Daily question: How open can open be?
Thu, Oct 30, 08
When you see an application listed as FREE you expect it to be FREE, right? So did we. Little did we know that when you download applications like “Fast Food Calorie Calculator” its sole purpose in life is to direct you to the MobiHand website so you can PURCHASE the application for $9.99!
I’m not sure how many different ways I can explain how obnoxious this is. It destroys the user experience. I loaded the application description and chose to “flag content” for “other reasons” and simply put “not free” in the text box. I hope they get kicked off the market. Although if they do… it opens up a HUGEEEEEEE can of worms as far as Google regulating the market, which it is NOT supposed to do.
One of the principal arguments against the Apple App Store offered by open source advocates was its “closed” nature. Apple’s subsequent de-listings of fewer than 5 apps among 5,500 was Evidence A that the company’s control was unreasonable.
As the emphasized passage above from the Phandroid site shows, Android phone fans are conflicted when confronted with reality. Mind you, G1 is still very much a geek’s phone, for those who care about the plumbing. What happens when Android-powered phones reach the broader consumer market and tricksters start getting more and more cunning with re-direction, add-on pricing, fake apps, proxy markets, etc?
Can we expect non-geek consumers to successfully self-regulate the Android App Market, without Google’s verboten intervention?
