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Android is for startups

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Re: Android is for startups

#291

Post by aufreak3 »

benihana wrote: post #39

Another post on the top of Hacker News making the mistake of thinking paying customers give a crap about how easy it is to [write|deploy|test|debug] your app. Even with all the pain associated with the App Store people still write more apps for it than ever. Why? Cause people pay for apps there. They don't on the Play Store.

It looks to me like the trend on the iOS app store is also downwards to the cheap/free end - i.e. a race to the bottom. My paid niche app ($5) used to get a couple of downloads a week. I made it free for one week, during which I got about 500 downloads. There is interest, but no willingness to pay for it. I think the overall statistic of $5B paid to devs with about 500,000 apps on the app store gives an average of $10k per app. So one app can get you, what, one month's salary? Even that's rosy I think, 'cos the distribution is not uniform but a long tail exponential, which means the me-the-solo-dev is more likely to fall on the tail than near the elite end of the exponential.

Bottom line is that I'm beginning to think that a mobile-only company strategy is likely to be doomed. Anyone thinks otherwise?

Re: Android is for startups

#292

Post by [deleted] »

nucleardog wrote: post #228
slewis wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My company has prototyped on both platforms, and I strongly prefer Android for this purpose. Test flight is significantly more inconvenient for all parties than sending around Android apks. So is Apple's provisioning process for development (you'll certainly have to figure out how to re-provision your development devices a few times). Android's OS integration also makes for better demos of our app. Since it's a remot…

I love Android. I really only develop for Android. But to say the Android emulators are better than the iOS simulator (or even comparable) is hilarious to me. The reason everyone tests on hardware is because the emulator is %@$#ing slow. i7 @ 4.2GHz, 12 GB of RAM... the emulator still takes MINUTES to start and runs unusably slow. The iOS Simulator on the MBP work gave me (mid-2010) runs at basically native speed. I…

[deleted]

Re: Android is for startups

#293

Post by aufreak3 »

corresation wrote: post #109
benihana wrote: post #39

Another post on the top of Hacker News making the mistake of thinking paying customers give a crap about how easy it is to [write|deploy|test|debug] your app. Even with all the pain associated with the App Store people still write more apps for it than ever. Why? Cause people pay for apps there. They don't on the Play Store.

While I entirely agree with your lead in, your last bit is very "where the puck was" thinking. Two years ago the Play store yielded 1/10th the revenue of the App Store, by common metrics. One year ago it was 1/4. The most recent stat is 1/2 -- still months old. Do you see where this is going? The #1 source of revenue for many games and other media on the App Store is via gifted iTunes cards. This is a mechanism that…

Can you please clarify with some references where you got that from .. and whether that trend you mention is not because the revenues on iOS are also going down?

Re: Android is for startups

#294

Post by BitMastro »

threeseed wrote: post #288
BitMastro wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

threeseed is well known to "favour" the Apple ecosystem and disdain the Google one. In other words, it's trollish

I spent many years in "agency land" developing for iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone. If you disagree that iOS is the more enjoyable platform to build for then contribute to the discussion. Otherwise you are the worthless one here.

1)I have a good memory, so I remember clearly that you developed for more than one platform, and, more than that, I remember you complaining about your agency application having to support ALL versions of Android starting from 2.1 (used by less than 1% of the market).

2)It is clearly visible from your comments history that you are biased (and that's ok, everyone is allowed to have a preference, I am biased as well), but also refusing to consider any arguments that go against your views, ergo the trollish behaviour. I especially dislike the way you address your replies. Most of the things that don't make sense to you, have a perfectly reasonable explanation if you only would consider changing your point of view for a while.

3)mattquiros already refuted your arguments on why iOS is more enjoyable as a platform.

4)I already commented elsewhere that as a developer you have to know your tools. Not using the x86 emulator or genymotion puts you in the position of the masochistic developer that wants to prove that the platform is horrible AT THE COST OF MAKING HIS OWN LIFE MISERABLE.

Re: Android is for startups

#295

Post by aufreak3 »

> Besides, have you tried Android recently? You might be suprised to discover that Android is better.

