I'm not based in the US and I find the situation is reversed.
I have an app (Market Access) for my Android phone that allows me to control what network gets reported to the Play store, so I can install apps from wherever - I just set it to T-mobile US and I'll get the US store.
When I had an iPhone, many apps weren't available locally. I had to buy a $10 gift card (purchased with a US credit card) from a dodgy site in the far east. I used that to set up a new Apple account, and ended up juggling stuff between the two accounts. The only way to add credit to the US account was via more (200% markup) gift cards. Apple chases after the gift card resellers, so locating a reliable supply is difficult. I ended up mostly downloading free apps from the US store.
Well, that sounds pretty cool, but I believe there are various DRM workarounds if you jailbreak an iOS device, too. (Market Access requires you to root your phone, right?)
I was mostly speaking to the way these markets and devices are intended to operate. Basically they all suck, but the implementation details may make one less of a pain in the ass than another, for a given situation. In Apple's case, I think they are the most convenient if you already have a credit card in every country you care about purchasing from.
Actually there are no DRM workarounds (short of pirating the apps) if you jailbreak an iOS device. MarketAccess allows you to legally purchase the apps.
Your original point about Google's geographically restrictions is technically wrong. It's not based on your geolocation but on the simcard inside the phone. If have a simcard from the USA then putting it inside an Android phone gives you access to the USA store even while in Thailand—you can still download over WiFi.
Moreover Android's system solves the problem stated in the original article i.e. move to a new country and Google switches over to that country's store. Move to another and Google switches again. All your apps already downloaded continue to work. All apps purchased can be redownloaded if they aren't restricted in the new country. There is no need to have separate Google Play accounts for different countries or merge accounts.
I have one Google Play account. I have four iTunes accounts (USA, Canada, UK and Japan). Android gets it right imo.
> Your original point about Google's geographically restrictions is technically wrong. It's not based on your geolocation but on the simcard inside the phone. If have a simcard from the USA then putting it inside an Android phone gives you access to the USA store even while in Thailand—you can still download over WiFi.
It's both. For apps in the Play Store it is generally SIM-based, but for "content" (i.e. Music, Movies & TV, Books, Magazines) there's a geographic block on the stores in addition to the SIM check. Even with that, Music and Books are semi-sane (you can use them wherever after purchase). Movies & TV, OTOH, is batshit crazy. Even after buying something you can't stream it or download it if you fail either the SIM check or the geographic check. Even playing things you've already downloaded can be an issue.
On top of that, you have devices without SIMs (e.g. tablets) which have a geographic check on everything, including apps. And then there are the corner cases...
P.S. These days even previously-purchased / downloaded apps can be re-downloaded even when restricted in a country because they still show up in your purchase history.
Hmm, thanks for the tip about about the SIM card; I was excited to read that, as I happened to have a US SIM card in my bag (here in Tokyo).
But, after replacing the Docomo SIM with the US SimpleMobile SIM and rebooting, while I do indeed get some variant of the US store, I still can't access various things I've purchased or that I would be able to access from within the USA (movies, magazines) presumably because I am physically located in Japan, and those items aren't available here.
So they are doing something with the SIM card, clearly--putting in the US card changes my Play store to some lobotomized version of the US store with whole sections missing. But they are also somehow using my physical location to restrict my account block my access to things I have purchased in the USA.
With Apple's credit card-based authorization, this does not happen.
Either way sucks, but for me personally Apple's way is a lot better, because things don't stop working when I physically move. (They would instead stop working if I had to cancel all my credit cards in one country, though.)
I have an app (Market Access) for my Android phone that allows me to control what network gets reported to the Play store, so I can install apps from wherever - I just set it to T-mobile US and I'll get the US store.
When I had an iPhone, many apps weren't available locally. I had to buy a $10 gift card (purchased with a US credit card) from a dodgy site in the far east. I used that to set up a new Apple account, and ended up juggling stuff between the two accounts. The only way to add credit to the US account was via more (200% markup) gift cards. Apple chases after the gift card resellers, so locating a reliable supply is difficult. I ended up mostly downloading free apps from the US store.