Google's Play to open a new revenue stream: paid content

Google Play has expanded its market reach to four new countries, opening its doors to app developers in the Czech Republic, Israel, Mexico, and Poland. With today's announcement, developers in these four countries will now be able to sell their apps and in-app products on Google's freshly rebranded platform. Once they've created a Google Play developer account, users will be able to upload their apps and price them in any available currency, while receiving payments to their own local bank accounts. They can also accept payments in local currency, though developers in Israel and Mexico who have been selling apps through an AdSense account may need to set up a separate developer account to do so (Google will send out e-mails to these users with further instructions on the migration process).

Today's announcement is just the latest in a series of moves to promote paid content on Google's unified platform, as part of the company's ongoing efforts to move away from an exclusively ad-based revenue stream. And, despite some hiccups, Google seems intent on pursuing these efforts even further. To get started, you can set up your own account over at Google's Android Developer Console.

You may have noticed an addition to the black navigation bar that runs along the top of most Google products in your browser — a link to the Google Play Store, helpfully labeled "New" in red block capitals. Google Play now has pride of place in between Maps and YouTube, signaling its importance to the company over services relegated to a drop-down menu like Translate and Reader. Will increased visibility for Google's newly unified store solve the issues it has with getting people to pay for premium content? Only time will tell, but what we'd really like is the ability to choose which services go into the bar in the first place.

A strange event today has a lot of Samsung Android owners rightfully worried about malware on the Android Market. We've received a raft of tips from users who have discovered an app titled "МТС Мобильная Почта" (MTC Mobile Mail) on their Samsung devices, an app they never installed and are finding it difficult to uninstall.

As near as we can tell, the issue appears to be this: Samsung has several pieces of software that it installs on it devices but that aren't in the Google Play store (for obvious reasons). However, every single Android app has an app name that identifies it on the Android system, in this case the "unique" name is com.seven.Z7, which identifies Samsung's email app. What appears to have happened is that Russian developer OJSC Mobile Telesystems gave that unique identifier to its "МТС Мобильная Почта" app, and so these Samsung devices were tricked into thinking it was an update to Samsung's email client. Since Google Play allows for automatic updating of all apps, it was installed on many devices appeared on the "My Apps" section within Google Play (see update below).

Earlier this week, a report came out showing that some apps on Android use more than twice the power they actually need because they're running ads. Angry Birds in particular was called out, with 70 percent of its power draw dedicated to uploading information and downloading ads. That stark fact may be part of the reason why Angry Birds Space, which was released yesterday, has both a free and a $.99 "premium" version in Google Play.

Although it might not be entirely fair to single out Angry Birds for battery life issues, the app is a common example simply because of how popular it has become. At the center of the Android app ecosystem is a fundamental problem that hasn't yet been solved: paid apps get better battery life but simply don't make much money in Google Play, while free-with-ads apps appear to be much more profitable but provide a much worse experience to the end user.

When Google debuted its massive Google Play rebranding of its app and media stores, one thing that was still missing was the ability to purchase movies — but that may be about to change. CNET reports that Google is considering adding the feature due to pressure from its content partners. Hollywood studios are said to be tying Google's continued ability to rent titles to the addition of purchases, which obviously come in at a higher price point — with more profit — than rentals alone. The new option could potentially appear as early as this summer. Despite Google's incredible success with Android, it has thus far had difficulty establishing a successful media ecosystem, but whether the addition of movie purchases will change its fortunes remains to be seen.

It turns out that Google's music service — now a part of Google Play — has a limit for how many songs you can stream each day, though for most users it's not something they'll ever have to deal with. The issue recently came to light when a Droid Life reader received a message saying that they had exceeded their streaming limit. Unfortunately, Google's support page didn't provide anything in the way of details about what that limit was. We reached out Google to see what was going on, and while the specific number wasn't revealed, we were told that there is indeed a daily limit for how many songs you can stream. However, Google says that it's set high enough that very few users will ever encounter problems.

The (recently-renamed) Google Play store app has received an update that brings some of the review sorting abilities that were introduced in the web app back in December. Thankfully, each review now says which device the reviewer was using, so you won't have to count on them writing that info in themselves anymore. With the update the reviews screen also gives you the option of only viewing comments from those on the latest version of the app or those using the same phone as you, and you can also sort reviews either by newness or helpfulness. Lastly, there are now two views under My Apps: "Installed" and "All," the latter of which mimics the "My Android Apps" screen on the web interface and shows everything you've ever downloaded — regardless of whether you've currently got it installed or not. The update — version 3.5.15 — is rolling out now, but if you can't wait, Droid Life has posted a download link to the APK.

Note: If you want the update right now, just download the file at the source link directly to your phone, rename it to "Googleplay.apk", and run it to install the new version of the market over your current one. As always, be careful when you tinker with your phone — if you're not sure what you're doing, it might be best to just wait.

That was quick. Yesterday we reported that Google's Play rebrand of the Android Market may have inadvertently broke the Market shortcut links on some Motorola devices. Now it appears that a new update to Play (version 3.4.7) makes everything work the way it's supposed to again. We can confirm that our RAZR Maxx and Droid X2 — the former of which Droid Life originally confirmed as having the problem — are both running Play Store 3.4.7, and the Market links on both redirect properly to the new store. The update to the new version of Play is being pushed out as we speak, but if for some reason you didn't get it yet, you can pick it up it at the source link below.

Thanks, blacktea!

Reuters is reporting this afternoon that at least some developers of applications in Google Play (née Android Market) are being forced to use Google Wallet (which now encompasses Google Checkout's functionality) exclusively — as opposed to competing services like PayPal — for in-app payments on threat of removal from the store. Papaya Mobile is cited as an example: "They told people that if they used other payment services they would be breaking the terms of use," CEO Si Shen says. Reuters also says it has obtained a copy of an email this week telling a developer that it had 30 days to comply with the order before its apps would be dropped from the Market.

The move would mirror Apple's philosophy with the App Store, which has generally been very strict about requiring iOS developers to route in-app payments through iTunes — not even heavyweights like Amazon were left unscathed, which had to tweak its Kindle app to comply. What's odd is that Google has maintained an extraordinarily lackadaisical approach to policing the Market since its inception, so to threaten removal in an effort to establish ecosystem lock-in would be setting a new precedent for the company.

Google's switch from Android Market to Google Play is causing the links built into Motorola's Blur skin to short circuit on at least some of the company's devices, reports Droid Life. It looks like when you tap links to the Market on an updated device, Blur will try to launch the Android Market app, and won't realize that it's really looking for Play. The end result is an irksome "Application is not installed on your device" warning whenever you tap the link. There's good news for those with affected devices, though — you can still download apps just like you used to, you just need to launch the new Play app instead of tapping the shortcut. Unfortunately, those of you out there with particularly sticky muscle memory are out of luck, as the links won't be fixed until Motorola releases an over-the-air update.

Google Play is the company's attempt to unify its myriad content offerings under a single banner, and further additions to the service could be on the way. The Help page for Google Play has empty sections for "Audio books" and "Magazines and journals", suggesting they may well be added to the Play store soon. Such a move would help bolster Play's credentials as a robust alternative to iTunes, which features audiobook downloads and support for magazine subscriptions through Newsstand.

Of course, Android users aren't without current options in either area. Providers like Audible are happy to sell you audiobooks regardless of your mobile operating system, and magazines have come to Android through Zinio and other apps. It's also worth noting that some magazines are available via Google Books, though the selection is mostly limited to older titles and isn't yet in the Play store. Google Play is all about simplifying and streamlining the content available on Google's services to date — hopefully the rebranding will translate to an expansion of content as well.