There are plenty of opinionated people in the world of apps, but few have the persuasion and insight of Patrick 'Mad' Mork.

Previously a veep at Glu Mobile, he moved to free app store GetJar as chief marketing officer in 2008, and now he's off again, becoming marketing director for mobile applications at Google.

Righting wrongs

Interestingly, one of Mork's final salvos at GetJar was the attempt to kickstart a grassroots initiative The Open And Free App Movement: an avenue for developers to reveal how the "increasingly closed app ecosystems" was affecting them.

The main target of his ire was Apple, but Google got splash damage too.

"Android was supposed to be FREE and open; yet developers can't choose their billing solution," he pointed out.

Out of the Gar

As for his current situation, Mork says, "After more than 3 rollercoaster years at GetJar, I've decided that the time has come for me to move on in search of new challenges".

"As a shareholder and early employee I have every confidence the company will continue to succeed and thrive in the ever-changing apps environment and am really excited about some of the new products and improvements we'll be introducing over the next few weeks and months."

He starts with Google at the beginning of September.

"I'm an apps guy at heart and always looking for a good fight as you know," he ends.

So let's hope the appointment will see his passion for developers injected deep into the Android ecosystem.

[source: Mork on Mobile blog]