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

Post by megablast » Tue, Aug 17, 2010, 4:47 AM UTC

danielsoneg wrote: post #38

I'm an android guy, but I bought an iPad recently, and I think the author's missing a huge chunk of the issue here: Design & Culture. There is a big, big difference between how Google & Apple handle paid-for purchases - on Android, you get a confirmation screen, you have to verify the purchase, and you get 24hrs to return it. On iOS, you press a button and the app starts downloading. It's almost frighteningly fast -…

Post by moultano » Tue, Aug 17, 2010, 5:03 AM UTC

jsz0 wrote: post #22

I haven't found any Android apps worth buying. I look through the paid apps section now and again and it seems to be very utility-centirc. I'm not going to pay for a backup tool, file manager, ROM manager, over-clocking utility, task manager, etc. Of course you don't have to. The free versions of these apps are good enough. Then you have an assortment of weather apps, alarm clocks, etc. Again stuff that just doesn't…

Post by Tichy » Tue, Aug 17, 2010, 6:54 AM UTC

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.

Post by paul9290 » Tue, Aug 17, 2010, 7:05 AM UTC

eldenbishop wrote: post #41

jsz0 wrote: post #22

I haven't found any Android apps worth buying. I look through the paid apps section now and again and it seems to be very utility-centirc. I'm not going to pay for a backup tool, file manager, ROM manager, over-clocking utility, task manager, etc. Of course you don't have to. The free versions of these apps are good enough. Then you have an assortment of weather apps, alarm clocks, etc. Again stuff that just doesn't…

My wife has the verizon droid and she has not bought a single app while I have at least 30$ worth of apps on my iPhone. It is not just the reasons you have listed. Go into the reviews and you will find that every app in the store does not work on at least one model of phone. Additionally, when my wife had a problem with her phone the Verizon rep told her to uninstall all her applications and put them on one at a time…

Post by rimantas » Tue, Aug 17, 2010, 7:59 AM UTC

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.