whole "beta for 5 years" concept because the competition is already polished.
- shareme 16y ago
  this my th has been brought up before.. Google makes more than $1 billion or more on mobile ads..are you aware of that? That means in fact android does pay for itself..
drewda 16y ago
Hmm, doesn't seem to allow me to sign in with my Google Apps account (which I'm using on my Android just fine).
- drewda 16y ago
  Never mind. Seems like I forgot to transition that Google Apps domain to the new style of Google accounts.
makecheck 16y ago
A rather big problem in my browser: on any given page of apps, the entire bottom row shows only icons; the "buy" buttons are cut off no matter what font size or zoom I use. So basically, they make 4 apps per page impossible to purchase due to shoddy web design.
doki_pen 16y ago
Wow. I can push apps to my phone and it happens instantaneously. I wonder how that works and if I can manage to push apps to other peoples phones. :O
usaar333 16y ago
Overall great marketplace. One feature that would be nice would be the inability to hide applications that don't work on your device (as is done in the android market) I've gotten all excited for certain apps only to be told they can't be installed on my phone. Also needs to discriminate better between 'install' and 'installed'; perhaps with colors or just outright hiding installed apps
eapen 16y ago
Polished or not, the ability to remotely install apps on the phone is a killer feature!
program 16y ago
The lot of icons are pixelated (upscaled maybe) and not very good to see. Take a look at the Angry Bird one for example: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15741404/ab-as.jpg http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15741404/ab-as.jpg
dansingerman 16y ago
The design is ok-ish to not that great. But being able to install direct to the phone without going via an iTunes-like think is amazing.
koushikn 16y ago
15 min on the website, I am out of space on my phone.. Time to get 2.2

142 points by jdavidson 16y ago

jonursenbach 16y ago

Did they get this design from OSWD?

aristidb 16y ago

I cannot log in. Others experience the same problem?

mitchellhislop 16y ago
I managed to get to the sign-in screen (click to install an app), but other than than, a bad request on the cookie check
jerhinesmith 16y ago
Yep. "Invalid request."
PureSin 16y ago
Yep, tried in FF4 and Chrome. Both gets invalid request.
dogas 16y ago
I get the same results.
jlgosse 16y ago
Ditto. I was about to buy some random stuff, too.
- bad_user 16y ago
  Me too, I was willing to spend 10000 USD, but now I guess I'll go elsewhere.
nickmolnar2 16y ago
+1
WesleyJohnson 16y ago
Looks like it's working (kind of) now. I clicked sign-in and Chrome gave me a certificate warning because it's signed by *.google.com. I ignored the error and Chrome started churning, eventually give me an 500 error or something of the sort. Hitting refresh finally got me logged in. I was able to install an app at that point by sending it down to my Incredible.
darthg0d 16y ago
Had the same problem with all browsers in the morning (Chrome, Opera, IE, Firefox). But it seems to be working now (no certificates/cookies issues). Tried pushing a random app to my phone, and it worked seamlessly.
StavrosK 16y ago
I can log in now, but it won't show my phone (it says I don't have one). Weird.

nhangen 16y ago

I can't get over how amateur it looks. Really expected more.

jlgosse 16y ago
Based on my experience using the iTunes App Store, it is quite usable and looks a lot better than none at all. Some things that make it instantly better than purchasing iPhone apps from your computer: 1. This web interface is lightning fast, iTunes is horribly slow. 2. You get to use the standard browser controls over the random clutter of controls in iTunes. 3. Pressing "install" installs to your phone without having to plug it in, or sync, or worry about losing your shit. I think it's a great first iteration, and it's definitely something that has been a long time coming.
- masklinn 16y ago
  > Pressing "install" installs to your phone without having to plug it in, or sync, or worry about losing your shit. From your desktop web browser?
  - jsnell 16y ago
    Yes (and it works, just tested it).
    - masklinn 16y ago
      That is an absolutely fantastic feature.
      - koushikn 16y ago
        Its good but doesn't work on the corporate wifi wonder what port they use for this?
  - jlgosse 16y ago
    I have a feeling it only works with 2.2+ (Chrome-to-phone styles), but regardless, it is badass.

marcc 16y ago

I like it, and it's certainly about time. What's going to happen to AppBrain, etc now? They were definitely filling a niche and now will be forced to compete with the source.

tensor 16y ago
Better having to compete than being completely banned from the platform as would happen on iOS, I suppose.

moskie 16y ago

So, is this meant to be accessed from only Android devices? Is there a use for using it through Chrome on a desktop? Would I be able to purchase an app from my desktop, at which point my Android phone would (potentially) automatically download and install the app?

