Paid Android Apps Coming in 2009

Developers will be able to make a profit peddling apps on the Android Market starting in the first quarter of 2009.

Google’s utopian-style Android Market, where everything is currently free, is about to get an infusion of capitalism. According to a new e-mail sent to Android developers, the marketplace will begin its march toward maturity (and profits for developers) in early 2009.

According to Android platform manager Eric Chu, Google hopes to begin rolling out payment systems to support paid Android applications within the first quarter of the year. The paid marketplace will first be available in the United States and UK, followed by Germany, Austria and Netherlands, then France, Italy and Spain. Many of the listed countries don’t yet have access to even the free version of Android Market, but Google will include them when it begins its international rollout in January.

Though paid apps may mean an end to such a plethora of free offerings for Android, fans of the operating system also hope it will attract more developers motivated by profit, the same way Apple’s App Store has done for the iPhone. Keeping on par with Apple, Google will allow developers to keep 70 percent of an app’s selling price as profit.