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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

#51

Post by yason »

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…

I really wonder what per-country work is needed really?

There's internet! Money bounces back and forth over the internet already. People have credit cards. What is it that Google has to do to let me sell and buy Android apps in one of the unlisted European countries that I live in?

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

#52

Post by lsc »

yason wrote: post #51
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…

I really wonder what per-country work is needed really? There's internet! Money bounces back and forth over the internet already. People have credit cards. What is it that Google has to do to let me sell and buy Android apps in one of the unlisted European countries that I live in?

VAT and other tax weirdness. generally speaking, if I (based in the US) sell a product to someone in, say, japan, absent any tariffs, I don't need to pay any taxes. But, if I have a business presence in japan, I've gotta pay Japanese sales taxes on that.

It's all more complex than that... but yeah, doing business in other places usually results in tax weirdness.

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

#53

Post by tjogin »

houseabsolute wrote: post #39
melling wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I know that some games are direct ports of their iPhone versions. It doesn't make sense why they would be worth the money on the iPhone but not on Android.

It makes a little sense. Demographics is one aspect -- people who buy Android tend to be cheap, and don't like paying for quality. Or else they would own iPhones. :) The required flamebait out of the way, let me get to my real points. (Well, this was a real point too, but said as offensively as possible, which the remaining are not.) Another issue is market construction. Think about walking by a luxury goods store. I…

Good points. I'd add that in the AppStore, consumers feel safe. You don't have to worry about viruses, malware or even that apps don't do what they say they do. Apple has removed numerous reasons for hesitation from the buying experience.

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

#55

Post by forgottenpaswrd »

berntb wrote: post #16
gamble wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Point, it is way easier(and far less work) to copy than to design something from scratch.

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

#56

Post by moe »

pkulak wrote: post #45
moultano wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What sort of apps would you consider buying? What are you looking to do with your phone that you can't do with a free app? I've bought apps but mostly just the "donation" versions of free apps that I use a lot.

How about a card game that doesn't blow? I've bought the Apple poker game, hearts, and some others. I paid 3 bucks for a hearts game on Android and it was terrible. It looked like some 1996 Windows shareware game. Tiger Woods golf is fun, and so is Angry Birds. Or how about a navigation app for when you're out of service? The Android app store is just about useless.

The Android app store is just about useless.

This mindless Apple/iPhone fanboyism on HN is really getting old.

So you didn't find a friggin' hearts-game that you like and that makes the android store "useless"?

Everyone has their own priorities of course, but can we cut out the generalizations?

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

#57

Post by berntb »

forgottenpaswrd wrote: post #55
berntb wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Point, it is way easier(and far less work) to copy than to design something from scratch.

That was half of my point; the other half is that the copy will be compared to the original.

When you steal a design and reimplement, only Microsoft (ten years ago, not now) got away with doing it worse...

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

#58

Post by nuclear_eclipse »

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…

Android apps I've bought:

- AndChat (great multi-server IRC client with support for SSL, handles connectivity changes far better than any other client for Android)

- RoboDefense (which btw doesn't have a screenshot because it's targetted at Android 1.5)

- Flight Director

- Hard Copy (excellent Instapaper app by an HN fellow)

- Locale (amazing contextual settings application, well worth the high price)

- Smart Keyboard Pro (supports Dvorak and a million other options)

- Titanium Backup

- TivoRemote (allows me to control my Tivo while upstairs watching from my second TV)

- Twidroid (was my main twitter client until the official client was available in Froyo)

Apps I would have gladly paid for if they weren't already free:

- ConnectBot (SSH client)

- K-9 Mail (best IMAP client I've found for Android that will actually work with my own mail server)

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

#59

Post by berntb »

houseabsolute wrote: post #39
melling wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I know that some games are direct ports of their iPhone versions. It doesn't make sense why they would be worth the money on the iPhone but not on Android.

It makes a little sense. Demographics is one aspect -- people who buy Android tend to be cheap, and don't like paying for quality. Or else they would own iPhones. :) The required flamebait out of the way, let me get to my real points. (Well, this was a real point too, but said as offensively as possible, which the remaining are not.) Another issue is market construction. Think about walking by a luxury goods store. I…

>>Also, how many games have really been ported directly to Android from iPhone?

I assumed the standard business model was: See what was popular on iPhone and copy that to other hand held platforms. (Preferably with outsourced cheap programmers.)

The market haven't matured yet?

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

#60

Post by omaranto »

megablast wrote: post #42
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 -…

You normally have to put in your password as well, unless you have chosen to skip that step in itunes, which seems a pretty silly thing to do.

I think iTunes is the only place where I can skip a password and choose not too, out of fear of buying things by accident. I could go or a confirmation dialog instead, though.
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