StavrosK 16y ago
It's meant to, from what I can tell, it just doesn't work now.

iqster 16y ago

I also got the invalid request error. I just watched the Honeycomb event, and am boggled that Google can't be bothered to hire decent graphic designers. The icons and general feeling on Android looks unpolished compared to my iOS devices. The app prices on Android market seem to be x2 what they are on iOS. I've probably spent 100 bucks on apps on my iPad/iPod touch. Money spent on apps for my Nexus One (shitty phone) and Nexus S so far: $0. I also don't understand why they need a web store. I buy apps on my iOS devices all the time. Is the point that general usability on Android devices is so bad that you need to use a desktop to purchase apps that will then get transferred to your mobile device??

dpcan 16y ago
First, I sell apps in the Android Market and do well. Lots of people pay. Second, having a web interface just makes it easier for people to search and find apps with ease from their computer. It will REALLY help me because I can now easily link to my apps from Facebook and Twitter, and it looks like users will be able to click INSTALL and have the app go right to their phone so the next time they are ready to play, it's there waiting for them :) I love it.
- iqster 16y ago
  dpcan: You make a good point about linking to apps from Twitter and web sites. I didn't think of that. Thanks for your thoughts. Glad to know you are doing well on Android Market. I'm still confused at my personal tendency to readily make app purchases on my iOS devices but not on my Android phones. But then again, I guess we aren't the average mobile user these days.
  - StavrosK 16y ago
    Eh, I never bought anything for iOS but I've bought a bunch of stuff for Android. Tastes differ.
  - dpcan 16y ago
    I make far fewer purchases on my Android devices over my iPhone as well. It's just that the AppStore continually updates their Featured pages, and I'm constantly buying from there. On Android, the same scrolling apps at the top have been there a long time, and all you have are the categories that seem to stay the same (like the AppStore, BUT there isn't a Featured This Week section or anything)

nrbafna 16y ago

First thoughts. Seems neat. Cannot login. Some useful details listed - last update date, minimum android version. much easier to browse the reviews than on the mobile version. search has spell-corrector. related apps listed on details screen. useful.

lucasr 16y ago

It somehow resembles Ovi Store (not a good sign) but slightly better. The design is a bit too busy. Not bad for a first iteration though.

rst 16y ago

The bigger news from the announcement, to me, was that in-app purchases are promised "soon". EDIT: docs here --- http://developer.android.com/guide/market/billing/index.html http://developer.android.com/guide/market/billing/index.html

streeter 16y ago

Not only is the store 8 months late (announced at Google IO last May), it's buggy and I can't log in. I'm not quite sure what took Google so long to get the store up and running, but it's been really frustrating to wait this long for it.

bjonathan 16y ago

This Market is a good news BUT it seems so much like an unfinish product. That another proof of the difference in the attention to details between iOS and Android. This is a screenshot of the Market from France: http://i.imgur.com/lchpI.jpg http://i.imgur.com/lchpI.jpg Half the page is in the french, half the page is in english and IMO the worst is the "~" before the price (they convert $/€ so it's ROUGH price wtf! ). The website doesnt feel that it can be trust IMO if you look to it like a John Doe. This is definitely a step in the good direction but please Google please polish a little more your android products so that they appeal the masses!!

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
veeti 16y ago
It's worth noting that they announced a new pricing system too - developers will be able to specify different prices for different currencies, like with the App Store.
albemuth 16y ago
Not quite as bad as from a market-unsupported country: http://i.min.us/iemx0U.png http://i.min.us/iemx0U.png
estel 16y ago
In fairness, their announcement does say: "We are releasing the initial version of Android Market on the Web in English and will be extending it to other languages in the weeks ahead."
- dchest 16y ago
  But where can I get the initial English version? I can only see menus and no apps in the country I'm currently in.
- delackner 16y ago
  That's pretty hilarious considering it forces geo-location-based language localization on me, despite my google account being set to ENGLISH. Can't count the number of times that a google product has spit a local language UI back at me despite being logged in.

