> People should be able to install whatever software on their computers they want
Yep, agreed. But unless I'm missing something, Google is not preventing you from installing whatever apps you want on your handheld computer. <tahooie>, the fellow who started this thread, is free to distribute the .apk file for his app via his own site. (Apple, on the other hand, forbids it.)
In fact, Google tells you how to do this: "you can make them available for download on your own website or server... An easy and quick way to release your apps is to send them to users by email... you can distribute your apps through any app marketplace you want or use multiple marketplaces..."
http://developer.android.com/distribute/tools/open-distribut...
And when I've been working on Recent.io, it's a lot easier to distribute to early testers on Android vs. iOS. Simply add someone to a Google Group/G+ group vs. TestFlight, must open in Mail app, provisioning profiles, recompiling, re-uploading, why doesn't this version work, I hit my 100-user limit, etc. Ick.
If the Google Play Store's policies become too aggressive, app developers will begin to shift to competing stores or distribute directly or find HTML5 workarounds. Of course I agree that Google should have reasonable policies, but if you don't like them, they (unlike Apple) at least give you alternatives.
Yep, agreed. But unless I'm missing something, Google is not preventing you from installing whatever apps you want on your handheld computer. <tahooie>, the fellow who started this thread, is free to distribute the .apk file for his app via his own site. (Apple, on the other hand, forbids it.)
In fact, Google tells you how to do this: "you can make them available for download on your own website or server... An easy and quick way to release your apps is to send them to users by email... you can distribute your apps through any app marketplace you want or use multiple marketplaces..." http://developer.android.com/distribute/tools/open-distribut...
And when I've been working on Recent.io, it's a lot easier to distribute to early testers on Android vs. iOS. Simply add someone to a Google Group/G+ group vs. TestFlight, must open in Mail app, provisioning profiles, recompiling, re-uploading, why doesn't this version work, I hit my 100-user limit, etc. Ick.
If the Google Play Store's policies become too aggressive, app developers will begin to shift to competing stores or distribute directly or find HTML5 workarounds. Of course I agree that Google should have reasonable policies, but if you don't like them, they (unlike Apple) at least give you alternatives.