Android Market Update, HTC Dream in France

Paid apps recently hit the United Kingdom and in addition to officially announcing the fact, Google is now allowing developers to target Germany and Australia with Paid Applications although they will not yet appear on the market. But for German and Australian Android Fans, you can be sure that Paid Android Apps will be appearing in your market very, very soon.

Android fans in France should be even MORE happy because the HTC Dream is touching down on Orange in France on March 15th as explained by Google’s Eric Chu. Earlier, it was rumored to be going on sale March 5th – delayed, yes… but at least it’s definitely coming! There is no telling when paid apps will hit France, but Google now doubts the following list  of countries having access to free Android applications in the Android Market:

• US
• UK
• Germany
• Austria
• Netherlands
• Czech Republic
• Poland
• Australia
• Singapore
• France (March 15th)

I would say that Android continues its march towards global domination, but is it considered domination if you want to be dominated? Here is the full email:

Hello,

I’m writing to let you know that priced apps are now available to users in
the UK.  You can target your priced apps to UK users by selecting the “UK”
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.  Please note that we have added selection options for Germany
and Austria in advance of priced apps becoming available in those markets.
Details on when users in Germany and Austria can see priced apps will be
forthcoming.

Also, I am pleased to let you know that free applications will become
available in France starting March 15th, when Orange launches the HTC
Dream.  France will join the other countries where users currently can
download free applications:  US, UK, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Czech
Republic, Poland, Australia, and Singapore.  You can make your free apps
available to French users by selecting “All Current and Future Locations”.
We will add the option to target France when we add the ability to add
French language listings in the publisher website, which we expect to be
complete by end of this month.

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

Eric Chu,
Android Market