Android Market paid apps coming to more countries

Android Market, the app store built into most Android-powered mobile devices, is opening up its for-pay section in more countries, mobile analytics startup Distimo said today.

Currently, for pay applications in the Android Market are only available in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, UK, and US. Google recently alerted developers that support for more countries would be rolling out over the next few weeks, and according to Distimo, this has already begun to include Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Finland, Hong Kong, Israel, Mexico, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Singapore and South Africa; doubling the current total.

Furthermore, the company says the Android Market will be available in some form to a total of 48 countries, including the likes of India and Hungary.

The limited availability of paid applications worldwide has contributed to Android's reputation as a "cottage industry" with less earning potential than Apple's iOS, so this expansion will be a major benefit to the platform, which is currently dominated by free apps. According to Distimo's last tally, the Android Market was more than 60% free applications.