The Market

The Android platform is gradually maturing and mounting a serious challenge on Apple's iOS. One recent change is the browser-based Market interface, which makes it a bit easier to express some gripes about mobile application developers search for and manage applications.

I currently have 11 apps which have updates available that I am not updating for various reasons.

Some are on hold because the developer was being a twit and decided to "update" the app by adding ads to an application that previously did not have any. Maybe I'll update when you've included a useful new feature as well.

Others are on hold because the comments section is littered with people complaining that the app no longer works properly. Granted, unhappy people are more likely to post comments, but when almost every comment is suggesting the app took a turn for the worse, I'm going to wait and see.

An example:

 

I'm also wary of applications that make preposterous permission requests. What Android needs is a mechanism for enabling and disabling permissions for each application. I'm not one of those paranoid people that are like, "You don't need access to my contacts, you stalker!" But really, does a dictionary really need my fine GPS location? At the very least they ought to explain why each permission is necessary. The GPS is most likely for advertising, but even then it should be okay with coarse location. If anything it's an unnecessary drain on my battery.