Developers to start charging for Android Market apps

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Google's Android Market will soon be offering apps that need to be paid for, rather than just the free downloads that are currently available.

The information was revealed in an an email sent to developers from Google's head of mobile platforms, Eric Chu.

Paid-for apps will initially be available in the US and the UK, while other European countries will soon follow as payment systems are set-up.

Apple introduced downloadable third-party applications via its App Store launched in conjunction with the iPhone 3G and that has proved to be a major catalyst to the iPhone's continued success.

Enabling Android developers to charge for apps will give them an incentive to offer higher quality and more powerful apps. Reports say that developers will keep 70 per cent of the cost of the apps, while Google will take home 30 per cent.

Android users have been so far disappointed at the paucity of the apps available to them but now can expect a flurry of applications. Developers will have to take account of many different phones running Android as T-Mobile's G1, released last November, is the first of many Android powered phones, with more expected to arrive in 2009 from different manufacturers .

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