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Why Android devs are losing money, and it’s not due to piracy

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Re: Why Android devs are losing money, and it’s not due to piracy

#11

Post by gregholland »

Google also has a vested interest in keeping as many apps free as possible. Most free apps makes use of Admob (Google) as their primary source of revenue, this means that Google gets a cut of this. But for paid apps, the 30% that gets taken away from your sales goes to the carrier instead and Google does not see a cent of this. Therefore by limiting the number of countries from which developers can publish apps, as well as the countries where paid apps are available, Google is actually boosting their own profits.

I have almost given up on the Android market, Looking forward to MeeGo and Win7mo.

Re: Why Android devs are losing money, and it’s not due to piracy

#12

Post by nl »

Rabidgremlin wrote: post #4

Although you CAN buy apps on the New Zealand market place, as a developer in New Zealand, you CANNOT sell any apps! As a developer you need to be in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom or United States to set up a merchant account. I had an email conversion with Tim Bray about this... He said: "I hear you. We're working on lots more countries. It's an amazing amount of work to d…

Here's the list of countries: http://market.android.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&an...

I'm _amazed_ that Google hasn't fixed this. Apple didn't have the problem at all, and I don't understand why it is taking Google so long.

Re: Why Android devs are losing money, and it’s not due to piracy

#13

Post by orangecat »

gregholland wrote: post #11

Google also has a vested interest in keeping as many apps free as possible. Most free apps makes use of Admob (Google) as their primary source of revenue, this means that Google gets a cut of this. But for paid apps, the 30% that gets taken away from your sales goes to the carrier instead and Google does not see a cent of this. Therefore by limiting the number of countries from which developers can publish apps, as w…

But for paid apps, the 30% that gets taken away from your sales goes to the carrier instead

Do you have a source for that? As far as I know you pay for apps using Google Checkout and the carrier never enters into it.

Re: Why Android devs are losing money, and it’s not due to piracy

#14

Post by djcapelis »

nl wrote: post #12
Rabidgremlin wrote: post #4

Although you CAN buy apps on the New Zealand market place, as a developer in New Zealand, you CANNOT sell any apps! As a developer you need to be in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom or United States to set up a merchant account. I had an email conversion with Tim Bray about this... He said: "I hear you. We're working on lots more countries. It's an amazing amount of work to d…

Here's the list of countries: http://market.android.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&an... I'm _amazed_ that Google hasn't fixed this. Apple didn't have the problem at all, and I don't understand why it is taking Google so long.

> Apple didn't have the problem at all

You sure about that? Just because Apple took care of it doesn't mean it didn't take a lot of work.

Re: Why Android devs are losing money, and it’s not due to piracy

#15

Post by whatusername »

Rabidgremlin wrote: post #4

Although you CAN buy apps on the New Zealand market place, as a developer in New Zealand, you CANNOT sell any apps! As a developer you need to be in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom or United States to set up a merchant account. I had an email conversion with Tim Bray about this... He said: "I hear you. We're working on lots more countries. It's an amazing amount of work to d…

Hell - we might not be able to buy iphone/android games in Australia in a few weeks: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/apps-and-game...

Re: Why Android devs are losing money, and it’s not due to piracy

#16

Post by berntb »

gamble wrote: post #10
nonane wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The paid App Store or Android market will never be a revenue stream for Apple or Google. In fact it is probably designed to be break-even at best. They need interesting apps to push their respective platforms further - that's where the gold mine is for both companies (apple gets to sell more hardware and goog gets more searches)

Yep, the difference between them is that Apple had the luxury of waiting a year before tackling the app store (and experience with iTunes to draw from) whereas Google needed an app store on Day 1, albeit a store they could neglect.

Point, but they also got something existing to copy -- and be compared against.

Re: Why Android devs are losing money, and it’s not due to piracy

#17

Post by mechanical_fish »

djcapelis wrote: post #14
nl wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's the list of countries: http://market.android.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&an... I'm _amazed_ that Google hasn't fixed this. Apple didn't have the problem at all, and I don't understand why it is taking Google so long.

> Apple didn't have the problem at all You sure about that? Just because Apple took care of it doesn't mean it didn't take a lot of work.

The secret is that Apple did all the groundwork years in advance, as part of rolling out the Apple Stores, the iTunes Music Store, et cetera.

Re: Why Android devs are losing money, and it’s not due to piracy

#18

Post by Devilboy »

whatusername wrote: post #15
Rabidgremlin wrote: post #4

Although you CAN buy apps on the New Zealand market place, as a developer in New Zealand, you CANNOT sell any apps! As a developer you need to be in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom or United States to set up a merchant account. I had an email conversion with Tim Bray about this... He said: "I hear you. We're working on lots more countries. It's an amazing amount of work to d…

Hell - we might not be able to buy iphone/android games in Australia in a few weeks: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/apps-and-game...

That is such a disaster for free / ad supported apps.

Re: Why Android devs are losing money, and it’s not due to piracy

#19

Post by heresy »

nl wrote: post #12
Rabidgremlin wrote: post #4

Although you CAN buy apps on the New Zealand market place, as a developer in New Zealand, you CANNOT sell any apps! As a developer you need to be in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom or United States to set up a merchant account. I had an email conversion with Tim Bray about this... He said: "I hear you. We're working on lots more countries. It's an amazing amount of work to d…

Here's the list of countries: http://market.android.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&an... I'm _amazed_ that Google hasn't fixed this. Apple didn't have the problem at all, and I don't understand why it is taking Google so long.

It took the longest time to get the iTunes store in New Zealand.

I imagine once they had it set up for music, video, etc, adding in support for paid apps was relatively simple.

Re: Why Android devs are losing money, and it’s not due to piracy

#20

Post by nonane »

mechanical_fish wrote: post #17
djcapelis wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple didn't have the problem at all You sure about that? Just because Apple took care of it doesn't mean it didn't take a lot of work.

The secret is that Apple did all the groundwork years in advance, as part of rolling out the Apple Stores, the iTunes Music Store, et cetera.

Doesn't Google already have a way to remit money to adsense partners across the world?
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