Apps on the Android Market will no longer have to adhere to the 50MB limit set by Google. Well, sort of. Today Google announced that Apps on the Android Market can now be up to 4GB in size, however, the actual .apk file must be up to 50MB but it can have 2 addition ‘expansion’ files that have a limit of 2GB each.
Google says that newer devices (we assume ICS) will start the refund period when all of the files for the App have been downloaded, which is always nice for the end-user who doesn’t have the speediest of internet connections.
The aim of allowing bigger files onto the Android Market is to get developers to create really intense 3D games or even just really high quality content that will look good on both smartphones and tablets. Perhaps this is the start of Google ‘doubling down’ on tablets.
The refund time only starting after every file has been downloading sounds nice. Even with a speedy internet connection, a lot of times the servers of the developers are damn slow and just downloading the files needed to run the game takes way more than the 15 minute refund window making it not possible for me to get a refund if the game did not work.
Hopefully this puts and end to all those stupid games out there that download then require 600 odd MBs of additional download once you’ve got them installed. It would be nice to know these things before I buy and try to install them.