We've seen evidence in the past that many Android users aren't big on spending their hard-earned cash on apps, and Google is "not happy" about it. At the Inside Social Apps conference yesterday, Eric Chu, Android's platform manager, told developers that Google will be making changes to the Android Market in order to increase premium app purchases. Chu wouldn't reveal all of the company's plans for 2011, but he did mention a few of the steps that Google will take:
There are likely a few factors that cause Android users to decide to not spend money on apps, the first of which is that there are way more free apps than paid. The last time we heard, nearly 60 percent of the apps in the Android Market were free. I'm sure there are some great premium Android apps, but with that number of free software available, there are likely some free apps that are just about as good as the paid ones. The availability of cracked apps certainly doesn't help, either, and I'm sure that that's something that Google is working hard on fixing. Have you bought any premium Android apps in the past, or do you usually try to stick to the free options?
