HTC EVO View 4G stands to gain from multiple APK support in Android Market
While the number of users with an HTC EVO View 4G or HTC Flyer continues to grow, the debate continues over whether or not a tablet design with a 7-inch screen will get enough support for app development now that units with 10-inch screens seem to be the norm. Google appears to have been listening and it's nice to see this bit of news coming straight from the source. While the change should be transparent to users, developers now have the ability to upload multiple APK files for a single listing.
With multiple APK support, you can now upload multiple versions of an APK for a single product listing, with each one addressing a different subset of your customers. These APKs are complete, independent APKs that share the same package name, but contain code and resources to target different Android platform versions, screen sizes, or GL texture-compression formats. When users download or purchase your app, Android Market chooses the right APK to deliver based on the characteristics of the device.
When you upload multiple APK files, Android Market handles them as part of a single product listing that aggregates the app details, ratings, and comments across the APKs. All users who browse your app’s details page see the same product with the same description, branding assets, screenshots, video, ratings, and comments. Android Market also aggregates the app’s download statistics, reviews, and billing data across all of the APKs.
Benefits translated to the average user: with this change, Google is providing developers easier ways to market apps that they have developed for multiple platforms as well as stating that they will be tracking download statistics. Put another way, this will hopefully provide the data to show that apps for the smaller, more portable 7-inch screens are indeed a viable platform worthy of developers' valuable time, and turn into more offerings for EVO View 4G and Flyer users!
[Android Developers via Android Central]
