However ad agency AdMob has been clever enough to circumvent Android, producing an API which allows app developers to stick sponsored links into their programs and make money that way.

With devs still unable to charge for their applications on the Android Market, they are only too happy to put AdMob in there, and recoup some of their development costs through ad revenue.

AdMob vice president Alib Diab said, “We are already seeing strong interest in developing applications for Android-based devices, similar to what we saw with the iPhone last summer, and are very excited to take the lead in helping developers monetize their applications on this fast-growing device platform.”

The iPhone is full of ad-sponsored apps that allow them to be given away for free, but Google must be mad that a potential revenue stream was overlooked. Let’s see how they combat the situation as the freedom of an open source platform comes back to bite them!