Ditto. When the G1 came to Singapore, I bought it within the first three days, then paid to register for a developer's account in the Market, only to find out that I couldn't sell apps. It was disappointing, to say the least. I still choose to use Android over the iPhone because I generally support the more open alternative in any tech, but the incentive to develop for Android has been removed because Google seriously flubbed this one.
Any Googlers reading this care to comment on why it is taking so long for Google Checkout to reach more countries? I mean - after what, 2 years? - a list of 9 countries where you're allowed to sell Android apps in the market is pretty pathetic. Why not just allow Paypal accounts for receiving payment if you can't be arsed to do it properly?
We're working hard to add more countries, but we're unable to provide any guidance on timelines. Please stay tuned!
Google is also not really a good retailer. They have no experience at all with directly selling stuff, and I think they messed it up.
But I can directly buy phones from HTC or Samsung here (well, of course through retailers), and some people do. Electronics stores offer a big selection of unlocked smartphones (I got mine through http://www.amazon.de/).
I always get a bit pissed when people from the USA ignore that the rest of the world is not just inhabited by dragons.
Likewise, I can't feel but screwed by the new Chrome Web Store not supporting Google Checkout Merchant accounts from countries other than United States and UK. Thanks a lot for the competitive edge guys.
I'm scrambling to implement a payment processor as soon as I can, but the lack of simple one-click purchase will surely impact sales.
The Merchant forum is bloated with requests for expanding the service to other countries since the day they rolled it out. A mildly comforting assurance that the expansion is in the works is all they managed to reply for three years now.
Seriously dropping the ball (compared to Apple) from a developer perspective.
It wasn't intentional - it was a question of convenience. I searched for the Nexus 7 on the Amazon app on iPhone after reading the story, but then found out that I needed to pay on Google. I didn't want to fill out the payment info for Google on my phone as a matter of convenience, and I never returned to Google's site from my laptop to follow through with purchasing.
It does not seem to cause any problem to Amazon, Apple, or the vast majority of other shops out there. The biggest shop debit your card when they ship and let you cancel at any time.
Google is crafting buzz like Apple is doing with the queues at the Apple store or their irritating "reserve your iPhone" that in reality does not reserve anything. A difference though, if you don't want to bother, you can simply order online and it get it delivered the old boring way once it is back in stock. The Nexus can only be bought online.
(disclaimer: a bit bitter after having tried to buy a Nexus 4 today)
Google still loves doing this with Chromebooks. They have human-translated marketing websites for the Pixel in Norway and their buy button is just greyed out.
When I visit that link I am asked to log into my Google account.
If I open the link in private mode, I get redirected to a region picker, where Google reluctantly lets me choose US ("are you _sure_ you want to visit the US store?") From there I have to navigate to the new pixel phones, having completely lost where the link pointed.
I can't believe how difficult Google, a company that claims to have its mission to organize the worlds information, makes it to access their marketing webpages!
Google shopping is getting worse and worse. For me, the “local only” filter isn’t always there and they don’t let you pick another location than where they geolocated you. Looking for options for your family that lives in another country? Tough luck. Looking for options for upcoming travel? Nope you don’t need it. Using a VPN that locates you elsewhere? Too bad.
It’s moronic, I can’t understand why they dropped the option to select the location and currency.
The problem is that he is comfortable with Google receiving his information (name, address, email) but not third party developers selling through Google.
Developers on Google Play should not be merchants. Google should be more than a payment processor — especially if they are going to take 30% just like Apple does.
Apple handles this a hell of a lot better: as a developer you don't see anything about your customers (except how many there are per country) and you don't have to compute and collect sales tax yourself for every region you sell in, nor do you have to manually handle returns.
I hear the Amazon App Store does this a lot better than Google Play.
Oh well. Apple seems to have no issue with me going to their US store and purchasing for my US address.
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