Just a quick thought, I noticed that several excellent projects that are completely open source and could truly only further development on android have been relegated to the backchannels of apk distribution-- that is, off- site. With the relatively successful introduction of paid applications into the market, it only makes sense to charge to become a de jure developer by paying.
That said, as employees at google (and most psychologists that study creativity) should be aware, some of the most innovative, visionary ideas come from those who fall into a few demographics that are unlikely to use money as a motivating factor for creative endeavors. So, it seems, at least to me, that it would be a good idea to pair up with SourceForge (or similar sites) to provide a free way to distribute open source, legitimate applications to devices via the market. That way, we have a definite way to retain a good filter on keeping out malicious/spam/whatever applications (and revoking those that will invariably seep in) while still keeping the channels open for open source developers by not demanding up front monetary investment. I feel this would yield net gains: * boosts creative/innovative development (and allows teens without credit cards or college kids with maxed out credit cards--surprisingly large portions of extraordinarily good coders--to contribute to the market), * reduces the market gap between dalvik-oriented vs. symbian/midlet- oriented applications, * provides a greater incentive for google-first rather than apple- first development and no-risk-just-testing-the-waters development, * significantly increases positive public relations for the platform and enthusiasm for it, * is unquestionably not evil, * is extraordinarily cost-effective to implement (practically free), * is no threat to the existing revenue stream (and if anything, creates a greater likelihood of good developers going on to later encourage continued loyalty to the android platform+marketplace distribution framework in commercial endeavors they'd be involved in). I would suggest that the "free" accounts be strictly limited to explicitly free, open-source projects with explicit prohibitions on demo/shareware/etc. Cheers, -Kurt --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
