Regulations are the name of the game for a China Android Market, where Google would face changes to its own principles just to keep Android apps a comin'.

Is Google's Android Market coming to China or not?

A Google executive seems to think that the Android Market is in the works for China's growing Android user base. But Daniel Alegre, Google's president of Asia-Pacific operations, might have spoken too soon in a recent Wall Street Journal interview. According to new reports from undisclosed sources at Google, the Android Market is more of a pipe dream in China than possible reality.

Inside Mobile Apps' Kim-Mai Cutler chatted up some people "familiar with the discussions," and she reports that Google's hopes for a China Android Market are currently in the "exploratory" phraseif that. Or, to borrow a quote from said anonymous sources, "It's not really happening."

But don't the wrong idea. It's not as if China is just outright blocking the Android Market and that's why China's Android users lack access to a Google-centric repository of apps and games. Strict Chinese regulations do play a part: In this case, companies avoid government censorship for their apps by subjecting them to a more comprehensive review team than what one might otherwise find from a U.S.-based app developer.

This stronger reviewing process would undoubtedly need to be built into any kind of China-based Android Market. And it would be a sharp contrast to the normal "rules" that developers play by in today's Android Market: Unfettered access for posting apps, which can be reviewed and taken down after-the-fact if they're found to have violated Google's Terms of Service in some capacity. In fact, one could say that Google's policy toward the Android Market would have to become a bit more Apple-likethe company reviews all apps before they're posted to the App Store, which creates problematic situations .

Given Google's rocky relationship thus far with Chinese officials the company just celebrated the two-year anniversary of its decision to in the countryone could argue that it would be a bit of a step back for Google to play ball with China censorship once again (even tangentially). But with Android tapped to fill even more of China's devicesespecially now that the country has as the top smartphone market for volumehow long until Google's potential business opportunities trump its principles?

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