AT&T motivates banning of non-Market Android applications is for security

7th July, 2010 by adina
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Banning of non-Market Android applications has been defended by AT&T on the Android promo page of the company. The carrier’s argument was that the policy would make developers accountable and this way the applications proved to be malicious or presenting other risks could be easily pulled. It argued that the environment dedicated to development was still free and Google in almost all cases approved applications.

Although these statements are accurate, they do not address problems related to restrictions of access outside of the dedicated Android Market. Customers are not able to perform installations of pre-release versions of applications without this option. They could also be subject to pressure for application rejections, like in the case of AT&T objections to a VoIP application, a Wi-Fi hotspot application or other utilities supposed to bypass any of its official plans.

It is known that AT&T has been among the most conservative carriers to adopt Android in the United States. It has only two devices present on the market, the recent HTC Aria and the Motorola Backflip, and is the only network with phones banning non-Market applications. Its first high-end phone based on Android will be the Samsung Captivate, although the Nexus One of Google has been available since this spring and does not involve tougher application limits.


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