A slew of popular apps suddenly are 10 cents in the Android Market

By Phil Nickinson
last updated

Something interesting is going on in the Android Market this morning. A bunch of our favorite apps are suddenly going for a dime, with no real rhyme or reason for the discount. @dirkyd3rlc and @Pat_Huey on Twitter alerted us to SwiftKey and Minecraft on sale for 10 cents, and we've found others. (Update: And in the UK, the apps are going for 10p each, not 6p, which would be converted from 10 cents U.S. We definitely smell a trend here.)

Here's the list as it stands.

There may be others. (Sing out in the comments if you spot any.) Can't tell if this is a glitch (which seems a tad unlikely), or some sort of coordinated effort. Regardless, might as well take advantage.

via @dirkyd3rk, @paul_huey

Phil Nickinson
Phil Nickinson
76 Comments
  • Asphalt 6
  • soundhound is 10 cents too... oops you added that to the list
  • Wow, do we have confirmation that these prices are legit? Too bad Swiftkey Tablet isn't $.10 :( Great prices for anyone needing any of these apps.
  • Wish you could sort the apps by price :P
  • My market was just updated with an option that says "10 Days of Offers Top Premium Apps .10 Per App. You can click on that and it well show all the .10 apps!
  • In for all 7?
  • all 8 now!
  • I'm gonna go ahead and guess this has something to do w/ the Galaxy Nexus launching this Friday on VZW. #wildguesspulledfrommyass
  • this isn't twitter.
  • RT @Austinmueller99: This isn't twitter.
  • Endomondo Sports Tracker PRO 10 cents i saw fieldrunners is $2.99? edit: Ok, Fieldrunners is 10 cents, only when I click buy it shows 10 cents
  • Totally just got Minecraft
  • ENDOMONDO PRO
  • Paper Camera is showing as 1.99
  • Correction. On the search it says 1.99, open it and its .10.
  • Probably need to clear your cache.
  • Nice I'm using the SwiftKey right now
  • Picked up Minecraft, Soundhound, Paper Camera and Fieldrunners. Not bad for $0.40! Kinda ridiculous I still wouldn't buy the others, but honestly I will NEVER play asphalt 6 so what's the point?
  • I wonder if these apps aren't from spyware developers? Maybe not but I always go with the theory of if it is to good to be true, it is.
  • If you read the article it says they're being alerted by the actual devs that the apps are going on sale. The market pages are the real market pages, not fakes.
  • Oh HELL ya.
  • Bought Asphalt 6 but charge went through as 1.00 not.10........
  • That's weird. Mine all went through as $0.10, already show up on my Credit Card statement.
  • Yeah.. Mines as well, don't know what's going on with the App market though, I installed Mindcraft on my Photon 4G and then tried to do the same for my Xoom 4G,and it was bring to charge me another $0.10. I waited a minute and then it went back to saying Purchased. So I installed it on my Xoom, now everything is fine.
  • mine went through as $.10 on market and the confirmation email..
  • mine went thru as .10 on market and email but cc shows 1.00
  • weird.. i can't see exact pending charges on my cc, only rounded amounts. maybe it's just a temporary hold. hope so anyway. we didn't accept and buy it for that price, and the email's good evidence. but hell, even at a dollar...
  • Prove it - I can prove that it charged me 10 cents each http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13692699/Screen202011-12-062010.59...
  • Same here, my emails show .10 and my credit card shows $1.
  • All of mine are showing up as 10 centers except one was 11 cents due to tax.
  • I bought all of them even though most I already had for free in amazon market (free app of the day). I'm ready to get rid of amazon's app store, it's become way too annoying and is always running.
  • i hear ya! tired of it seeing in the android market with an update but i cant since its from amazon
  • Amazons appstore is so intrusive with its damn notifications all the time and it makes my phone run slow as molasses
  • yeah, ever since the newest version i'm really getting sick of all the redundant and unnecessary notifications. they need to have a way to shut that crap off. also sick of the forced downloads of every app.
  • great little war game is also .10
  • sketch book mobile is too
  • Pretty much bought them all including Endomodo. Why not, right?
  • Thanks guys, bought Minecraft and War Game awesome deal for when I upgrade to my Nexus
  • Asphalt not compatible with my EVO?
  • Same thing with my droid Incredible and my Asus Transformer. :(
  • I couldn't get it to install on my Captivate (CM7.1.0) or stock Transformer either.
  • Don't know if it means anything, but SketchBook Mobile, Paper Camera, Sound Hound, Fieldrunners HD, and Swiftkey were all previously Amazon free apps of the day. So here's your chance if you missed it the first time!
