Google Super-sizes Android Apps From 50MB To 4GB

Google has announced that apps on the Android market will now be super-sized from 50MB maximum size to 4GB. Previously, app developers could only upload a maximum of 50MB to the Android market meaning they could only create apps within that data range. Some circumvented this by creating off-market download packages that sent the user to a non-Android server to download the additional packages.

But this new development makes it possible for app developers to load up all the app packages to the Android market and users can download everything from one location. This of course means that apps will become a whole lot bigger and downloads will cost more in terms of data usage.

But the good news is that more complex apps can now be served including those with advanced 3D graphics and other advanced graphics, which would be great for gaming enthusiasts. This new announcement comes at a time when the Android market is trying to catchup with the Apple App Store that only recently topped the 25 billionth download (which, incidentally, was downloaded in China).

The Apple App Store seems to have gotten revamped energy with the launch of the iPhone 4S because it will be recalled that Android was advancing at an ominous rate before the launch but now lags behind with barely 15 billion downloads.

Additional advantages of this new app size include greater safety and privacy controls for all apps in the store, greater control for Google over all the content that users download as well as tighter controls on quality. Google has come under sharp scrutiny to rein in apps that are serving malware on the Android market and this additional data space could go a long way to manage this issue.