Hacker News Reader

Comment by jsz0 | Hacker News Reader

I haven't found any Android apps worth buying. I look through the paid apps section now and again and it seems to be very utility-centirc. I'm not going to pay for a backup tool, file manager, ROM manager, over-clocking utility, task manager, etc. Of course you don't have to. The free versions of these apps are good enough. Then you have an assortment of weather apps, alarm clocks, etc. Again stuff that just doesn't justify even 99 cents to me. I don't keep up on exchange rates so I generally won't buy anything that's listed in Euros because I'm not sure if it's worth it or not. For games the #1 game, Robo Defense, doesn't even have a screenshot so there's absolutely no chance I will buy it. 2 of the other apps in the top 5 are emulators that will require me to go find ROMs. The Android market just kind of feels like a bad Windows shareware site to me. It's lacking instant gratification.

View on HN

My wife has the verizon droid and she has not bought a single app while I have at least 30$ worth of apps on my iPhone. It is not just the reasons you have listed. Go into the reviews and you will find that every app in the store does not work on at least one model of phone. Additionally, when my wife had a problem with her phone the Verizon rep told her to uninstall all her applications and put them on one at a time, with a day or two between installs to try and find which one created the problems she was facing. I tried to help out by going online and found forums discussing which versions of which apps on this or that handset killed performance, battery life, stability etc. In short my wife has basically refused to install anything other than the stock applications and a few google apps. Google has, in my opinion, failed to create an ecosystem where people feel safe purchasing software.

Mine just tried to update to Froyo and it bricked her Droid. Verizon is sending a replacement in the mail and she will be receiving it within five days. Though they offered her to send it overnight for $20, yet it's not her fault.

Too bad there isn't a Motorola store you can take and get it fixed the same day like Apple has done for me 3 times with my iPhone.

Prior to her experience and now comparing it to my Apple experiences I thought Android was a pretty good platform. Yet, with it's lackluster customer service, Google selling it's soul to Verizon & these continued posts of it's lackluster app store - I'm not so sure anymore.

Android apps I've bought:

- AndChat (great multi-server IRC client with support for SSL, handles connectivity changes far better than any other client for Android)

- RoboDefense (which btw doesn't have a screenshot because it's targetted at Android 1.5)

- Flight Director

- Hard Copy (excellent Instapaper app by an HN fellow)

- Locale (amazing contextual settings application, well worth the high price)

- Smart Keyboard Pro (supports Dvorak and a million other options)

- Titanium Backup

- TivoRemote (allows me to control my Tivo while upstairs watching from my second TV)

- Twidroid (was my main twitter client until the official client was available in Froyo)

Apps I would have gladly paid for if they weren't already free:

- ConnectBot (SSH client)

- K-9 Mail (best IMAP client I've found for Android that will actually work with my own mail server)

ConnectBot is better than many desktop SSH clients I've used.

Robo Defense (just like pretty much all popular paid games) also has a free version that includes the first few levels. It's a pretty fun game; I bought it.

And did you know you can easily return paid games or apps and get your money back within 24 hours?

Some people are finding apps they want to buy. I've sold my games to thousands, and it just keeps getting better.

Sure, the quality of a lot of apps stinks. There seems to be a lot of trademark infringement going on, and I don't really understand the success of the emulators, but all that aside, many of us creating legitimate apps are making money - so people ARE buying apps.

Going back to the article, the main problem for me is NOT that I can't sell to some countries yet, it's that I want some simple and basic improvements to the Market. Market updates only seem to come along once in a blue moon. For example, I was selling for months before I was able to view comments in the Dev Console.

#1 update needed in my opinion: Let me write more than 325 characters to describe the game I've worked months creating.

For the most part, I'm grateful the Market exists and is so easy to use because it's helping to support my family, and I run a game company now... so, dream come true.

Interesting. I know that some games are direct ports of their iPhone versions. It doesn't make sense why they would be worth the money on the iPhone but not on Android.

Apple makes it incredibly easy to buy. Once you have your credit card details on file, you can buy. Or you can get an itunes card from a million different places. Also, people have likely already bought from Apple, a song or tv show.

