More Carrier Billing Options on Android Market

[This post is by Eric Chu, Android Developer Ecosystem. —Dirk Dougherty]



Over the past year, we’ve seen very strong growth in the number of Android users around the world. To make it easier for those users to purchase their favorite apps and games on Android Market, we’re bringing Direct Carrier Billing to additional carrier networks in South Korea, the UK, and Germany.



In South Korea, we’ve begun a phased rollout of the service to users on the top two carrier networks — SK Telecom and KT Corporation. When complete, the rollout will reach more than 10 million users, who will be able to charge their Android Market purchases straight to their phone bills.



In Europe, we’re rolling out the service to users on two popular regional carriers, Vodafone UK and Vodafone DE. Initially, the service will be available only to users who have purchased their devices through Vodafone’s online and retail channels.



The new launches expand the network of carriers already offering direct billing service in the US on the T-Mobile, AT&T, and Sprint networks, and in Japan on SoftBank, KDDI, and NTT DOCOMO networks.



Direct Carrier Billing is a key payment option for users worldwide, especially in regions where credit cards are less common. We will continue to partner with more operators to offer this payment option to their Android users. Watch for more announcements in the weeks ahead.

Multiple APK Support in Android Market

[This post is by Eric Chu, Android Developer Ecosystem. —Dirk Dougherty]
At Google I/O we announced our plans to add several new capabilities to help developers manage their products more effectively in Android Market. We’re pleased to let you know that the latest of those, multiple APK support, is now available. Multiple APK support is a new publishing option in Android Market for those developers who want extra control over distribution.
Until now, each product listing on Android Market has included a single APK file, a universal payload that is deliverable to all eligible devices — across all platform versions, screen sizes, and chipsets. Broad distribution of a single APK works very well for almost all applications and has the advantage of simplified product maintenance.
With multiple APK support, you can now upload multiple versions of an APK for a single product listing, with each one addressing a different subset of your customers. These APKs are complete, independent APKs that share the same package name, but contain code and resources to target different Android platform versions, screen sizes, or GL texture-compression formats. When users download or purchase your app, Android Market chooses the right APK to deliver based on the characteristics of the device.
When you upload multiple APK files, Android Market handles them as part of a single product listing that aggregates the app details, ratings, and comments across the APKs. All users who browse your app’s details page see the same product with the same description, branding assets, screenshots, video, ratings, and comments. Android Market also aggregates the app’s download statistics, reviews, and billing data across all of the APKs.
Multiple APK support gives you a variety of ways to control app distribution. For example, you could use it to create separate APKs for phones and tablets under the same product listing. You could also use it to take advantage of new APIs or new hardware capabilities without impacting your existing customer base.
To support this new capability, we’ve updated the Developer Console to include controls for uploading and managing APKs in a product listing — we encourage you to take a look. If you’d like to learn more about how multiple APK support works, please read the developer documentation. As always, please feel free to give us feedback on the feature through the Market Help Center.

Introducing Google Play

[This post is by Kenneth Lui, Android Developer Ecosystem. —Dirk Dougherty]

For more than a year we’ve been focused on expanding the reach, content, and monetization opportunities of Android Market. We started by extending the store to users on the web and then went on to add books, movies, and music. The number of people who have visited, registered, and downloaded from the store has been amazing.



Today we’re launching Google Play, an integrated destination for apps, books, movies, and music, accessible to users on Android devices and to anyone on the Web. As part of this launch, Google Play replaces and extends Android Market — users everywhere can now find their favorite apps and games in Google Play, with other digital content, all in one place.



We believe that with a strong brand, compelling offerings, and a seamless purchasing and consumption experience, Google Play will drive more traffic and revenue to the entire ecosystem.



We’ll be investing in the brand to bring Google Play to as many people as possible, and we’ll also invest in the latest digital content to keep Google Play fresh, relevant, and engaging. Apps and games remain the core of Google Play, so we’ll continue investing in new ways to connect users with their favorite apps, and developers with new customers.

As we grow and promote Google Play around the world, we’ll be marketing your apps and games at the same time. Our policies have not changed and our goal is still the same — to create a great, open marketplace for distributing Android apps.



