Android Market Updates Catch Up Users with the Rest of the Herd
Google and Android’s carriers have rolled out several low-profile updates for Android Market, transforming the Smartphone OS’s old navigation to a significantly more convenient and simplified one, that focuses on easier app search and managing.
Lifehacker.com reports:
“[Google and mobile carriers] have pushed out a silent, but quite nice, update to the Android Market on phones running older versions of Android, back to 1.6…The updates provide tabbed app browsing, bulk updating of apps, and automatic updating of apps you select.”
The updates are not available in every phone to download automatically, but the second part is a strong indicator this is an important step for Android towards catching up with the competition. In similar context, Apple has also rolled out updates for iTunes, making it more manageable and social (something Google has yet to do with the Android Market), making the service easier to handle and overall more user-friendly; seemingly competition-driven once more.
Android is facing a few opponents wanting to cash in on their own front to the Android app store. While iTunes may also cause a lot of concerns for Apple, the amount of developers working and already offering their next gen Android Market interface is striking. That expanding list includes Amazon and Best Buy, among others. AppBrain, also updated its service and added yet another feature, now enabling users to mange Android apps from the web, and showing just what big of a role apps play on the long-term junction in mobile web arena between Smartphone mobility and PC power.
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