Sony Ericsson starts taking submissions for Android version of PlayNow

Manufacturers and carriers are showing commendable restraint in avoiding totally bastardized, walled-garden versions of Android on their handsets (for the most part), but they're not avoiding it altogether -- take Sony Ericsson here, for instance. The company has announced that it's expanding the reach of its PlayNow app store to cover Android in concert with its launch of the X10, which presumably means that users will be juggling a minimum of two sources for third-party wares on this thing. Long-term, this kind of needless fragmentation seems like one of the greatest threats to Android's ability to become and remain a heavyweight player in the smartphone ring -- but then again, what do we know? It's not like these guys haven't already figured out how to dominate before with UIQ... ah, wait. Anyhoo, yeah, back to the topic at hand: devs are now invited to submit their Android apps for inclusion in the PlayNow store, so hey, you may as well -- the phone's looking to be a hottie, so it can't hurt to have your stuff featured on there, we figure.

[Thanks, wimbet]

[jul644 Posted Dec 24th 2009 4:38PM]

actually this makes perfect sense it makes it noob proof this way the apps are made to run at the handsets screen size not smaller or bigger or the apps don`t require buttons that only some phones like the droid and g1 have

[hfm Posted Dec 24th 2009 5:13PM]

well.. Steam, Direct2Drive, Impusle, EA Digital, Gamespot Digital, and a few others seem to be co-existing on PC...

[linuxiswin Posted Dec 25th 2009 2:08PM]

@hfm indubitably

[Herr Synnberg Posted Dec 25th 2009 10:02PM]

Sorry Chris, this shows a complete lack of understanding of the situation at hand. The PlayNow Arena option doesn't replace the Android market, it just offers another avenue. If you wanna crucify someone for fragmenting Android, take it up with HTC for launching something like the Tattoo which has a screen resolution that doesn't play nice with a lot of apps.

More than one store for apps is a good thing and anyone who doesn't live inside the Apple ecosystem realized this a long time ago.

You can lay off UIQ btw. It was so far ahead of its time that your lord and savior, Stevie J himself was talking to Sony Ericsson one time to base what would be the iPhone on this OS.

[frothe3 Posted Dec 28th 2009 7:28AM]

I just hope this phone comes to at&t;then I might get it when they work out the bugs.