GBKS 16y ago

A big problem I see is the focus on popular apps, instead of a mix of new apps, curated lists, etc. The home page solely focuses on top and popular apps, just like category pages. This might not be good for new apps to enter the system and get discovered through the market

zacharycohn 16y ago
Popular is not JUST by number of downloads, or else it'd be a self-perpetuating problem. Age, number of downloads, number of ratings, actual rating, and I'm pretty sure the delta of all of these play a part (as in how rapidly it's growing). [edit]Not to say I don't agree with you. There should be some sampling of new applications there too.

hkuo 16y ago

Very clean and simple overall. The green and white make it feel a bit XBox to me, but that's neither here nor there. The details page probably needs some tweaking. The Related column takes up way too much space and shouldn't be on the left side commanding so much immediate attention. That should come visually last in the flow of what the user is looking for on this page. The main column with details, images and reviews thus feels awkwardly scrunched, particularly with the thin About This App column seeming haphazardly floated right. The worst is the lightbox function when enlarging an image, which forces me to click the small X button to close the lightbox, rather than being able to click in any dead space. But overall, I think it's fantastic this is finally available and a great first iteration.

kenjackson 16y ago

Is it just me or do the product "posters" look really pixelated? Like they were done at 3/4 the resolution and then scaled up to what they're at on the screen (64x64?).

estel 16y ago
That's probably because they were. Developers previously have uploaded various promotional images at resolutions suitable for the mobile Market, but the web market seems to use resources at a range of different resolutions. Whilst I haven't tried it yet, I imagine that there will be a few more fields to upload appropriate images to, and frequently updated apps and popular apps will not suffer from this within a few days.

sharmajai 16y ago

We should take a breath and mark this day as when Google fully jumped into the mobile app business. Apart from giving Android apps the visibility they deserve, this site will be a great boon for the in-market app rankings, since Google can now use their magical web ranking algorithms to rank apps using the rankings of their corresponding pages. Brilliant.

hkuo 16y ago

Just happened to go to the Chrome Web Store, and suddenly thought, why didn't they just imitate this layout? Of course they had different teams, but their own Chrome Web Store's layout beats this Android one by a mile. Link for comparison: https://chrome.google.com/webstore https://chrome.google.com/webstore Just a thought.

sandipc 16y ago
this isn't a great reason, but perhaps this is because users of the Chrome Web Store are guaranteed to be using a modern web browser (Chrome), while regular computer users of the Android Market can be using any browser. (Does the new Market work in IE?)
pedanticfreak 16y ago
The Chrome Web Store looks like the native iTunes store. That is not a compliment. Despite that it is still better looking than the Android Market Web Store. The best thing I can say about the Android Market is that it is remarkably fast.

eagletusk 16y ago

Google has kept a record of all of the apps that you have downloaded over the life of your Google account. What does that mean? If you loose your phone and need to re-populate it you know what you had. Nice, paid apps as of now will re-download after a few clicks. I have not found a easy way to re-populate my android with the unpaid apps, hopefully that is coming soon. Update; You can remotely updated apps from your computer: Awesome.

dangero 16y ago

Quality is definitely lacking compared to the App Store in a number of ways. I wonder if the poor quality stems from the fact that Android is probably not even paying for itself internally at google and they don't properly account for all the mobile web traffic it brings to google.com, so the team size is really small right now. This is certainly not the place for using the whole "beta for 5 years" concept because the competition is already polished.

shareme 16y ago
this my th has been brought up before.. Google makes more than $1 billion or more on mobile ads..are you aware of that? That means in fact android does pay for itself..

drewda 16y ago

Hmm, doesn't seem to allow me to sign in with my Google Apps account (which I'm using on my Android just fine).

drewda 16y ago
Never mind. Seems like I forgot to transition that Google Apps domain to the new style of Google accounts.

makecheck 16y ago

A rather big problem in my browser: on any given page of apps, the entire bottom row shows only icons; the "buy" buttons are cut off no matter what font size or zoom I use. So basically, they make 4 apps per page impossible to purchase due to shoddy web design.

doki_pen 16y ago

Wow. I can push apps to my phone and it happens instantaneously. I wonder how that works and if I can manage to push apps to other peoples phones. :O

usaar333 16y ago

Overall great marketplace. One feature that would be nice would be the inability to hide applications that don't work on your device (as is done in the android market) I've gotten all excited for certain apps only to be told they can't be installed on my phone. Also needs to discriminate better between 'install' and 'installed'; perhaps with colors or just outright hiding installed apps

eapen 16y ago

Polished or not, the ability to remotely install apps on the phone is a killer feature!

program 16y ago

The lot of icons are pixelated (upscaled maybe) and not very good to see. Take a look at the Angry Bird one for example: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15741404/ab-as.jpg http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15741404/ab-as.jpg

dansingerman 16y ago

The design is ok-ish to not that great. But being able to install direct to the phone without going via an iTunes-like think is amazing.

koushikn 16y ago

15 min on the website, I am out of space on my phone.. Time to get 2.2