Tag: Google Play Store

In a move that is similar to the cut Apple made for iOS developers, Google has announced that they will be dropping the percentage they keep on in-app purchases.  Starting January 1, 2018, in-app purchases will have a 15% commission rate to the Mountain View company, a drop of 50% from the previous 30% rate.

For developers, this means that they will be able to keep more money when you make an in-app purchase in their app.  Ultimately it is good for developers who will be able to stay funded to further development.  For Google, that means having top-shelf apps in the Play Store.

The experimenting with the layout of the Google Play Store continues as Google trots out yet another new look & feel for the app.  The latest update brings a new top level sliding navigation to reach different parts of the Play Store as well as a slightly condensed menu.

The top navigation, in my opinion, is quite nice.  All of the major areas of the store are now in a sliding navigation bar at the top of the screen, which makes finding specific areas of the store much easier.  This new navigation bar can be slid left to right and then you tap on the area you want to see.  Those areas include For You, Top Charts, Categories, Editors’ Choice, Early Access, and Family.

Previously, to get to these areas, you either had to find it on the menu (depending on which flavor of the store you had on your phone or tablet) or you had to scroll down to that section on the main page.  Neither was a great user experience and this new navigation bar greatly simplifies the process.

The mobile analytics firm App Annie has pegged, for the first time, that the combined Android app stores in the market will out earn Apple’s App Store this year.  According to their report, they project that Android based stores will earn about $41 billion in 2017 compared to the $40 billion that Apple will earn with their app store.  The report is quick to point out that the Android numbers are a combination of the various app stores for Android that exist, such as Amazon’s Underground and Samsung’s app store.

If you strip down the report to just the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store, Apple still leads the way.  The Google branded store will account for $20 billion of the projected $41 billion this year but the Apple store alone churns $40 billion in earnings.

Over the weekend, Google pushed a behind-the-scenes update to the Google Play Store.  Now, once the update hits your account, you will see a new Free App of the Week section in the store.  Now you will be able to download a normally pay-to-play app at no charge.  It is certainly not a new concept but it is great to see Google getting on board with such programs.  Apple has had this for some time now while Amazon likely has the most aggressive free app model with their Amazon Underground.  There you can not only get apps for free that you normally have to pay for but also get free in-app purchases.  The Google offer does not give you free in-app purchases.  Those are still on you.

This week’s free app is Card Wars from Cartoon Network.  Normally it is $2.99 but for the rest of this week, it is free.

Having already posted some $700 million in ticket sales world wide, one of the big movie hits of 2016 has been Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.  The movie is set between the much maligned prequels and A New Hope, the original Star Wars movie, focusing on a band of Rebels who are trying to steal the plans to the Death Star.  If you haven’t seen it yet, do yourself a favor and see it.  It’s quite good.

Now you can get ready to own Rogue One when it is hits the Google Movies & TV store in the Play Store.  The movie is now available in the store as an item that you can wishlist.  This is the first step before you can pre-order it.

If you pay for Google Drive storage, there are some changes rolling out that you need to be aware of going forward.  From now on your Drive subscription will be managed within the Google Play Store like your other subscription apps.  Gone will be the separate purchasing and process for adding storage to your account.  Instead, for Android users, it will all roll up into the Play Store where you can manage all of your subscriptions (like Google Play Music) from one place.

The new process won’t effect anything you have to do as an end user.  Google is migrating accounts to Google Play Store and you should have received an email on this in December.  Once your account is converted over, you will see it as part of your subscriptions in the store.