Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Open letter from an Android developer to the Google Play team

medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 244 posts

Re: Open letter from an Android developer to the Google Play team

#151

Post by jeroenhd »

lstamour wrote: post #129
mav3rick wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes everyone should be rich enough to buy a 1000 dollar Apple phone. Also, you get to decide if I want more than one camera app or not ? Stop imposing your world view on others. Android made smartphones accessible to many people across the globe. You won't mention that would you ? Won't fit your narrative.

An iPhone SE is $238 in India, $299-449 in the US. Similar pricing exists for the iPhone 6 & 6s, and the iPhone 7 is quite good while still well under $1000 most places.

The average wage in India is a little above 5 dollars a day. That's about 160 dollars a month. Translated to American wage standards, the $238 dollar iPhone would cost about $6000 (1.5 the average monthly wage).

A $238 dollar smartphone is inaccessible to most people in India. A "well under $1000 dollar" iPhone much less so.

Dollar values don't really translate as well to other countries as much as we'd like. Translating the price to a month's wage can bring a lot of perspective.

Re: Open letter from an Android developer to the Google Play team

#152

Post by trilila »

tylermenezes wrote: post #30

Guidebook, a 70+ person company, also appears to have just had their account banned as of yesterday morning. It's an app that tells you what's happening at conventions. Hard to see the bad faith there, but I bet the conventions they've signed contracts with this week will be very unhappy. The co-founder has taken to tweeting at his network to try to find a contact. Crazy to think a rogue algorithm might put 70 people…

This is malfunctioning ai in action. Also curious if it is an option for all of these banned app makers to team up and sue google.

Re: Open letter from an Android developer to the Google Play team

#153

Post by vfclists »

bArray wrote: post #127

Can we just get a proper Linux phone already? I could whip up a (rough) GUI for a WiFi phone in no time and all the software I want to use is already there - or could be developed relatively easily. Hell, Ubuntu's Gnome is almost a tablet OS anyway at this point, has relatively good drivers, stability, etc. The WiPhone is so unbelievably close to what I want [1] (+). I really wish it had a web browser though (which w…

Purism phone https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20555463

You may have to wait for it to come down in price

Pine Phone https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19592588

Re: Open letter from an Android developer to the Google Play team

#154

Post by robgibbons »

It still amazes me the extent of BS that developers will put up with to get their apps into users hands. The level of profit-driven gatekeeping exhibited by both Apple and Google is fundamentally unacceptable to me, and one of the many reasons I will likely never release an app for mobile. The web is still the last bastion of developer freedom, albeit not the platform users have been trained to use these days.

Re: Open letter from an Android developer to the Google Play team

#155

Post by snaky »

sjwright wrote: post #105

I keep hearing stories like this and I remain utterly bemused that the median narrative about Android vs iOS has barely changed in response. There's a lot to love about Android, but I think more people in the tech sector need to realise that their mental model of the phone marketplace has more to do with historical perception of Android being "hacker friendly" than the current realities. Android is open source! Oh wa…

> a cheap device that got its final software update five days after it shipped

Xiaomi Redmi Note 4, released 2016, MTK-based cheap smartphone, current official stable ROM is V10.2.2.0.MBFCNXM released May 2019.

> Apple shipped 33.8 million new iPhones during 2Q19, which was down significantly from the same quarter one year ago. Regardless of the slightly lower market share and device selling prices, the iPhone installed base continued to grow. The numbers show that now 3rd placed Apple may soon drop into 4th, with Xiaomi only 1.5 million handsets behind Apple.

Re: Open letter from an Android developer to the Google Play team

#156

Post by amputect »

mav3rick wrote: post #148
amputect wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "1000 dollar apple phone" thing is such a weird myth. My wife has been using the iphone 5s for years now, because the later models are too big for her to hold comfortably. It originally came out in 2013. It is still supported by Apple, and hers currently runs iOS 12.4, which came out last month. She is on her second 5s, because she dropped her first one in the lake trying to take a picture of our dog. I use it fr…

There are enough cheap to mid range devices that do the job in Android. I dont think you understand the value of even 100$ in a developing country. Most people don't care about updates in this scenario. They want a phone that works. And far more people in the lower strata have access to cheaper Android phones than Apple.

