Since version 1.1 made its debut in early 2009, the firm has released five major revisions, the next update Honeycomb on track to launch within the first few months of 2011.
Keeping the platform itself up to date, however, is only half the battle, and it hasn't stopped developers from openly criticising the current set up fostered by Android Marketplace.
As such, news that Google has introduced a fairly hefty update to the app store is likely to garner much attention.
Size matters
Firstly, the maximum size of apps sold on the marketplace has been upped to 50MB, Google no doubt keen to ensure the bigger, bulkier titles feel fully at home on the OS.
Users now also have just 15 minutes to test an app before demanding a refund. Previously, consumers could play a game for a full 24 hours before trying to get their money back a set up many developers alleged would lead to people happily playing games for a day for free.
"Since most users who request a refund do so within minutes of purchase... this change will be largely transparent to buyers, but will help developers manage their businesses more effectively," added Google's Eric Chu on the Android developers blog.
To make it easier for developers to distribute and manage their products, Google will enable support for specific devices based on screen sizes and densities, as well as on GL texture compression formats - something that should ease fragmentation issues.
New look
More visible to consumers, however, is the visual change to Android Market.
Now sporting an app carousel to push promoted titles, Google claims the marketplace's UI has been adapted to make it easier for users to navigate the platform.
"With this release, we aimed to deliver features that are most requested by users and developers," Chu concluded.
"However, we're not done yet. We plan to continue to rapidly enhance Android Market for both users and developers and make it the best content distribution service for the Android ecosystem."
[source: Google]
