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Comment by drzaiusapelord | Hacker News Reader

>They consume extra battery;

I find it fascinating that Google is always hurting their own mobile experience. Between all the issues android has with wake locks and memory leaks and the massive infrastructure of location and 'lifestyle' tracking for ad delivery, its a miracle Android devices get any battery life at all. Even without this html5 conversion, Android battery life often pales compared to iOS or Windows Phone.

The more I think about it, an OS from whats essentially an ad delivery company is probably a liability. Monetization will trump user experience. Get ready for some pretty invasive html5 ads.

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That's probably why they're in size of a small tablet now.

Seems like this is the easiest way to fix battery issues. Google is in an ugly place not only with its relationship with advertisers but with its own OEMs, who modify Android with usually battery-killing results.

All that extra surface area means lots more battery. Its a classic 'throw hardware at the problem' approach and, unfortunately, that just seems where Android is going. As Lollipop has showed, Volta and ART are not battery savers. If anything, people are reporting worse battery life than under KitKat.

I'm not going to go as far as saying Android is bloaty and out of control; I just don't think you can have the level of QA and control you need for an ultra-efficient mobile OS when you're dependent on so many other chefs to deliver your product and monetization for you (OEM hardware and software, ad monetization, user tracking to better ad delivery, etc).

As Lollipop has showed, Volta and ART are not battery savers. If anything, people are reporting worse battery life than under KitKat.

Yet the GS5 shows dramatically better results. A number of handsets show dramatically better results. That you read someone's anecdote about their Nexus 5 is irrelevant.

Sorry, but I find your posts hilarious, and again I have to say that they're astroturfing. "I'm not going to go as far" -- sure.

Seriously, are people not aware that HN has been targeted?

Aren't most iOS apps ad-based, too?

Not most of them, in my experience. Most seem to rely on the initial purchase price only, and many of those that used to have ads have switched to in-app purchases.

While I could not tell you for sure why this is, several statistics indicate that iOS users have more money to spend and piracy is much less frequent. Ads also have a tendency to disrupt the "experience" of using an app which may be more discouraged on Apple platforms.

With that said, there are also many apps which make no attempts at monetization at all.

I would've thought on HN of all places that one wouldn't have to explain how silly it is to make conclusions based on incredibly anecdotal experience (particularly when more robust statistics are a quick Google away).

"According to Distimo App Analytics, the mobile apps with higher gross earnings in both the Apple iTunes App Store and Google Play Store use freemium monetization methods.In October 2014, nine of the top 10 apps in the iTunes App Store within the US were freemium games, with Clash of Clans, Candy Crush Saga, and Game of War: Fire Age leading the ranking (followed by Pandora Radio). You have to go all the way down to the 27th place on the list to find a paid app, in this case Minecraft."

http://thinkapps.com/blog/post-launch/paid-vs-freemium-app-m...

I've been keeping up with monetization statistics for apps, and last time I checked, ads+in-app purchase were 90-something % of revenue for iOS apps and growing.

It should be noted that your source focuses on revenue, and not the amount of ad-supported/non-ad supported apps in the App Store which was the original question.

Interestingly, these freemium games rely heavily on traditional television advertising.

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