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Just a day after Steve Jobs basically begged developers to stick with Apple, Google is looking at an issue with their app repository that had some developers up in arms. It seems that over the last few days, apps that have been updated in the Market are just going missing. They were no longer visible on any phones running Android 2.1 (the newest official release). Interestingly, older phones still running 1.5 or 1.6 could often see the applications. Google said shortly ago that they believe the problem to be fixed.
It's unclear what the cause of the issue was. It may stem from the way the Android Market hides incompatible or unavailable applications. Apps that are explicitly dependent on APIs in newer versions of the OS are usually hidden from phones that cannot run them. Similarly, devices running unregistered ROMs often have trouble seeing copy protected apps. Google didn't have much to say at first, but in the original thread from June 4th that began the discussion, a Google employee posted today saying they were working on the problem. They had the issue fixed only a short time later.
Google's app model, unlike Apple's, does not require an app to be approved. Developers can upload and update apps as they please. It shouldn't take a few days to realize there's a problem. If these sort of problems become more common as the Market expands, developers could see less incentive to go with Google. Are any apps missing on your Android phone?
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