Too bad there isn't a Motorola store you can take and get it fixed the same day like Apple has done for me 3 times with my iPhone.
Prior to her experience and now comparing it to my Apple experiences I thought Android was a pretty good platform. Yet, with it's lackluster customer service, Google selling it's soul to Verizon & these continued posts of it's lackluster app store - I'm not so sure anymore.
- 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)
And did you know you can easily return paid games or apps and get your money back within 24 hours?
Sure, the quality of a lot of apps stinks. There seems to be a lot of trademark infringement going on, and I don't really understand the success of the emulators, but all that aside, many of us creating legitimate apps are making money - so people ARE buying apps.
Going back to the article, the main problem for me is NOT that I can't sell to some countries yet, it's that I want some simple and basic improvements to the Market. Market updates only seem to come along once in a blue moon. For example, I was selling for months before I was able to view comments in the Dev Console.
#1 update needed in my opinion: Let me write more than 325 characters to describe the game I've worked months creating.
For the most part, I'm grateful the Market exists and is so easy to use because it's helping to support my family, and I run a game company now... so, dream come true.
Google really suck in this department, although I am mainly pissed because they still will not let Aussies SELL apps in the store. Maybe Google do not care about this at all, since this has been an issue regularly bought up here and in other places other the last 3 or 4 months.
Another issue is market construction. Think about walking by a luxury goods store. Imagine you're on Michigan Avenue with the sky scrapers and the beautiful people, the August sun beating down and a light breeze to keep you cool. All those factors probably put you in a pretty damn good mood, the mood to spend.
Now imagine you're instead in downtown Detroit, browsing the same merchandise through poorly lit, grid-crossed holes in squat, cinderblock buildings. Maybe the goods inside are worth the same amount, but the average person in the same situation is not going to pay as much.
That's what the Android store is like. Two screenshots compressed at just insane levels like Google has run out of hard drives, and four hundred characters for a description. That puts anyone in the mood to spend, right?
A final factor is the miserable battery life of the average Android handset, which makes them less suited to be a gaming device if you want them to work as a phone later.
Also, how many games have really been ported directly to Android from iPhone? I mean good ones, now, ones people have actually bought on the iPhone. There's a halo effect involved too. If you go for years without seeing a decent game for a device, you end up being trained to think of it as a non-gaming device. On the other hand, I only have to browse the internet for a couple of minutes to find a half dozen iPhone games I wouldn't mind paying a buck to try out.
Edit: Even worse, Google apparently doesn't get any revenue from paid app sales. Their 30% cut goes to the carrier. (Thanks gregholland!)
http://www.cultofmac.com/analyst-app-store-just-1-percent-of...
Seems like a pretty huge return on investment, although a small percentqge of their overall profits. Hilariously most of Apple's percentage of an app sale goes to CC companies
I have almost given up on the Android market, Looking forward to MeeGo and Win7mo.
Do you have a source for that? As far as I know you pay for apps using Google Checkout and the carrier never enters into it.
quote
"One difference the mobile phone industry might well find appealing: Apple keeps the remaining revenue, but Google gives it to wireless service carriers, minus billing settlement fees."
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 do each one. -Tim"
But did not indicate any timeline :(
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.
I imagine once they had it set up for music, video, etc, adding in support for paid apps was relatively simple.
You sure about that? Just because Apple took care of it doesn't mean it didn't take a lot of work.
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?
It's all more complex than that... but yeah, doing business in other places usually results in tax weirdness.
The result is the quality of apps is poor and profits are lower across the board.
No, they stay with Apple, where they can actually make money.
I could go on and on...
Even the Developer portal on the Android Market is just horrible. I'm not sure what they were trying to accomplish.
- 2 screen shots???
- extremely limited description?
- No clear text box for "Update Reason"?
- You can't respond to user ridiculous comments?
- Sometimes my paid apps get cancelled after two days of purchase
P/S: I have more than 1/2 million combined downloads
It's trivial to create interface elements on the fly, even when using XML resources. You're not under any obligation to even define things using XML if you don't want to (and some more dynamic apps don't).
There are some issues with the way things are named (a spinner is not what you think it is), it's really a pretty small issue. I find the API's to be fairly well documented and fairly straightforward. A large amount of the standard Java library is available as well.
The app-store is a complete and utter mess and I think Google knows it. I fully expect them to address it in their next release (I hope).
We have custom controls (text boxes, listviews, dynamic formviews) that inherit from Android controls, that are reused over 15+ applications. It was hell building them scratch because the main app was a Java library (not an android app so the XML resources are useless).
I don't think you even understand what I'm saying. For example: Can you explain to me why the CheckedTextView control is available in XML but the class itself is abstract?
There's also a difference in average price points and expected prices - the android is absolutely cheaper. I think this is partly because the iOS marketplace is more mature, partly because big companies are not totally committed to android yet ("Testing the Market" price, not "Making Money" price), and partly self-reinforcing.
Whatever the cause, though, it's just flat out Easier to spend more money on iOS, and I suspect THAT's why Android devs aren't making what iOS devs are.
Mind you, I think Google's model is more consumer-friendly, and I endorse that, but the flip side to that coin is that Devs aren't making as much money, and that might hurt the platform in the long run.
And yeah, agreed, skipping the password box is just dangerous - WAY too easy to spend money there.
[0] http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/valve-we-dont-worry-about-...
If these countries are covered for buying Android apps, and per the article they are, then Android should be doing just fine.
For this reason, I'd disagree with the premise that the Android marketplace problems are caused by not supporting paid apps in countries that are marginal buyers at best. It seems much more likely that Android apps get pirated, simply because it's relatively easy.
I'm interested in writing for Android, but I'm holding off until I see some evidence that the Google DRM actually works and allows application writers to be paid for their work.
edited to give my reasoning on why I respectfully disagree with the article. ;)
http://www.techinfospotlight.com/2010/05/phone-os-market-sti...
The big takeaway for me is that 75% of Android phones able to access AdMob are in the North America, versus about 50% of iOS installed-base in North America!
Quote: "Over half of Apple’s sales are now outside the US. AdMob’s figures indicate 49% of the iPhone OS devices reaching its advertisement network are in North The united states, while 28% are in Western Europe, 14% are in Asia & 10% are elsewhere around the globe. For Android, a whopping 75% of the installed base visible to AdMob are in North The united states, with only 11% finding their way to Western Europe. A similar 12% are present in Asia, while less than 3% are in use elsewhere on the globe."
(Not sure if Apple has the same limitation, or whether they "solve" that problem by only showing American apps, but I never ran into it there.)
But many (not all!) banks will charge a fee (1- 3%) on top of that.
Yikes!
