MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Like Apple's iPhone, Google's Android phone doesn't allow pornographic applications. But the Android marketplace does offer several softcore apps.
Even with the availability of these adult-oriented apps, Google's G1 marketplace features a "flag as inappropriate button," though it doesn't mean the application will be immediately removed.
One of the racier apps offered, and for free at the moment, is MobiDuck, which is listed as an adult app. It's a vibrator application that says, "Looking for a gift for your girlfriend or yourself? This vibrating duck is just what you need for a little discreet massage."
Another playful adult-leaning app is Naughty Dice, which sells for 99 cents and, according to the description, will "reveal you and your partner's next adventure."
So is the Android phone market looking like a brave new world for adult software makers and content providers? Maybe.
"The android marketplace may not be the impulse-buy money maker that the apple iTunes App Store currently is," said Matt Pierce, mobile marketing coordinator for Pink Visual's Male Spectrum. "The Android market allows users to try apps for a full 24 hours and allows them to return it with no charge. Research has shown 30 percent of all apps that are purchased are used more than once; 20 percent of free applications downloaded are used twice only 20 percent of the time,"
These are some "pretty dismal" return percentages even for purchased applications, according to Pierce.
"This leads me to believe that from its very conception, the Google Android marketplace will have its premium content filtered to the top by the developer fearing a return, where they would then create more substantial applications, he said.
Even Apple's apps aren't quite as successful as one might think, reports a study from mobile analytics firm Pinch Media.
Pierce told AVN Online Apple appears to be somewhat more open recently to application submissions with adult themes such as a bikini-viewing application as well as multiple "i wobble" apps that allow the jiggling of T&A.
"I believe applications on mobile devices as with applications on social networking sites such as Facebook can be used creatively for marketing means," he said. "Even if neither company is ready nor willing to accept full-fledged adult content onto their stores, there are still many creative paths to promote your products on the emerging application stores."
Pierce says innovation adult companies should look at all of the 3G phone stores as a great opportunity, despite the barrier blocking hardcore porn.
"The main three -- Apple, Google, and Palm -- will be hashing out for application superiority, and we can sit back and use their competition to submit and push the soft-core envelope in three different arenas," he said.
Pierce views mobile apps as a marketing tool, rather than a big revenue generator.
"I fully agree that Web-based applications are where most users will feel most comfortable to browse adult content on their mobile devices, depending on the handset's ability to integrate browsing with native applications," he told AVN Online."The application market in general is best for funny novelty ideas and true value-added function ideas."
"My understanding is that the Android also said no to adult applications like the iPhone, which is probably a good move considering its potential money-making to be smaller," he added, citing a CrunchGear.com report.
Also offering an adult industry perspective was Allison Vivas, president of TopBucks/Pink Visual/Male Spectrum.
"Like in the past, we consider adult content something an Android, iPhone or any other mobile user would want to obtain on their own terms, and be able to cover up their tracks relatively quickly, and probably definitely avoid leaving the evidence -- like an installed app -- just lying around," she said. "This mostly leaves opportunity for Web-based applications and Web content."
Google could not be reached for comment.
The website JoyOfTech addressed the major differences between Android phones and iPhones in a comic strip, simply stating that big difference -- the possibility of adult Android apps.
