An app called "Siri for Android" sneaked into the Android Market this week, drawing attention to the downsides of Google's strategy in running the Android Market.
App publisher "Official App" released "Siri for Android" on earlier in the week, and it already has garnered between 1,000 - 5,000 installations because it copied the name of Apple's speech recognition assistant.
The $0.99 app installs an icon - the Siri icon - onto the user's device, which merely launches Google's Voice Actions app. That's it. While the publisher states this very clearly in the application's description, The Next Web points out that inexperienced users may not know any better when purchasing this app. This can lead to a host of other issues.
Given that Google employs little-to-no checks on its marketplace, developers such as “Official App” do not have contend with application approvals and can launch copyright/trademark infringing applications in minutes. There is also nothing to say that a developer could have sideloaded malware into the app, using the brand name to ensure thousands of installs.
Many users who know better have given the app low ratings to dissuade others from wasting money on the app, while others have posted comments with a different interpretation and higher rankings:
You've got to understand what your adroid [sic] already has and have a sense of humor to underatand what this is. Its obviously a sarcastic parody. I LOL'd.
Regardless of the interpretation, the fact remains that the app is useless and should not have been allowed in the Android Market.
While Apple is heavily criticised for its "Big brother" attitude when it comes to policing apps in the App Store (sometimes warranted), we're not sure if Google's hands-off policy is right one as it exposes users to fraudulent and malware apps. It has also resulted in a five fold jump in Android malwares since July this year, while iOS has been untouched.
Do you think Google needs to change their policy? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Update:
Google has finally pulled the app!
[via TheNextWeb]
Google has no clue what they’re doing it’s like a bucket shop
Google has no clue what they’re doing it’s like a bargain basement forebode that can’t afford apple products
Really?
Really????
I’d be interested to hear the results if anyone did a study on the intelligence of iOS users vs. that of Android users…. because I’m pretty sure that such a useless app would not get 1,000 – 5,000 downloads on the App Store. This proves one of two things: 1) A lot of Android users are pretty dumb 2) Android users are really closet-Apple fanatics.
I wouldn’t be too quick on the draw on that survey. Do you realize just how many Fart apps there are, and that some cost money? They wouldn’t be made if people weren’t buying/using them. I’m pretty sure that’s at least as moronic as buying a fake Siri app.
Poor androiders and all android stuff, just because you envy the powerful of apple’s high quality product and it’s app store, you don’t need to force yourself too much with useless things
Apple 4 life, f*** google
webOS for life f*** the fruit
It’s funny that so many Apple haters actually spend their time trolling an iPhone site such as this. I guess they don’t have anything better to do.
My thoughts exactly
I swear we got some hardcore Apple fanboys up in here. Granted, this is a iPhone website but I’d at least expect people to be open minded. I’m both an Android and iOS user myself. Out of all those people that downloaded that useless app, I’m hoping the majority of them got their money back since Android does allow you to get a refund on any app as long as its within 15 minutes. On a side note, I love my iPhone but still, notifications, along with widgets for Android put ios’s to shame. Just sayin’
+1
+1
As long as Google makes money, they don’t care much about the policies for Android.
Ha ha ha!!!! That’s hella funny. U wish fandroid boys.