Google really suck in this department, although I am mainly pissed because they still will not let Aussies SELL apps in the store. Maybe Google do not care about this at all, since this has been an issue regularly bought up here and in other places other the last 3 or 4 months.

It makes a little sense. Demographics is one aspect -- people who buy Android tend to be cheap, and don't like paying for quality. Or else they would own iPhones. :) The required flamebait out of the way, let me get to my real points. (Well, this was a real point too, but said as offensively as possible, which the remaining are not.)

Another issue is market construction. Think about walking by a luxury goods store. Imagine you're on Michigan Avenue with the sky scrapers and the beautiful people, the August sun beating down and a light breeze to keep you cool. All those factors probably put you in a pretty damn good mood, the mood to spend.

Now imagine you're instead in downtown Detroit, browsing the same merchandise through poorly lit, grid-crossed holes in squat, cinderblock buildings. Maybe the goods inside are worth the same amount, but the average person in the same situation is not going to pay as much.

That's what the Android store is like. Two screenshots compressed at just insane levels like Google has run out of hard drives, and four hundred characters for a description. That puts anyone in the mood to spend, right?

A final factor is the miserable battery life of the average Android handset, which makes them less suited to be a gaming device if you want them to work as a phone later.

Also, how many games have really been ported directly to Android from iPhone? I mean good ones, now, ones people have actually bought on the iPhone. There's a halo effect involved too. If you go for years without seeing a decent game for a device, you end up being trained to think of it as a non-gaming device. On the other hand, I only have to browse the internet for a couple of minutes to find a half dozen iPhone games I wouldn't mind paying a buck to try out.

Good points. I'd add that in the AppStore, consumers feel safe. You don't have to worry about viruses, malware or even that apps don't do what they say they do. Apple has removed numerous reasons for hesitation from the buying experience.

"Two screenshots compressed at just insane levels like Google has run out of hard drives, and four hundred characters for a description. That puts anyone in the mood to spend, right?"

I know it doesn't really remedy much of the problem, but if you click on the screenshots, they become fullscreen and don't appear to be of lossy-quality. (I'm using 2.1)

Agreed, for the most part. I've got an N1 and a serious case of iPhone game envy. But Angry Birds is coming to Android, PopCap is committed to Android, and Unity 3.0 will support Android.

>>Also, how many games have really been ported directly to Android from iPhone?

I assumed the standard business model was: See what was popular on iPhone and copy that to other hand held platforms. (Preferably with outsourced cheap programmers.)

The market haven't matured yet?

What sort of apps would you consider buying? What are you looking to do with your phone that you can't do with a free app? I've bought apps but mostly just the "donation" versions of free apps that I use a lot.

How about a card game that doesn't blow? I've bought the Apple poker game, hearts, and some others. I paid 3 bucks for a hearts game on Android and it was terrible. It looked like some 1996 Windows shareware game. Tiger Woods golf is fun, and so is Angry Birds. Or how about a navigation app for when you're out of service? The Android app store is just about useless.

The Android app store is just about useless.

This mindless Apple/iPhone fanboyism on HN is really getting old.

So you didn't find a friggin' hearts-game that you like and that makes the android store "useless"?

Everyone has their own priorities of course, but can we cut out the generalizations?

"This mindless Apple/iPhone fanboyism"

And that's not a generalization?

If can't find more than 1 or 2 quality apps, yes, the damn thing is useless. That's its "use". It provides maybe 2, so it's not "useless", but it is "just about useless".

> "This mindless Apple/iPhone fanboyism" And that's not a generalization?

No, that was specifically targeted at you and the sixpack of similar comments that has become the norm for every apple/android article.

If can't find more than 1 or 2 quality apps, yes, the damn thing is useless. That's its "use". It provides maybe 2, so it's not "useless", but it is "just about useless".

It may be useless for you.

I have found all I need (SwiFTP, ConnectBot, MailDroid, to name just 3) and while they may not be as pretty as the iPhone equivalents... Oh wait, for two of them there is no iPhone equivalent.

See? Everyone has their priorities. And even though I'm not the least bit interested in the latest shiny iPhone games I wouldn't call the apple appstore "useless".

Reply on news.ycombinator.com