A number of Android devs are reporting that their mobile apps have been unceremoniously and “wrongfully unpublished” from Google’s Android market.
However, as Phandroid’s Quentyn Kennemer notes, it is difficult to confirm or deny if the apps did indeed violate Google’s TOS – as the devs haven’t disclosed which ones they were responsible for.
In addition, one developer confirmed that Google had once featured his app, perhaps suggesting that its abrupt removal was an error, rather than a victim of a deliberate purge.
“Was Google cleaning some spam up recently and accidentally removed the wrong apps? Is it just a hiccup that’ll be resolved shortly? Or is something else going on here,” Kennemer wrote.
“[Yes], Google has yet to respond to any of the threads at their support site, so we’ll give them a bit of time. For both users and developers, I hope whatever’s going on gets situated soon enough.”
Nevertheless, one Phandroid reader named “bmg314” claimed that apps have been known to routinely disappear from Android store without warning or explanation.
“This happens more than people realize, and this instance is probably just a larger occurrence than usual.
“I can’t count on two hands how many times an app that I have downloaded has disappeared from the market without warning – legitimate, useful apps, not even talking about the copied ones, or blatant porn ones.”
