Beijing, China -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/02/2011 -- When the Android Market first opened, a lot of attention was paid to the distinction between “store” and “market.”

The iPhone has an App Store. Apps undergo a mysterious and drawn-out approval process before being made available for purchase. Users looking for apps rejected by Apple have to turn to alternative app markets like Cydia. And even then, users have to jailbreak their phones before getting access to downloads released by third party developers.

The Android Market, on the other hand, is different—or so we were led to believe. It’s a market, not a store. There’s no approval process at all. Third party developers have the freedom to release products direct to the Android Market and users flag objectionable apps.

As it turns out, however, the Android Market does have an approval process--it’s retroactive.

Google allows developers to flood the Android Market with apps of any quality, substance, and security. That boosts Android’s app numbers, attracting users and boosting sales. Users, meanwhile, are happy because this gives them more choice and the freedom to make their own judgement calls.

Slowly, however, released apps have begun to disappear from the Android Market. Some were pulled on charges of compromising user security and privacy or due to offensive content, such as pro-Nazi themes.

Then, in 2009, Google removed tethering applications from US phones tied to T-Mobile. The next year, apps with copyright violations began quietly disappearing from users’ phones. And very recently, the alleged “app store” Kongregate, was pulled on charges of violating the Android Market terms of service.

Kongregate considers itself an arcade app. Google cites rules that forbid “any Product whose primary purpose is to facilitate the distribution of Products outside of the Market.” Whether Kongregate even qualifies as a product distributor or not is an object of great debate. Why is this rule suddenly being applied to to Kongregate? Why haven’t hundreds of other apps—like Kindle for Amazon, for instance—been pulled as well?.

Whatever the final consensus, the fact remains that the famously free and open Android Market is now rejecting apps for a number of reasons, not always easy to understand. Sound familiar? Sounds like Apple’s App Store.

The good news is that Android users have an advantage over iPhone users. Their phones are already free to run downloads from third party developers. Which means users looking for apps retroactively rejected from the Android Market can download them from independent apps stores, like 1Mobile Market.

Alternative app stores like 1Mobile Market offer users improved browsing options, app lists and recommendations, and—in the case of 1Mobile—cater to users looking to discover quality free apps that meet specific interests or needs. Users outside of the US also turn to markets like 1Mobile to download apps restricted to US users.

But users can’t download the 1Mobile Market app from the Android Market because it too has been removed, on the same grounds as Kongregate. Like other retroactively-removed apps, 1Mobile Market is now only available from the developer’s website (http://www.1mobile.com/) and popular download sites like Brothersoft.com.

So now, as the Android Market slowly morphs into a Google version of Apple’s App Store, alternative app stores like 1Mobile Market are becoming as important to Android users as Cydia is to iPhone users.

Author : by Aja DelGaudio