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Zotero for Android available for beta tests

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Re: Zotero for Android available for beta tests

#41

Post by filmgirlcw »

retskrad wrote: post #16

It's funny how on the desktop, Windows has more apps and developers generally target it before MacOS. On mobile, it's the opposite where developers make apps for iOS first and release the Android version months/years later, even though Android has a 70% marketshare in mobile.

> It's funny how on the desktop, Windows has more apps and developers generally target it before MacOS.

I would say this is true for certain types of apps. Games, indisputably are Windows-first (and no matter what the Apple Game Porting Toolkit offers, without Apple going full Valve, this will remain the case), and certain business applications (AutoCAD, some medical stuff, other highly-specific and niche engineering apps, internal LOB apps for corporate clients environments) are either Windows-only or best on Windows, but I would argue that since at least 2005 or 2006, the amount of good software that is Mac-first or Mac-only is significantly higher than any other platform.

Obviously, in 2024, the web is the main application platform. The web won. But despite having a smaller market share (and today the market share is higher than any other time), there has long been a disproportionate ratio of good software on Mac versus other platforms.

Re: Zotero for Android available for beta tests

#42

Post by acidburnNSA »

kumarsw wrote: post #21
vodou wrote: post #19

If I mostly want to keep my own document repository (pdf, word, etc) with search ability over all included documents and, maybe, the ability to do notations, is this the right tool? If not, any suggestions?

JabRef. No cloud component and as a bonus the database is just a BibTex file which you can keep in Git.

There a zotero plugin that stores the entire contents of your zotero db as an auto-updated bibtex file too.

https://github.com/retorquere/zotero-better-bibtex

Re: Zotero for Android available for beta tests

#43

Post by dagmx »

carlosjobim wrote: post #24
retskrad wrote: post #16

It's funny how on the desktop, Windows has more apps and developers generally target it before MacOS. On mobile, it's the opposite where developers make apps for iOS first and release the Android version months/years later, even though Android has a 70% marketshare in mobile.

Android users don't want to pay for apps, that's why they get lower priority in general.

Add to that, there’s a huge variance in device hardware, form factors, OS versions and API support for Android. As well as poorer UI APIs and harder to integrate C code (important to sharing cross platform libs).

The ROI on delivering a *good* experience for Android users is really low.

Re: Zotero for Android available for beta tests

#44

Post by filmgirlcw »

feitingen wrote: post #32
carlosjobim wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android users don't want to pay for apps, that's why they get lower priority in general.

This is also self-reinforcing, since apps worth paying for are released on ios first.

Yes and no. The Android Market was only a few months behind the App Store (paid apps took another year) but when Android started to take off, lots and lots of developers started to try to come to Android in a big way and some even experimented with being Android first. But they all largely failed. Companies that actively invested in trying to be Android-first for a paid app have largely failed or been relegated to a very specific niche.

First, I think it was because the tooling was so much worse for Android than iOS, especially in the early years. And Google didn’t bother enforcing or even really outlining any HIGs for the longest time. It didn’t help that every Android maker had its own skin for the longest time (that is mostly over now, except for Samsung and some Chinese phone makers — and I would argue Samsung has a distinctive brand now that people buy their phones for their interface. They don’t want stock Android, they want the Galaxy Android experience).

But then even when you did have hit phones, like the first Motorola Droid and the Samsung Galaxy S (where the Galaxy S3 was a huge moment) and better dev tools, you still didn’t have users willing to pay for apps or even IAP. And it is hard to justify heavy-investment into a platform that people won’t pay for if your primary business is selling an app.

It also helps that iOS users typically have devices that are updated more regularly and that iOS devices are supported longer. And or course, there are fewer devices to test (though far more than there used to be).

Re: Zotero for Android available for beta tests

#45

Post by thaumasiotes »

jampekka wrote: post #37
thaumasiotes wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and the ones who bought the cheapest phone they could find contribute market share only for free apps. This can't really be true; it would imply that the actual value of all phone apps is zero, and the only reason people pay for them is that they need to get rid of some cash.

If someting isn't paid for it has no value?

If something has value of its own, then it will be purchased regardless of whether other unrelated products are or aren't purchased.

Thus, in order for people who don't find iPhones particularly valuable to contribute zero market share to the independent market for phone software, it can only be the case that phone software has no value.

Re: Zotero for Android available for beta tests

#46

Post by phren0logy »

Zetobal wrote: post #9

Oh nice Christmas present. I am using devonthink at the moment but would love to have a look at something else how does zotero hold up with big libraries?

You can use them both together! Just have Zotero save your PDFs to a directory that DEVONthink will index. That way, you can use the right tool for the job. For inserting citation into documents, the work processor plug-ins that Zotero offers are really fantastic. Similarly, for academic papers, the web clipper that Zotero has is much better suited to those particular types of documents than the more general purpose one included with DEVONthink.

Re: Zotero for Android available for beta tests

#47

Post by layer8 »

retskrad wrote: post #16

It's funny how on the desktop, Windows has more apps and developers generally target it before MacOS. On mobile, it's the opposite where developers make apps for iOS first and release the Android version months/years later, even though Android has a 70% marketshare in mobile.

Android may have 70% device market share, but iOS has close to 70% of app store revenue market share. This is because iDevice ownership correlates with higher spending on apps. In other words, publishing an iOS app is more profitable than publishing an Android app.

Even for free apps, if they are associated with an optional payed service (like Zotero Storage), it can make economical sense to publish an iOS app first.

Re: Zotero for Android available for beta tests

#49

Post by layer8 »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #45
jampekka wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If someting isn't paid for it has no value?

If something has value of its own, then it will be purchased regardless of whether other unrelated products are or aren't purchased. Thus, in order for people who don't find iPhones particularly valuable to contribute zero market share to the independent market for phone software, it can only be the case that phone software has no value.

It will only be purchase by people who can afford it and who find it worth the price. If someone doesn’t purchase it, there is no implication that they see zero value in it.

Re: Zotero for Android available for beta tests

#50

Post by layer8 »

xattt wrote: post #40
jarbus wrote: post #39

As an iPad user, I’m more excited for the rumored Epub support. So excited to keep all my books and PDFs in one place

Hot take: the iPad/iOS Zotero reading experience is worlds apart from the PDF.js reader in Windows clients.

In which direction? (I don’t use either.)
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