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Amazon App Store: Rotten To The Core

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Re: Amazon App Store: Rotten To The Core

#91

Post by phreakhead »

shaggyfrog wrote: post #25
mcantelon wrote: post #6

>Amazon gets to set the price of your app to whatever they want, without any input from you, or even the chance to reject their price ... Amazon re-writes your description, and in ours they even made up things ... you can’t remove apps from their store That doesn't seem great.

Re-writing descriptions is such a bizarre thing to do I don't know why Amazon would choose to do it. Clearly they are getting things wrong in the descriptions, which is misleading to customers, which must be illegal in some fashion. Holding apps hostage -- not being able to choose unilaterally to remove them -- is beyond the pale. Whose app is it anyway? Does Amazon think they own these things the second they get upl…

They rewrote the description of my app, also with mistakes. Very annoying, especially since if you try to change it it takes at least two weeks to show up! In the span of app sales that is a lifetime!

Re: Amazon App Store: Rotten To The Core

#92

Post by phreakhead »

woodall wrote: post #74

My worthless 2cents. > Did the exposure count for much in the days afterwards? That’s also a big no, the day after saw a blip in sales, followed by things going back to exactly where we started, selling a few apps a day. In fact Amazon decided to rub salt in the wounds a little further by discounting our app to 99 cents for a few days after the free promotion. Well here is the image with sales numbers from the day af…

"You have a >100,000 user base so push an update to the free app so that it now includes ads."

The problem is, the users who got it when it was free got the PAID version, so they can't push an update to the people who got it for free without making all the users who ACTUALLY paid also get ads.

They'd also have to add ads to the paid Google Market version, since the Amazon dev agreement requires that you keep app versions synchronized across all app stores. Amazon has basically put them in a position where they can only lose money or piss off their actual paying customers.

Re: Amazon App Store: Rotten To The Core

#93

Post by msbarnett »

res0nat0r wrote: post #90
yalurker wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is 'general public' and there is 'tech-savvy android users'. The former you have probably characterized correctly, but I suspect you are underestimating the size of the latter. As the grandparent mentions, if people are posting on forums to help support the devs, then at least some people are being persuaded to use the service because they believe they're helping the developers. Many people do go out of their w…

It is helping the developers. It is getting them a broader userbase than they would otherwise have by having it promoted front and center on the app store, and also it being free. I think it is pretty humorous people would assume they would just get free money from Amazon for this.

As these developers discovered, all a broader user base brought them was increased infrastructure and support costs, with zero uptick in subsequent sales.

"A broader userbase" that doesn't pay anything isn't "help" by any stretch of the imagination for a number of business models.

Re: Amazon App Store: Rotten To The Core

#94

Post by woodall »

phreakhead wrote: post #92
woodall wrote: post #74

My worthless 2cents. > Did the exposure count for much in the days afterwards? That’s also a big no, the day after saw a blip in sales, followed by things going back to exactly where we started, selling a few apps a day. In fact Amazon decided to rub salt in the wounds a little further by discounting our app to 99 cents for a few days after the free promotion. Well here is the image with sales numbers from the day af…

"You have a >100,000 user base so push an update to the free app so that it now includes ads." The problem is, the users who got it when it was free got the PAID version, so they can't push an update to the people who got it for free without making all the users who ACTUALLY paid also get ads. They'd also have to add ads to the paid Google Market version, since the Amazon dev agreement requires that you keep app vers…

That makes a lot more sense, however, it's not entirely impossible for them to find out what users downloaded the app on that day and only target updates for them; they want out of amazon any way might as well break the TOS. They should be logging some type of 'first_install' after every user pings the server for the first time... but I'm making excuses for Amazon.

TBH both parties are at fault. Them for not reading the letter Amazon send WORD FOR WORD and not Amazon for discounting their app to 99cents the day after.

Re: Amazon App Store: Rotten To The Core

#95

Post by res0nat0r »

msbarnett wrote: post #93
res0nat0r wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is helping the developers. It is getting them a broader userbase than they would otherwise have by having it promoted front and center on the app store, and also it being free. I think it is pretty humorous people would assume they would just get free money from Amazon for this.

As these developers discovered, all a broader user base brought them was increased infrastructure and support costs, with zero uptick in subsequent sales. "A broader userbase" that doesn't pay anything isn't "help" by any stretch of the imagination for a number of business models.

And this is Amazon's fault how?

Re: Amazon App Store: Rotten To The Core

#96

Post by dhimes »

hn_decay wrote: post #63
dhimes wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me the most important part of the story is this: Did the exposure count for much in the days afterwards? That’s also a big no, the day after saw a blip in sales, followed by things going back to exactly where we started, selling a few apps a day .

For me the most important part of the story is this How so? Why would there be any expectation that sales would spike in the proximity of the app being a featured freebie? Does the grocery store sell more chocolate milk before or after a sale? I would imagine quite the opposite really. However I would revisit the situation in a few months. The app world, especially on Android, is very much one where word of mouth rul…

Why would there be any expectation that sales would spike in the proximity of the app being a featured freebie?

Not necessarily. But then again maybe. This information is useful to me because it changes the expectation value of the outcome of that marketing strategy. Without it I'm just guessing, and laying the odds at 50-50.

Re: Amazon App Store: Rotten To The Core

#97

Post by kevinpet »

res0nat0r wrote: post #83
kevinpet wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the FAQ: Amazon pays developers 70% of the sale price of the app or 20% of the list price, whichever is greater. I would interpret the sale price of the app to be zero, so they get 20% of list.

I'm not sure how one concludes that getting $50k of free money is even a smart assumption to make. So they give away X amount of money per day to app developers because they are being nice?

When the FAQ appears to address something (selling at less than list price) and doesn't call out an exception for free, it's not an assumption. Companies do all sorts of things. I don't understand all the economics of amazon's business model, but I can read.

Re: Amazon App Store: Rotten To The Core

#98

Post by kelnos »

neuroelectronic wrote: post #85
kelnos wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fine, it happened... but you also have your app on 101k more devices than you did the month before so do something with that, flip your perspective a bit and take advantage of it. Hell, before pulling out of the Amazon app store, release a new ad-supported version, and wait until a decent number of people have upgraded. Then pull out of Amazon's store. That should help defray the costs of the new hardware. Users can…

Nobody would buy an app from a developer who did this.

Yeah, in hindsight I realize that from the user's perspective, this really sucks. As a user who knows and understands the developer's perspective and how Amazon (intentionally or otherwise) screwed him over, I'd be sympathetic, but the vast majority of purchasers would not know any of that background information.
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