Clarence Eldefors blog Mostly about the web and technology

11Feb/110

Alternative Android markets

One good thing about the android system is the ability to create your own application markets to cover functions unavailable on the default Android Market or to get an application market onto devices not approved by Google. Since I couldnt find any good lists on the markets available I browsed around my android market mailbox and searched the web a bit to come up with this list:

SlideMe (4/5)

Website: slideme.org
Number of apps: ~4,000
Payment methods: Paypal, credit and debit cards, amazon payments.
Activity: Good. Top app has more than a 150k downloads. Very very low to default market but high for alternatives.
Extras: Developers can get payments to a SlideMe Mastercard. Downloadable native client called "SAM"!

Handster (2/5)

Website: handster.com
Number of apps: ~4,000 (>10,000 for all platforms)
Payment methods: Paypal, credit and debit cards.
Activity: Seems low. Public number of ratings show 0-5 for most popular apps.
Extras: All platforms at one place.
Comments: Offering locales where they seem to have made automatic translations, at best, makes it seem less reliable.

AndAppstore (1/5)

Website: andappstore.com
Number of apps: ~1,800
Payment methods: Only paypal.
Activity: Fairly low. Around 60 comments posted for their native client.
Extras: Native android client.
Comments: Very basic site. Comments without ratings seems to lower overall rating. Complaints about non-delivered apps on their client comments. Seemed promising but in the end didn't deliver any trust.

OpenMarket (-/5)

Comments: Specialized for htc phones and south africa makes it very narrow. didnt catch more interest by web 2.0 catchphrases and unbrowsable categories.

Amazon appstore (2/5)

Website: amazon.com (?)
Activity: Unknown
Comments: Yearly fee for developers of $99 which is 3 times what you pay for your google market account. First year waived. Needed to sell apps on amazon.com. I still don't see the need or what is so special with this market - unless they are coming with their own device.

Poketgear (2/5)

Website: pocketgear.com
Number of apps: ~4,500 in android section
Payment methods: Payapal, credit and debit cards.
Activity: Ok at best. 7,000 downloads of angry birds compared to millions on default client.
Extras: All platforms.

pdassi (3/5)

Website: android.pdassi.com
Number of apps: ~4,500 in android section
Payment methods: Payapal, credit and debit cards.
Activity: ~13,000 downloads on most popular android application. Other sections much more well used it seems.
Extras: Native android client. All platforms. Good localization for german, dutch and italian.

Comments? Did I miss any? Do you know any devices that ship with an alternative android makert?

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