Google unveils Android Market, honors top apps

How will the open Android Market compare to Apple's App Store? Plus: Winners of the Android Developer Challenge, including a GPS-aided utility that changes your ringer profiles depending on your location, a program that summons a cab with a single tap, and an app that suggests eco-friendly transit alternatives.

Google revealed details for its upcoming Android Market on its development blog Thursday, and at first blush, it all looks pretty similar to Apple's App Store—you can browse apps on your Android handset, browse by category, read user reviews, and download and install directly to your phone.

Here's the main difference, though, and it's a big one: Developers will be able to publish their apps to the Android Market with a few simple steps, a la YouTube, and there's no elaborate approval process as there is with Apple's App Store.

Now, you could argue that an "open" approach like Google's could lead to lower-quality apps appearing in the Market; Apple, at least, is theoretically putting iPhone apps through some kind of quality-assurance testing (although that doesn't explain how a turkey like "I Am Rich" slipped through the cracks). And what happens when someone tries to publish a piece of malware?

On the other hand, up-and-coming Android apps—and, more importantly, updates to existing apps—will likely arrive in the Market more quickly. One of the most frustrating things about the Apple App Store is that app updates apparently go through the same approval process as new apps, and I've seen more than a few developers complain that their point releases sometimes take days, if not weeks, to see the light of day.

Meanwhile, Google announced the winners of its Developer Challenge—prizes ranged from $25,000 to $275,000—and the honorees offer an interesting sneak peek of what we'll eventually be seeing in the Android Market. Some notable examples:

cab4me: Stuck in a strange city and don't know the number of any local cab companies? Just fire up cab4me; the app zeroes in on your location, finds the nearest taxi dispatch, and orders a cab automatically—no talking required.

Locale: Ringer profiles are all well and good—as long as you remember to switch to "Vibrate" when you're at work, "Silent" when you settle into your favorite movie theater, or "Normal" once you're back home. Locale automates the whole process by detecting your location via GPS, then switching to the appropriate profile.

Ecorio: Going somewhere? This eco-friendly app analyses your travel plans, determines your carbon footprint for the trip, and suggests greener alternatives, such as public transit or carpools.

ShareYourBoard: I always hated being the one who had to copy down all those whiteboard scribbles after a meeting. ShareYourBoard lets to take a snapshot of whiteboard diagrams, sharpen the image, add notes, and share the snapshots with your cubemates.

OK, so when will the Android Market fling open its doors? That depends on when the first Android phone arrives, of course, and I haven't heard much since the recent flurry of rumors surrounding the HTC Dream/G1 for T-Mobile, which looks set to arrive in October, or November ... or December, depending who you talk to.

So, how do you think the Android Market will stack up to the iTunes App Store?

Related:
Android Market: a user-driven content distribution system [Android Developers Blog]
HTC Dream — the first Google Phone? — gets OK'd by FCC [Yahoo! Tech]