Finnish games developer Rovio has announced the full release of its anticipated Angry Birds for Android app, extending availability of the popular iOS title to the Android user base. Unlike the iOS incarnation, where a “lite” version is available free-of-charge and a full version on a paid-for basis, the full version for Android is available free to the user, supported by advertising served by Google’s AdMob. The company initially opted to go for GetJar as its initial launch distributor, rather than Google’s Android market, but huge demand last weekend has seen Rovio push the game to Android Market early. Support from Motorola’s SHOP4APPS is expected to follow soon.

During the first weekend of availability, GetJar indicated that more than 1 million downloads of the title had taken place — Rovio’s website was unavailable for part of Friday due to “the enormous traffic generated by the Android launch of Angry Birds,” while outages were also reported by visitors to GetJar. Angry Birds for Android has been in an open “beta” stage for a number of weeks, with Rovio stating that it opted for an open pilot rather than closed in order to meet early customer demand.

A future paid-for version of the game for Android will also be available, which will remove the advertisements, and support for in-app purchases have also been reported – Rovio is introducing in-app purchasing in Angry Birds for Symbian^3.

Angry Birds for Android will run on “second generation Android devices and upwards, with Android platform 1.6 or later.” The device also needs OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics capabilities. According to some reports, the app will not be supported by HTC’s Hero device, because this does not offer the necessary graphics performance, although GetJar lists this smartphone as being compatible – alongside a raft of devices from HTC, Motorola, Samsung (including the Galaxy Tab) and others.

Mobile Apps Briefing’s exclusive profile of Rovio is here.