Disney's Decrem on why the launch of Honeycomb makes Android a tier one platform

News that one of the biggest mobile franchises in the world is coming to Android can only be good news for Google, but the firm's decision to roll out in-app purchases on that platform looks like it may have an even wider impact on the industry.

According to Disney Mobile general manager Bart Decrem (who previously served as Tapulous CEO before the firm's buyout), employing simple measures such as in-app purchases has upgraded Android's status in the eyes of the development community.

Growing pains

"We've been waiting for in-app purchases and we've been waiting for Android to get to this stage," Decrem told VentureBeat, following the announcement of Tap Tap Revenge 4 for the platform.

"Of course in-app purchasing is critical for us, but it also represents a general maturing of the platform and coming of age of Android."

Decrem believes Android is now becoming a no brainer for some publishers thanks to the features Honeycomb brings to the table, offering them the only way to expand their userbase once they've saturated the market on iOS.

"We've been seeing it coming, but we felt the time was right now. Looking at the success of Tap Tap Revenge, we're at 50 million downloads – how many more mobile apps are bigger than that? Probably two or three, but we're somewhere in the top five at this point," he added, stating that 25 million songs have been purchased on Tap Tap titles on iOS to date.

"We wanted to get it in front of more people, more places, and that meant Android."

Sweet Android

Honeycomb, in Decrem's view, equips Android with the right arsenal for developers, but he also took time to point out that Google's platform already has a strong base right around the globe.

"As you go beyond the US, you start seeing Android being really big in Europe, in Asia, all around the world, and [it has] different demographics than where the iPhone is today," he said.

"It's a tier one platform, it's a really important platform. There will be more apps – we're going to treat this like a full, tier one platform."

As with BlackBerry of late, Google appears to be listening to developers, launching measures designed to appease them and make working on the platform easier.

However, commentators have already suggested that, if Android Market is ever to truly challenge the App Store, Google will need to stop following the features of its great rival, and actually get ahead of the curve.

[source: VentureBeat]