New update to Android Market App (version 2.2.7)

Is the new version a bit messy?

Whilst away in sunny Gran Canaria I was surprised to find a new update to the Market App.

The new interface is undeniably cleaner and cooler but there are still a few things that need to be tweaked.

For instance, the ‘home’ screen of the Market is now looking quite cluttered. The idea of the rotating featured apps along the top is nice but I can’t help feeling it’s messy and unprofessional. I think rather than a picture of the app they need to use the actual icon the app has once installed. This should clear things up and keep everything looking consistent rather than what you see here.

Also, this home screen is now allowing for half the screen to show the rest of the featured apps. It just doesn’t look or feel right.

In fact, should this reel be there at all? It’s sure to slow down some slower Android devices and loading the thumbnails takes some time. I decided to take to Photoshop and re-designed how I think it should look and have placed it below.

Clicking on “Apps”, “Games” or “My Apps” however and you come to a much nicer layout. To smooth curving lines really look fresh and it feels more responsive to browse than clicking on the previous clunky buttons.

Is my version of the Home screen Market better?

The Downloads section of the Market has now been re-named “My Apps”. This makes more sense to Android newcomers who have grown up in an app-orientated world.

The whole download process has been made easier too. Instead of going through multiple screens and accepting permissions etc you can now download and install an app in 3 clicks. This makes the whole user experience a lot better and less confusing to people.

App comments/reviews have been improved. You now see a selection of the latest comments to which you can press “More” to read the rest – don’t worry you can still mark comments as unhelpful/spam which I find myself doing all too often 😉

You can now also select whether or not your want to receive notifications of app updates at all. Correct me if I’m wrong but this wasn’t available in the previous version.

It’s nice to see Google updating their software more often separate to a firmware update. Still no support for moving it to the SD card however but who knows what me might see next?

So what are your thoughts? Will this smarter and more sleek Market convince the big boys in the App world to take Android seriously or is it just a fancy face-lift?

HTC Desire Fanatics