Impressions of Android from a dev's perspective | Hacker News Reader

Impressions of Android from a dev's perspective

mikamobile.blogspot.com

66 pointsredbluething17 comments

It's worth noting that a large part of his frustrations would be resolved if Google hadn't lowered the refund window to 15 minutes. Google justified that move by saying devs wanted it, but his and my experience says it's just created a huge pain in the ass for everyone.

Really sucks for the users too.

It will be great if it was possible to be set by devs. Somebody wants 15 minutes, somebody wants 1 day or even one month.

The worst: my country (Colombia) doesn't belong to the list of approved countries to publish apps. :(

You can target apps to Colombia, it's in the rest of world section beneath the countries where Android Market is officially launched.

List of countries where you can publish free apps: https://www.google.com/support/androidmarket/developer/bin/a...

List of countries where you can publish paid apps: https://market.android.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=1437...

Been thinking about this article as I play his game (which is great). Some thoughts:

(1) it seems like there's a big opportunity for someone to step in with a service that just handles the backend work on the Android Market. Something less then a full fledged publisher but cheaper too. If he's spending say 5% of his time dealing with these sorts of issues (I can't imagine the number is any higher or much higher) then one guy could, as he scales, work up to doing this full time, handle a number of mildly successful indie developers, take 5% from each and be mildly successful himself (more than mildly actually he'll be much more efficient meaning he can scale to many developers).

(2) Apple's App Store on the other hand could greatly benefit from some sort of Preferred or Trusted status for certain devs. Maybe it prioritizes their review or allows them to bypass approval for purely bugfix releases. Perhaps they have to fork over another 1-2% in additional fees or insurance or maybe revenues are deferred until the update passes review.

For (2), there certainly are unofficial statuses like that. Angry Birds recently did an update, followed the same day by a bug fix.

Previous Discussion here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2670061

Oddly enough I can't find a Battleheart on Android Market. is it geographically limited?

It could be that your phone isn't supported, try this: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.KelliNoda.Battlehe...

"This item is not compatible with your device".

Seeing as the Galaxy S is one of the most popular phone I start to see how he gets less Android sales than on iPhone...

Is it the version of Android you're running? I know that on my Dad's Telecom NZ Galaxy S he's still on 2.1 because they haven't authorised any 2.2 updates through Kies for it. I tried to install a cool synth app I'd been wanting to test on it, but because of no 2.2 update it wouldn't work.

That's android's biggest problem: carriers delaying updates for ages because of "testing". It's fine for hacky people, but for the general public like my dad who enjoy having cool new tech but CBF dealing with spoofing Kies to get it to install European updates, it's super frustrating knowing that someone else with the same phone has an improved version just because they live somewhere else.

I'm euro and in 2.2. Just checked I was up to date actually.

I have seen this same problem with people not understanding how to uninstall or install applications. Granted my app is free and without advertisements I still somehow get these same kind of reviews... My favorite one star review to date: "Once u download this to your phone u will not be able to uninstall this app... I have been trying for days to get rid of it and it won't uninstall!"

The funny part is these people do not send emails to me asking for support they just give the 1 star review and move on. I want to say 90% of support emails are people thanking me or asking for new features. When I respond I always ask then to write a review on the market. Hopefully this offsets the 1 star reviews. And remember I do all this for free.

Just wondering, does anyone know what the most popular phone on the Android platform is at the moment?

Thinking of upgrading from my iPhone 3G.

If you're doing dev work or just want to stay updated with the latest Google experience you should go with the Nexus S. Otherwise it will just depend on your carrier, off the top of my head I would say the best U.S. phones right now are ATT the Atrix, Verizon Incredible 2, Tmo LG G2x, Sprint still the Evo.

Personally I'm waiting for the Galaxy SII next month.

Thanks

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