http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1129465
The problem is that developers are making a lot more money on iPhone apps. I've heard several developers complaining that their apps don't sell on Android. Will this eventually change?
1, The marketplace sucks compared to the app store in many ways. There are few ways to feature your apps on the marketplace vs apple which has the "what hot", "new and noteworthy", "top paid", "top grossing" categories. In comparison, the android marketplace doesn't.
2, On the apple app store, you are given more promotion room on your app page itself for more descriptive text and screenshots.
3, The android marketplace is FILLED with crap and spam apps, just go to the "whats new" section of your android marketplace and its filled with 95% crap-ware and those ringtone apps. There is no clear way for consumers to find good apps vs these garbage apps. This destroys the user's experience in the marketplace.
4, Related to above, the lack of regulation has fostered a system where comment spamming other apps's page and creating apps that does shady things with user's data is actually more profitable than creating quality apps. see here: http://tinyurl.com/2f3r4g9
5, There is a culture of "free" and "opensource" in the entire Android ecosystem and most apps are released for free or are ad-supported. Google seem to love this since if you use their ad system, they get a cut and therefore they don't seem to have an incentive to push paid apps to have wider availability.
On the other hand, I'm looking forward to what Meego and Win7MO will bring for us developers. I hope they will follow Apple's model of having tighter control over their app stores rather than the mess that the Android marketplace is.
I imagine that if done right this would allow them to match Apple in terms of providing more real estate for promotional content from app developers, and reduce the barrier to buying since you can preview an app, hit "buy," and immediately have it on the phone.
I also think the lack of a good web presence for Android Market is holding back device adoption. I know of several people who are dissatisfied with their iPhones but are hesitant to jump to Android without being able to see if there are third-party apps out there that are analogous to what they've already got on their iPhones.
I agree that one of the major problems with the Android Market at present is certainly this culture of "I won't pay for an app -- and if I have to pay, I'll copy it to my SD card and delete it within the 24 hour return window." A developer has little incentive to make a really, really good paid app if a good proportion of their users would pirate it. There's a tipping point where you can instead make more money by making a mediocre ad-supported app.
That should be fixed with the new Android licensing server that Google recently announced.
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/07/licensing-ser...
Edit: Well, fixed when developers update their apps (which they have a big incentive to do).
If you travel to a foreign country for a week and don't have international data roaming turned on, will you need to find a coffee shop and connect to wifi sometime in the middle of your trip to re-authorize your apps?
The nice thing is that it does leave these decisions in the developer's hands. If it's a network-centric app that accesses a web service that costs the developer money to operate (and thus piracy results in monetary loss), there's no reason not to have the license be strictly checked every time the app is opened. If it's just a game, maybe not so much, because someone probably will want to play it on an airplane.
I haven't seen any evidence that piracy on Android is worse than on iOS. My paid app has a 5-10% return rate; even if that's all piracy, it's not worth worrying about.
Curious to see if this affects jailbreaking numbers.
It's a brilliant, (albeit arguably evil), strategy by Apple to create a viscous circle where developers bind themselves to iPhone, which means the good apps wind up there and thus users buy the product and pay for superior apps, which makes it more lucrative to develop for, and so on. And they sell some extra Macs and make money on dev fees, and take a cut out of every app store sale. It's really a simply ingenious grand strategy which has worked unbelievably well for them, however unethical or limiting some people might think it is.
The only problem with your theory is the 'Android Sales Overtake iPhone in the U.S' part. Perhaps Android will need a bigger market share (double?) to really start stealing the higher quality developers from iOS but if the trend continues this will happen.
Secondly, the US is not the whole world. Here in France I don't know anyone other than tech geeks that have Android phones, but a majority of my friends have iPhones or Blackberries.
Thirdly, you have to take into account the fact that Apple has created a culture of users paying for content. They have also made paying for content as painless as is humanly imaginable - select item, enter password, and it downloads straight to your phone. Android devs have a long wait ahead before they start to see the returns that iOS devs are seeing.
I think you mean a vicious cycle. Or a virtuous one depending on how you perceive Apple.
Please stop. This is what every single company on the planet does. Few things are inter compatible and you'd be naive to hope that they would. Apple has solutions (implementations) to a problem which are different to everyone else's.
Appreciate u taking the poll.