I have a genuine question: what are some of the "cheap to mid range devices" you're thinking of here?

Honest question, not trying to be a jerk, I genuinely want to know.

Re: Open letter from an Android developer to the Google Play team

#157

Post by snaky »

lstamour wrote: post #129
mav3rick wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes everyone should be rich enough to buy a 1000 dollar Apple phone. Also, you get to decide if I want more than one camera app or not ? Stop imposing your world view on others. Android made smartphones accessible to many people across the globe. You won't mention that would you ? Won't fit your narrative.

An iPhone SE is $238 in India, $299-449 in the US. Similar pricing exists for the iPhone 6 & 6s, and the iPhone 7 is quite good while still well under $1000 most places.

It seems iPhones ain't very popular in India.

> Xiaomi has now been India’s top smartphone seller for eight straight quarters. The Chinese electronics giant shipped 10.4 million handsets in the quarter that ended in June, commanding 28.3% of the market, research firm IDC reported Tuesday. Its closest rival, Samsung — which once held the top spot in India — shipped 9.3 million handsets in the nation during the same period, settling for a 25.3% market share.

Re: Open letter from an Android developer to the Google Play team

#158

Post by maccard »

bad_user wrote: post #137
nominated1 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yes everyone should be rich enough to buy a 1000 dollar Apple phone. I bought an iPhone 7 from Net10 about 5 months ago for $220 shipped. It requires a minimum $20 a month plan for 12 months before I can unlock it. About 2 years ago I got my mom an iPhone SE for $140 with similar plan/unlock. Both brand new. They’re not everyday prices and not the newest model but it is possible to go iOS without breaking the bank.

So your iPhone 7 actually costs $220 + $20 * 12 = $460 Is that correct? Not sure what the situation is over there, but in my country I've got a $5 prepaid plan with unlimited minutes, 10 GB monthly bandwidth and I can stop paying at any time. So I hope you don't go around pretending that the $20 you're paying per month isn't for that phone ;-)

You have to actually take the cost of the plan you were playing anyway off the monthly for a fair comparison. In this case $400.

Chances are the OP doesn't have the option of a 5$ plan with 10GB data - I certainly don't (that's closer to $20 here).

Re: Open letter from an Android developer to the Google Play team

#159

Post by mprev »

Illniyar wrote: post #135
sjwright wrote: post #105

I keep hearing stories like this and I remain utterly bemused that the median narrative about Android vs iOS has barely changed in response. There's a lot to love about Android, but I think more people in the tech sector need to realise that their mental model of the phone marketplace has more to do with historical perception of Android being "hacker friendly" than the current realities. Android is open source! Oh wa…

All those things don't really matter, the only thing that matters is that you cannot sideload apps in iOS. As long as you can sideload apps in android, it will always have a better reputation than somewhere you cannot. But even those things you mention, they are all part of a scale, even if android becomes more closed-source it's still miles more open-source than iOS, even if it delays new app submissions it's still…

Sideloading of apps is, at best, a niche interest.

Re: Open letter from an Android developer to the Google Play team

#160

Post by mav3rick »

amputect wrote: post #156
mav3rick wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are enough cheap to mid range devices that do the job in Android. I dont think you understand the value of even 100$ in a developing country. Most people don't care about updates in this scenario. They want a phone that works. And far more people in the lower strata have access to cheaper Android phones than Apple.

I have a genuine question: what are some of the "cheap to mid range devices" you're thinking of here? Honest question, not trying to be a jerk, I genuinely want to know.

https://www.digit.in/top-products/top-10-best-phone-under-50...

Keep in mind 5000 Rs is equivalent to around 80 USD.

Post reply on HN