Slow Growth in Android App Sales Triggers Major Changes, Paypal VP Heads to Google

Google’s Android platform manager Eric Chu had a chance to chat with the folks at the Inside Social Apps conference on Tuesday and made it very clear that they are not satisfied right now with the performance of the paid app market on Android.  In fact, he even rattled off a list of changes that will take place over the next few months to help developers succeed on this platform.  While they are activating hundreds of thousands of phones each day, they want this platform to succeed in other key areas, most importantly, through a market.

• The list topper and one that we’ll likely see very soon is an in-app payment system which means that developers will be able to include add-ons to their apps that users  can purchase.  Not only will this help increase revenues for the devs, but it’s also a way to bring additional features to users who need some new spice in their applications.

• The second step will be to offer carrier billing to more than just AT&T.  The plan is to give users the opportunity to add application charges straight to their bill, which in theory, increases app purchases.  This method is apparently very expensive and time consuming, but Chu made it clear that they are working on it.

• There is a team at Google dedicated to making apps easier to find.  They are also in charge of weeding out the bad apps, but moving the best stuff forward will likely help out the entire market.  We all know how difficult it can be to find new and useful apps, so this is great news for everyone.

Here’s to hoping that these changes are almost ready to go.  We’ve seen a nice spike in quality apps over the last couple of months, but we also want the developers behind these apps to feel welcomed and to be rewarded for their outstanding work.

And on a now-related note, a VP of mobile at Paypal has decided to brings his talents to the Google side of the world.  His role with Paypal was to help bring them up to speed on all things mobile, so he seems like a great choice to help lead a new payment system for our favorite mobile OS.  This could mean that an option to buy apps using Paypal is out, but we’d rather have a native Google option anyway, right?

Via:  Forbes, GigaOM

Cheers Andrew!