.. not yet for music apps. Even Google folks admit that [1]. This really can't wait any longer. Where is Garage Band for Android please? ... and to those saying "you can't complain only about music, look at the games, todo lists, blah blah", sorry music IS my domain and that's the only thing I care about.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3kfEeMZ65c

Re: Android is for startups

#296

Post by wizzard »

general_failure wrote: post #218
wizzard wrote: post #167

Sure, the release process might be easier on Android, but there are other factors involved in app development. Android is becoming a kind of curse word at my current job. Getting a working emulator can be a huge exercise in frustration (like for gMaps v2... forget it). Every and any feature or UI widget can break in unexpected ways on different devices. The tools are very functional but about as unintuitive and finic…

Sorry but it sounds like you are a android noob

Sorry, but it sounds like you are a troll.

I'd be happy to give details if you don't know (or don't care to see) what I'm talking about. But based on the upvotes to my comment and very similar complaints in other comments to this article, many people agree with me.

Re: Android is for startups

#297

Post by wldlyinaccurate »

threeseed wrote: post #290
wldlyinaccurate wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With regards to the speed, that's because the Android emulator is an emulator - it's converting ARM instructions to x86. Because of this, the Android emulator is actually a better representation of how apps run on real hardware than the iOS simulator . There are x86 images available for the Android emulator, which will run as fast as your host machine will allow.

Does real hardware convert x86 to ARM ? No. So remind me again what your point is ?

What? I can't tell if you're trolling, but I'll answer anyway...

The Android emulator allows you to run applications that were compiled for ARM because it translates the ARM instructions to x86. This is really CPU intensive and can eat a lot of memory as well.

Technologies like Intel HAXM[0] speed this up, which is how the x86 Android images manage to be so much faster than the regular ARM images.

[0]: http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-hardware-acce...

Re: Android is for startups

#298

Post by engrenage »

chetanahuja wrote: post #262
engrenage wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would I bother to answer a deliberately offensive comment from someone who's own posting is deeply partisan?

I use both platforms on a daily basis. I used an iPhone exclusively for 3+ years before my first Android device. I'm working on products that help devs on both platforms to make their apps better. Being a developer, I have solid reasons to prefer one over the other for my personal use but I know a large number of people prefer the other. If that makes me somehow "partisan", so be it. Now, would you explain what you m…

Ok - so you've justified your opinion. How do you justify your offensiveness?

Re: Android is for startups

#299

Post by engrenage »

mncolinlee wrote: post #285
engrenage wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is all predicated on the idea that you being able to release apks easily gets users who care enough too give you valuable feedback that you can use to learn and improve your app faster. There are more apps on the play store than the iOS store, and apks have always been easy to work with and had this same advantage. If this advantage has always been present, why aren't the apps already better than iOS apps?

Just because you have potential does not guarantee you use it. Many businesses started on iOS first, producing an Android version as an afterthought by contractors. Others produced a minimum viable product which made them money, so they felt no need to iterate. This means upstart competitors can easily take away the market share of established products. It's a good thing for startups.

So you're saying that there is an opportunity in the Android market because the apps are generally significantly worse than those in the iOS store?

Re: Android is for startups

#300

Post by hershel »

corresation wrote: post #168
chasing wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Two years ago the Play store yielded 1/10th the revenue of the App Store, by common metrics. One year ago it was 1/4. The most recent stat is 1/2 -- still months old. Do you see where this is going?" Sure: I see that, if I'm releasing an app this year, I should target iOS first because Android is a distant second. (And can I say that I continue to hate the "puck" quote and, while it was a mildly clever over-generali…

Fascinating commentary about the "puck" quote, which existed decades before Jobs ever uttered it (did he? I know it as a quote that Gretzky's father told #99. Even that is unnecessary attribution, as it is fundamental training that every kid learns about hockey, and the wisdom is as old as the sport). The point of it, your personal hang-ups about it notwithstanding, is obvious: When a market is changing quickly , if…

>> Personally I target both "first", because the tools and methods to do so are simple and effective.

I thought cross-platform development creates less quality apps.

Could you please share what tools and methods are you talking about?

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