Google Play is built on the same infrastructure as Android Market, so the transition for users and developers will be seamless. Users can sign into their existing accounts with the same credentials as before and purchase content using the same payment methods. As a developer, there’s no change needed to your published products and you can continue to use the same publishing tools to put your app in front of hundreds of millions of Android users. If your app was in Android Market yesterday, it’s in Google Play today.



We’ll be rolling out Google Play to devices in a phased OTA update, starting today and continuing over the days to come. With the update, the Android Market app will upgrade to the Play Store app and the Music, Videos, and Books apps will upgrade to Play Music, Play Movies, and Play Books. This update is for devices running Android 2.2 or higher, and users on other devices will continue to have the same access to your apps as before.



You can start sending customers to your products in Google Play right away. Check out the updated “Get it on Google Play” badges and look for an email with more details on the transition. In the meantime, you can check out the Google Play web site at the link below and join the discussion on +Android Developers.

http://play.google.com

New App Stats for Publishers on Android Market

If you've published an app on Android Market, you’ve probably used Application Statistics to help tune your development and marketing efforts. Application Statistics is a set of dashboards in the Developer Console that shows your app’s installation performance across key dimensions such as countries, platform versions, device models, and others. Today we are making Application Statistics even more powerful for publishers, adding new metrics, new ways to analyze your data, and a redesigned UI that’s much easier to use.

First, we are adding important new installation metrics to the dashboards. You can now see your installations measured by unique users, as well as by unique devices. For user installations, you can view active installs, total installs, and daily installs and uninstalls. For devices, you can see active installs as well as daily installs, uninstalls, and upgrades.



Along with the new metrics, we’re also introducing two new data dimensions — Carrier and App Version. You can use them to track your app’s installation trends across mobile operators or monitor the launch metrics of specific app updates.



To give you visibility over your installation data over time, we’re adding timeline charts for all metrics and dimensions. At a glance, these charts highlight your app’s installation peaks and longer-term trends, which you can correlate to promotions, app improvements, or other factors. You can even focus in on data inside a dimension by adding specific points (such as individual platform versions or languages) to the timeline.



Finally, we’re bringing you all of the new metrics, dimensions, and timelines in a completely redesigned UI that is faster, more compact, and easier to use. Each dimension is now displayed in dedicated tab, making it easier to click through your stats daily or as often as needed. If you track your stats in another tool, we’re also adding an export capability that lets you download your stats in a single CSV file.



Check out the new Application Statistics next time you visit the Android Market Developer Console. We hope they’ll give you new insight into your app’s user base and installation performance. Watch for related announcements soon — we are continuing to work on bringing you the reporting features you need to manage your products successfully on Android Market.



Please feel free to share any new insights or tips on +Android Developers!

A Closer Look at 10 Billion Downloads

[This post is by Eric Chu, Android Developer Ecosystem. —Dirk Dougherty]



On Tuesday, we announced that Android Market passed 10 Billion app downloads. We wanted to look a little deeper at that huge number. First question: which app was lucky number 10 billion? Photobucket Mobile. They’ll be getting a great prize package, including tickets to next year’s Google I/O developer conference.



Remember we still have 8 days left to celebrate 10 billion downloads with 10-cent apps on Android Market. You can follow which apps are promoted each day on +Android, our Google+ page.



Here’s a graphical deep dive into 10 billion downloads...

Games Coming to Android Market in Korea

[This post is by Eric Chu, Android Developer Ecosystem. —Dirk Dougherty]



In the 24 months since the first Android device became available locally, Korea has quickly become one of the top countries in Android device activations. In parallel, we’ve also seen tremendous growth in app downloads from Android Market. Korea is now the second-largest consumer of apps worldwide. Today we are adding to this momentum by bringing games to Android Market in Korea.



Starting right away, Android users in Korea can explore the many thousands of popular game titles available in Android Market and download them onto their devices. For paid games, purchasing is fast and convenient through direct carrier billing, which lets users in Korea easily charge their purchases to their monthly mobile operator bills.



If you are a game developer, now is the time to localize your game resources, app descriptions, and marketing assets to take advantage of this new opportunity. When you are ready, please visit the Android Market developer console to target your app for distribution in South Korea and set prices in Korean Won (KRW). If you don’t want to distribute to Korea right away, you can also exclude it.



With the huge popularity of games on Android and the convenience of direct carrier billing in Korea, we expect to see a jump in game purchases and downloads in the weeks ahead. For game developers worldwide, it’s “game on” in Korea!