People who live in one country may travel to others. It's absurd to enforce the limitation at this level.
I'm getting really sick of apps in the Android store that are restricted by country when they're not legally obligated to be that way.
I'm getting really sick of apps in the Android store that are restricted by country when they're not legally obligated to be that way.
The point is developers shouldn't have to worry about people in un-supported countries downloading their apps and finding them worthless due to no content.
* (it should be based on your Google Play account settings or billing information)
Even for apps requiring physical or legal presence in the country (specific store app, subway guide, bank etc), you still have a chance that the people using it set their Google Play account to another country or use foreign billing information. Expats and tourists are an obvious case, using the billing information of family or friends abroad is another one.
Setting multiple account in different store countries is a major PITA, and getting updates for apps downloaded on mostly unused stores is painful as well.
Hans the German downloads the app. But as he walks through the streets of Munich, the app doesn't show him anything interesting. Hans posts a 1 star review on Google Play, saying "app is broken does not work on <whatever phone>". This is not desirable for Google.
Hans the German hears about this cool new product and goes to download it, only to learn he can't.
Hans never goes back to product again, having attempted to get it once before.
This is not desirable for Google.
They're licensing a lot of content from a number of providers. That's far more likely to be the cause for regional restrictions than any plan.
It's a location based application. Operative and key words there are "location" and "based". It makes more sense to release in a limited location you have proximity to and are familiar with in an early release to iron out all the bugs before making an international release where tracking down inaccuracies can be much more difficult logistically.
I doubt it's an arbitrary restriction, it's done for the sake of ensuring the app works as designed in a controlled test-environment.