One of our developer friends pointed us in the direction of what appears to be a growing problem with Google’s Android Market.

What this developer saw was a drastic decrease in ratings for his company’s apps. While it’s not uncommon for ratings to lag behind in the developer’s console, it is quite unusual for the opposite to happen.

While missing ratings and reviews may not be considered mission critical, users do use them as a measure of an app’s value. Our friend wasn’t alone. Many, many others have reported the same problem as well.

What happens when it’s not just ratings? What happens when it’s pay? That’s recently become a problem, too.

For the past two weeks or so, some developers have been shorted for some apps that have been purchased. In this case the developer’s console has shown apps that have been purchased, yet for some mysterious reason those funds aren’t paid out to the developer.

The good news is that Google is aware of the problem, but as of this writing they don’t have any solution to the problem. More good news is that the purchases seem to be not only placed successfully, but recorded successfully as well. Only the last step, paying the developer, seems to be problematic.

Sources: Electronista, Chris Hanvey