Question Hi, are paid apps in the Android Market available to Singapore users?
Answer: The answer is a straight no. You can't purchase paid applications from the Android Market in Singapore. In the Asia-Pacific region, only users in Australia, Japan and New Zealand have that option. There are a few other things an Android phone can't do in Asia. There's no speech-to-text, Google Maps Navigations and Buzz in Google Maps. Read what my colleague John Chan has to say about these http://asia.cnet.com/digitalliving/ask/0,3800004928,62062385,00.htm What your Android phone can't do in Asia (yet) Google's mobile operating system (OS) Android has been gaining in popularity. Just this year alone, we counted more than 10 new products announced, the majority of which were unveiled during the Mobile World Congress 2010 held in Barcelona in February. The Motorola Milestone is one of the latest Android phones to be launched in Asia. Many of these new products will run on version 2.1 (Eclair) of the OS, which comes with added user features such as native support for Microsoft Exchange and an improved camera interface. In fact, we know of two that are already available in Asia, the Nexus One (Google ships to Singapore and Hong Kong) and Motorola Milestone. In April, HTC will start selling the HTC Legend and also upgrade the older Hero's software to Eclair. So, it all sounds pretty rosy, right? Though slightly later than in the US and Europe, Asia's getting its Android phones, too. But did you know that the Android OS you use here isn't exactly the same as what some of your friends on the other side of the world are getting? There are a few feature omissions in Google's mobile OS if you are using the phone in Asia. Some are more important than others--we list them out here for you. Paid apps The first, and most important, is that we can't buy applications from the Android Market. Paid apps have been available for over a year now, starting with the US. Google is rolling out this feature slowly across the world, with Canada being the latest to enjoy it. In our part of the world, Australia, Japan and New Zealand users can access paid apps. The rest of the countries are either North American or European. Now, don't get confused. The Android Market is available to almost all the countries that have Android smartphones. But if you are in, say Taiwan or Thailand, all the applications that can be downloaded are the free ones. It gets worse for some countries. Users in Malaysia, for example, do not even have the Android Market program included with their smartphones. They have to install apps manually, or flash the phone's firmware with a version from another country just to enable Market. Click here for a full list of where Android Market is available and which countries can access paid apps. Speech to text In the Nexus One made by HTC, you can tap on a microphone icon and speak into the phone. If all goes well, what you said will be converted to text. This is a new feature in Eclair and we thought it should be found also in the Motorola Milestone and HTC Legend--but it's not. When asked, Google said this feature supports English and is available in the US, UK and Australia only. The Nexus One is an exception because it's essentially a US phone that's shipped out of the country. To be fair, this is one exclusion we can understand, given how English is spoken differently in many parts of the world. Google would have to customize it for many different accents if it is to be effective. Still, it would have been nice for the company to include it, since there's already a disclaimer saying it's an "experimental feature" when you activate it in the Nexus One. Google Maps Navigation This feature got Google a lot of attention when the app was launched with the Motorola Droid (CDMA version of Milestone) in the US. The fact that you can get free turn-by-turn driving instructions with your smartphone actually caused the US stock price of GPS device manufacturers, such as Garmin and TomTom, to plummet late last year. But given how this has progressed, these GPS-focused companies still have some time to plan their next move. Google Maps Navigation is still in beta and available only in the US. Google told us it "understand(s) this service is valuable to users around the world, but� (doesn't) have a roadmap to announce at this time". Buzz layer in Google Maps Finally, there's the Buzz layer in Google Maps. This probably isn't that big a deal for most users since Buzz hasn't really taken the world by storm yet. In Asia Pacific, Android users in countries that can enable the Buzz layer in Google Maps include Australia, India, Japan, New Zealand and Taiwan. For the rest, we'll just have to wait. What does this mean? Does the lack of all these features mean you shouldn't buy a new Android phone now? Certainly not. Though relatively new, Google's smartphone OS is pretty robust and there are some good handsets that use it. Also, we understand there may be barriers to bringing in certain features to specific markets. This may be caused by the lack of maturity of some markets or even matters like difficulty of billing for paid apps. It's perfectly reasonable for Google to withhold products it owns if it doesn't think they are ready for a group of people. But not knowing why features are unavailable is frustrating. In relatively mature markets such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia, individual users spend as much, if not more, to buy an Android phone compared with those in the US and Europe. Operator subsidies aren't as generous in Asia and some users even opt to pay full price from retail outlets. It's therefore not unreasonable to ask that the features be comparable, or at least, get some indication of when these missing components will be implemented. How about it, Google? -- Salam, Agus Hamonangan http://groups.google.com/group/id-android Japri: [email protected] -- "Indonesian Android Community [id-android]" Join: http://groups.google.com/group/id-android/subscribe?hl=en-GB Moderator: [email protected] ID Android Developer: http://groups.google.com/group/id-android-dev ID Android Surabaya: http://groups.google.com/group/id-android-sby ID Android on FB: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=112207700729 To unsubscribe, reply using "remove me" as the subject.
