In advance of the release of the Android OS for the T-mobile today at 10:30 EST there are a ton of questions — most of which I will not be addressing in this post.  One of them, however, seems to have escaped the attention of most bloggers and that is this: will the quality and number of the applications for Android at all vary because the iPhone has a way for app developers to easily monetize their work?

Rather, could Android software development suffer because it won’t be able to attract the same number of developers — who are now looking to make boatloads of cash via the iPhone apps store?

Correct me if I’m wrong folks, and Android may surprise us yet,but there doesn’t seem to the same kind of simple application where you click, choose, and download — which is tied into a singular payment scheme.  True, one would think that this would natively exist with software for cell-phone companies that allow you to put everything onto a single bill (I think our Japanese friends have already sorted this one out) but this level of sophistication is something that I will certainly be watching for with Android’s release.

Why?  Well, I’m sure that many developers are looking to contribute to the growing library of Android applications out the goodness of their own heart, I’m sure many of them are also writing with dollar signs in their eyes … particularly with the rash of articles written recently about how profitable it can be writing popular iPhone apps.

Will Apple and the iPhone be poaching the best and brightest for the lure of cold hard cash?  Hard to say at this point — particularly as I’m sure people program and dev for a great many reasons.  

But with application development (for the iPhone, for Facebook) clearly being much more than a basement hobby, and something so profitable that it can power a real business, it seems reasonable to think that from the developer side at least, free vs. fee is, going to be, for some, a bit of a no-brainer.

On the flip-side, of course, is the mind-set of the user of the respective systems.  Will iPhone users, because of things like iTunes, be conditioned to paying for software?  And will Android users, being used to open-source ethos (whether they call it that or not), be used to software that is free?

I guess we’ll have to wait until 10:30EST today (and likely much later) to find out.