This isn't entirely consumer-driven, IMO. I have no problem supporting developers, and I've bought the "donation" version of a number of apps to support developers, but the fact is that often as not when I look for an app to do something, the free app is the best choice available.
There are times I find myself wishing there were more quality apps I need out there that the developer would take money for, just to help end this notion that Android users don't want to pay for software.
It is really interesting that you hope for tight control, while I am waiting for a platform with as little carrier and/or platform vendor control as possible.
Most of the apps in App Store are crapware too
Apple gets a revenue from iAds as well. Notice that most of the Apps in App Store that are free are ad supported?
(I don't say this as a troll baiter, I own an iPad and an Android phone and love both equally)
Android Market does have "Top paid", "Top free", and "Just in" for the overall market and each app subcategory.
3. So is the Apple market. There are 300+ fart apps (probably much more by now). It is absolutely true that the Android market is full of junk, but don't say that as if it's the exception. 99% of iPhone apps are make money fast garbage.
4. Spam is definitely a problem, and it should embarrass Google that they haven't dealt with that. On the "shady things with data", sorry but your iPhone is far more susceptible to this.
5. Bullshit. On the iPhone there was a novelty aspect that is quickly fading away. I remember having peers gushing every day about all of the apps they purchased. That has faded away and now they use a very small cross-section of top tier apps.
"On the other hand, I'm looking forward to what Meego and Win7MO will bring for us developers"
Indeed.
"I hope they will follow Apple's model of having tighter control"
This is such a bullshit myth. Apple's "control" is superficial and facile. That you promote it shows that you're a bit gullible I suspect.
I wonder if developers that actually sell mass amounts of apps are noticing this too?
As for the total Android vs. iPhone sales numbers, I think two factors will play a significant role next year (a) if the iPhone is available on Verizon, T-Mobile etc. they'll be able to overtake Android sales again (b) I realize that Microsoft is unpopular on HN, but imo Windows Phone 7 will take away more sales from Android than from the iPhone.
IE is a resource hog, and has horrible standards support. Most mobile sites won't work with it unless Microsoft manages to get IE9 ready for production use with Windows Phone 7. From all the stories I've seen, they seem to think they can restrict users to using IE7 and still have a good mobile experience. The mobile web is Webkit, and I don't see IE standing a chance.
Is this necessarily a problem? Maybe there will end up being enough good free apps that the Android ecosystem will do fine without needing people to "make a lot more money" selling apps.
I happily used Linux on my desktop for years even though there wasn't much of an ecosystem of paid software.
Other issues are...
- Google Checkout - Apps not being sold internationally - As noted above a messy marketplace; yet Google's focus is the web not apps.
They are going to sell a whole heap of these things!
The latest Android handsets do deliver the stability required for a mainstream device.
HTC, Acer, Asus, Dell and Motorola are large manufacturers and they all have a presence on the Android platform.
China and other strong manufacturing countries can finally focus on delivering refined hardware platforms without needing to invest in software to break a Western market.
The ease of access to the SDK and the cheap platforms available for developing applications means that in emerging and developing economies there are a mass of people who want to learn to develop for Android, they will do a lot of the localization tasks for Google for free!
I am not going to dispute that there is a bias towards low cost and free applications on the Android, no doubt as the raft of sub $100 devices arrive, they are going to be bought by people on lower incomes than the average Apple user. The iUniverse is a great place to be, Apple's integrated media platform is definitely an achievement, but to join the party you really need some $$$
It's a numbers game in the end, the growth curve of Android seems to suggest it will dominate the smartphone market in 2011 and beyond, with that will come the revenue potential application developers seek.
and i thought itunes was a lock-in.
"The true comparison is between Android and iOS, Apple’s mobile operating system. Android’s activation numbers are not device dependent. Apple’s shouldn’t be either. If we are going to truly compare the two mobile OSs we need to include sales of iPads and iPod Touches. Add them into the mix and the data shows that Android is catching up but still isn’t close."
For an e-book reader, with the option of playing Chess and MP3s, its top-notch. But right now, the ability to run apps on it is more theoretical than practical.
The monetary rewards for trivial apps on the iPhone have been very atypical for the industry in general, so if anything I expect the lucrative iPhone model to dissolve: The social value of having a lot of the latest apps is disappearing.
I do expect apps to remain lucrative, but not with the consumer paying for it. Instead the apps will be financed by brands and interests.