A Multitude of App stores will hurt Android?

GetJar, Opera, Amazon and Barnes & Noble-seems now like these days that everyone has their own Android application store with their own applications which found nowhere else. While the joke in recent months has been that Steve Jobs is 'not' all these Android app stores, the real joke might be on the consumer.

Think when you make your purchases at the grocery store. You find perhaps each brands represented in a single store. The big names such as Coca-Cola and Kraft show everywhere, but other smaller brands may not be on the shelves.

Soon will the same happen to Android. Large companies such as Rovio, creator of the incredibly popular birds angry games will release their applications across all types of markets, but most small indie-developers will choose where they want their application to be sold. The reasoning behind this is that, although the name of big apps will still dominate, indie-companies will have better visibility in these new markets.

While a small set of indie would be buried in the traditional market Android, this same game could be the number one in China under a third-party app store app. Android has always been about choice, but is there such a thing as too having choice?

Another thing to consider is malware. As we see from more and more Android app launch stores, what is there to prevent a third of the creation of an app store shop which distributes malware? DroidDream fiasco has shown us that any application could potentially be infected with malicious software. Who knows if this copy of Bebbled you download is legitimate, or an evil clone set out to steal your data. Not everyone is going to be validation Android apps before they go on sale.

At the recent Developer Conference of Appnation in San Francisco, the biggest problem developers said that they faced was out their applications for persons could find and download. However, the strategy of selectively choosing the app stores to support - a concept that many developers favor - may be more hurtful than helpful. Makes people digging through for multiple app stores just to find your sounds produced as a convoluted marketing of your products. In his keynote Trip Hawkins, founder of digital chocolate, the Conference gave the advice that the simplicity and convenience are the best way to reach new customers. In my opinion, make potential customers to go on hunting of the wild goose for applications is in any convenient way for users.

I don't know about you, but I am not prepared to find 10 different app stores to find an application that I want. Chances are I'll lose interest in this application and choose the one that I find this is the same thing. For all the developers out there don't forget: facilitate things for your customers and they will love you for it.