Every Android phone has a built-in application known as the Android Market; the label of the application says simply Market. This application permits users to browse the extensive catalog of applications by category and price. The best way to get your application onto thousands of Android devices is to publish your application to the Market. This is done through web-based tools found at android.com.
Checking the validity of an application’s license is accomplished by interacting with the License Verification Library (LVL). Interacting with this library requires the inclusion of the com.android.vending.licensing package and is beyond the scope of this chapter. Please examine the online documentation found at http://developer .android.com/guide/publishing/licensing.html for more details on the LVL.
B.3.1 The Market rules
Before you put your application on the Market, you should carefully read the developer terms (www.android.com/us/developer-distribution-agreement.html) and the content guidelines (www.android.com/market/terms/developer-content-policy.html).
The Market terms cover pricing, payments, returns, license grants, revocations, and other relevant topics to anyone looking to publish applications to the Android Market. The content guidelines further define what’s acceptable in terms of subject
matter and media, though in practice an application must be very egregious to be pulled out of the Market. The bar for entry is very low.
If the Market terms are amenable to you and you plan to post applications, you need to register as an Android developer as well as have a Google account. There’s a nominal fee to register as an Android developer. Once you’re set up, you can begin placing your applications in the Market for users to download and install directly. Optionally, you can publish applications for a price other than “free”—that is, you can sell your soft- ware. To do so, you must also provide banking and tax identifier information.
B.3.2 Getting your application in the Market
Registered Market developers simply use an online form to upload applications.
When uploading applications, you can define the different Market locations that are supported, pricing and terms, as well as a category and description and other options.
To demonstrate the application publication process, we’ll review this author’s account with a single published application. The application used for this exercise is the Find Edges application created chapter 19.
Figure B.2 shows the single application listed in the Android Market, ready for maintenance. Note that this screen is also the place where new applications can added to the market by clicking the Upload Application button in the lower-right corner.
Figure B.2 Managing Android Market applications
Clicking through the application allows you to edit this application’s properties on the Market. The editing screen is too large to fit into one screenshot, so it’s split between two figures. Figure B.3 shows the top portion of the management interface where updates to the APK file can be loaded along with screenshots to display the application to prospective users browsing in the Market.
Figure B.3 Managing the APK file and screenshots
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Figure B.4 shows the textual aspects of the application description.
Once the application is published to the market, it’s visible to the Market application on Android devices world- wide within moments. Figure B.5 shows a screenshot of the Market application running on a physical Android device. The Market applica- tion is displaying the catalog entry for the Find Edges application.
After that simple process, your application is available for download to users across the globe.
The Android Market is easy to use—but is it effective?
Figure B.4 Textual descriptions of the application along with publication options
Figure B.5 The newly published application becomes available on the device in mere moments.
B.3.3 Android Market—the right solution
The Android Market is an effective distribution mechanism because it’s built in and accessible to users and developers alike. Generally speaking, it’s the first place users go to find applications.
As mentioned in chapter 1, the open nature of the Android platform—and of the Android Market—offers distinct advantages to both developers and users. There’s no arbitrary inclusion or exclusion process that an individual or company holds over the Market. Anyone who joins and agrees to the terms can publish applications on the Market without fear of the thought police barring an application.
Virtually all applications are welcome, but some will do better than others. Users rate the applications on a scale of 1 to 5, and they may leave comments as well. These comments often influence prospective purchasers with their positive or negative remarks. The Android Market is a merit-based system; impress your users, and they’ll rate your application well and compliment you; shortchange your users, and your download count and sales will suffer.
In keeping with the theme of being an open platform, Android applications may be distributed beyond just the Android Market.