Google Opens Android Market To Apps Geo-Targeting Germany, The Netherlands, Poland, And More

Google’s official Android Developers and Mobile blogs haven’t been updated yet, but according to an e-mail from Eric Chu to mobile application builders first republished by Phandroid, Android Market will become available to users in Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Netherlands, and Poland in the coming weeks.

Hello,

I’m writing to let you know that Android Market will become available to users in Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Netherlands, and Poland in the coming weeks. You can now target these countries for your application(s) via the publisher website at market.android.com/publish. As we add support for additional countries, we will send out subsequent notifications to you. Note that your apps will not become available in these new countries unless you specifically select them in the publisher website.

Thanks for your support, and we look forward to continue working with you on Android Market.

Eric Chu, Android Market

This means that developers can now start building applications for Android-powered phones before most of the countries cited above actually have access to devices that run Google’s open-source mobile OS. We’ll take that as a hint that the company is ready to move fast in launching compatible phones across Europe.

On a sidenote: for now, the Android Market only allows for free apps to be added, but Google is expected to announce support for paid applications this quarter.

It’ll be interesting to see how the fight between Android Market, first opened in August 2008, and Apple’s App Store plays out in the years to come.