New Android Market Coming: Huge Face Lift, Related Android Apps and 15 Minute Refund Window

by Antonio Wells Dec 11, 2010 10:43 AM – 10 Comments

The Android development team has been hard at work on the next version of Google’s Android Market which will include a UI face lift, roll out the “Related” Android apps tabs some are now receiving and shortening the refund window from 24 hours to 15 minutes (a decision developers will glee with joy). The roll out will be over the next few weeks and for Android 1.6 and higher devices.

Face Lift

: New Android Market App Details Page

: New Android Market Home

Apart of the user interface revamp on the Market home and category screens is a carousel of featured top Android apps. More new categories will be supported such as Widgets and Live Wallpapers (apps with widgets and walls included will be automatically placed in these categories). Content ratings

Related Android Apps

One of the major flaws of the Android Market is discoverability of apps, with the Related tab this will help consumers find the best apps… or simply ask us at AndroidTapp.com the world’s best leading Android App Review website!

15 Minute Refund Window

Google noted most folks refund within 15 minutes of purchase and have decided to shorten the window of refunds. I’m sure some consumers will uproar about this as sometimes you can download an app and not open it right away or factors in determining a refund is needed spawn past a 15 minute window. However many developers will be happy, especially those with play-and-throw-away value apps & games.

Excited about the new Android Market changes? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!

[Source Android Developers Blog]

Categorised in: Apps Blog, Featured, News

10 Comments

By Seth on December 11, 2010 at 11:50 am:

Very disappointed in the 15 minute window thing. There are many apps that I have bought that I wouldn’t have if I didn’t have a full day to try it out. They should give devs an option to lengthen the refund window.

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- By TheQuietShadow on December 16, 2010 at 10:18 am:
  
  Seriously? What would be the point? If they have the option, they would not use it. It would only keep them from getting money.
  
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By Leszek Pawlowicz on December 11, 2010 at 12:05 pm:

24 hours was too long, but 15 minutes?! This doesn’t give you any time at all to check out deeper and more complex apps. People will shy away from buying more expensive apps, because they won’t be able to test them. Change it to 6 hours – that’s more than enough time to try out an app, but not enough to finish a game (or, at least, a good game).

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By adamsinger77 on December 11, 2010 at 12:19 pm:

15min?! are you kidding me? it takes longer to findout if the app even works half the time. I’ve bought Apps that after a few hours gets flaky. I hope that they don’t stick with this.

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By wekebu on December 11, 2010 at 1:46 pm:

Who can properly evaluate an app in 15 minutes? I thought a day was too short. This will cause alot of apps not to be purchased.

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By dbareis on December 11, 2010 at 2:12 pm:

And I thought 24 hours was too short, I’ll be buying less software and/or more activity will be outside of the market.

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By Ian on December 11, 2010 at 2:42 pm:

15 minutes!! I’ll be installing, rejecting and marking 1 star an awful lot methinks until the developers start pushing back and saying how daft that is. 15 minutes!! Pathetic. Who can possibly gain from that other than developers? I’ll be buying a lot less apps due to this as there’s no way we can properly evaluate an app in a paltry 15 minutes. I can always root and pirate software I suppose.

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By Mike on December 12, 2010 at 10:25 am:

15 minutes is way too short, especially, for someone new to an Android or other smart phone. I just recently bought my first Android phone, and When I started downloading apps, it often took me more than 1 hour to locate and tryout an app. If I had been stuck after 15 minutes, I would have wasted a lot of $$ and probably would have returned the phone in disgust. And, I sometimes hear about or read about an app in the AM, download it so I won’t forget it, but don’t have time to try it out until the evening. 12 hours would enable me to do that and would seem to be a good compromise!
Greed and pressure won’t sell apps to me!

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By scott on December 12, 2010 at 12:34 pm:

Cannot wait! Each and every update to the Market is an improvement.

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By Brian Hanifin on December 17, 2010 at 12:37 pm:

When Reckless Racing was released, their servers were so overloaded with thousands of users downloading a large content payload, 1 week may not have been a long enough evaluation time! Consider that users were not allowed to “try” the game until that download was complete.

15 minutes is indeed a short window to evaluate software. The only way to make a 15 minute refund window fair would be to allow the user to actually start using/playing the app/game before starting that timer.

I know I felt tricked when my 24 hour refund window expired without playing Reckless Racing for even 1 minute!

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