Android Market

Third-party applications for the first Android phone will appear on the so-called "Android Market" — a space where publishers can upload and sell programs for the mobile platform.

The market has been compared to the App Store for iPhone. To squash that characterization, Android's Developer Blog wrote, "We chose the term 'market' rather than 'store' because we feel that developers should have an open and unobstructed environment to make their content available."

Apple's App Store recently received a barrage of critiques from the blogosphere — either for pulling non-security-threatening applications off the market, or for failing to prevent frivolous apps from reaching user availability in the first place.

The ease with which apps can be posted on Google's Android Market, however, were toted on the Android Developers Blog. Users register, upload the content, describe it, and publish. The service includes a dashboard and analytics, as well as a YouTube-like feedback and rating system.

Android handsets are expected to appear in late 2008. Each will host a beta version of Android Market and developers may launch apps that are free to users.

A subsequent update will support download of paid content and more features: versioning, multiple device profile support and analytics.

The phone itself, the first of which will be made by HTC with carrier T-Mobile, appears to have a banana-like bend, reports Android Authority, which published specs of the unit.

The odd shape supposedly yields better voice quality, but is speculated to be awkward to navigate. Features like a full QWERTY keyboard, trackball, and sliding display mechanism are all present and accounted for.

One month after the debut of the iPhone 3G, Apple announced it sold three million of them worldwide. In the same period, 60 million apps were downloaded from its App Store.