  • And this is the chance for people outside of the US...
  • Sad that my evo 4g can't buy Asphalt 6 :( anyone have any ideas? I am rooted, so changing device IDs is totally OK.
  • Same thing here
  • Decided to pick up Minecraft. Open it, and it says "License Verification failed (error 106). Try again later [Buy][Quit].
    Hit Buy, and it goes to the market, where I get Open/Refund options. Open brings back to license failed. Weird :(
    Showed up on my CC statement as $0.10. So that's all good :)
  • Odd, just built my first world onmy phone, no problems. maybe uninstall and reinstall.
    Droid X
  • Paper camera seems to be regular price in the UK
  • Click buy, you should see the low low low price. At least that works for me.
  • In for 4 of em! Already have a few others thanks the Amazon free App of the day!
  • Great post!
    paper camera still shows in full price here but the rest are golden.
    Thanks Phil.
  • For some reason the asphalt 6 game will not install on my Galaxy note but will happily install on my HTC flyer.
    funny as my Galaxy note is ten times as fast as my flyer LOL
  • I'm loving this... thanks for sharing guys!
  • so if I got an email from Google confirming that it was 10 cents it should.be 10 cents right? I just put it on my sprint bill. How can I check that?
  • Market is updated with a section of 10c apps for 10 days now.
  • My market was just updated with an option that says "10 Days of Offers Top Premium Apps .10 Per App. You can click on that and it well show all the .10 apps!
  • Can I buy these now and install later when I am on Wifi? Limited data plan. How do I do that? Thx
  • You could go ahead and purchase them through the market then just hit the "X" beside the download progress bar when they start to download.
  • Confirmed 10 days of deals on the app market... It's on the front Page of the market... Already grabbed myself minecraft pocket edition
  • still waiting for this to appear.
  • Confirmed. I alerted android central soon as i woke up. I purchased minecraft, soundhound, and swiftkey all for 30 cents. Check my twitter if you want proof of purchase I have pics of receipts! @dirkyd3rk
  • Must be some kind of promotion that Google's doing. Just to see if I could hitchhike on someone else's promotion, I tried to re-price one of my games (Dice-A-Rama) to ten cents. And it wouldn't let me.
  • Just saw on the front page of the Market "10 Days of offers, Top Premium Apps, .10 cents per app"
    So, it looks like there are more coming!
  • Saw the same thing and was going to post it. Today's are:
    SoundHound
    Asphalt 6
    Minecraft
    Seiftkey X
    Endomondo Sports Tracker Pro
    Great Little War Game
    SketchBook Mobile
    Color & Draw for kids:phone ed
    Paper Camera
  • https://market.android.com/details?id=apps_timed_promotion&feature=banner Says "10 Billion Promo".
  • I don't have a smartphone yet, i'm waiting for the galaxy nexus (and waiting and waiting...) so i keep missing out on all these amazon free apps and deals like these. Is there any way i can buy the apps and download them onto my computer (imac) and then move them to the phone once i get it?
  • go to market.android.com and then login with your google account go to an app you want plug in your credit card info and see if that works
  • unfortunately, when i try that it gives me this message: "There are no Android phones associated with this account. Please sign in with a different account." Don't suppose anyone knows a workaround?
  • Cool! Just bought 6 apps for $0.60! ($0.59 if I count the cash back deal from my CC! LOL)
  • @Phil: on the top of android market is a 3*2 tile saying "10 Days of Offers, Top Premium Apps, 10 cents per App
  • Anyone know why I can't see Asphalt 6 in the Market on a Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket?
  • My credit card is grayed out and I cannot select it, it wants me to add a new card. Not sure what the deal is. Guess I miss out on minecraft today. Edit - My credit card is expired...damn it.
  • It's a promotion. https://market.android.com/details?id=apps_timed_promotion&feature=banne.....
  • Has anyone else noticed that almost every one of these apps has been offered as the free Amazon app of the day? Weird.
  • Yea, that may be so, but those of us who live in the South of the Equator world, cannot download any of the free apps from Amazon !! So this is great for us, some great deals for a change!! Interesting how Google Android app downloads got to 10 Billion far faster than that other Apps Store !!
  • Bought Endomondo Sports Tracker Pro for $.10 and was charge regular price of $3.98.Will that be adjusted?Chas1376