In what will no-doubt be a sigh of relief to developers of larger HD or 3D games in Android, Google has increased the size of applications in the Android Market from 50MB to 4GB.
Previously, developers had to self-host any content that passed the 50MB mark, which, in the event of millions of downloads of several hundreds of megabytes was a costly and difficult to manage task. Whilst the 'APK' application files themselves will remain limited to 50MB, developers can now bundle two additional 2GB expansion files with their applications, typically to be downloaded automatically from the market.
From an end-user perspective, Android owners can now see the true size of an app prior to download, as opposed to downloading then starting up the app, only to have to wait through another lengthy download sequence. The refund period will also be extended on newer devices featuring automatic download where, the period won't begin until all files have been successfully downloaded.
It's clear that as 4G appears on the market, alongside faster phones, with high-resolution screens, superior storage and memory, that app markets would have to better cater to growing file-size demand; it's good to see Google taking the initiative and implementing changes sooner rather than later.
