A posting on the Android Developers' blog explains: "Android applications have historically been limited to a maximum size of 50MB. This works for most apps, and smaller is usually better....However some types of apps, like high-quality 3D interactive games, require more local resources. So today, we're expanding the Android app size limit to 4GB.

"The size of your APK file will still be limited to 50MB to ensure secure on-device storage, but you can now attach expansion files to your APK. Each app can have two expansion files, each one up to 2GB, in whatever format you choose."

The files will be hosted by Android Market, and users will see the total size of all files and all of the downloads before they install or purchase an app.

The blog adds: "On most newer devices, when users download your app from Android Market, the expansion files will be downloaded automatically, and the refund period won't start until the entire download completes. On older devices, your app will download the expansion files the first time it runs, via a downloader library."

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