Android marketplace.

I saw an article from a game company saying that they didn't sell sh*t there compared to Apple AppStore. Can't remember where but it was about two months ago.

 

I hang around on forums where people generally run custom roms and haven't heard of these problems - haven't had any problems at all installing games, I've bought 3 in the last 2 weeks since I got the phone.

Perhaps earlier android builds had issues, it is relatively new.

 

I develop primarily for Android, and I've had what I consider very good success.

I post stats and updates on my blog.

Here's the blog post from Larva Labs from last August where they talk about their sales figures on Android vs. iPhone:

http://larvalabs.com/blog/iphone/android-market-sales/

Strangely, they haven't posted any follow-ups to this in the past 6 months.

So there are a number of different hardware and software configurations out there right now. Current OS versions are 1.5, 1.6, 2.0, and 2.1, and the screen sizes are grouped into QVGA (small), HVGA (normal), and WVGA (large). A user won't be able to download apps that will not run on their device, which it won't if the app uses features only supported in versions beyond the user's current version, or if the app does not support their display size. A user also won't be able to download paid apps if they live in a country where paid apps are not supported (Google has been slow rolling this out to new countries, but then, so was Apple, initially...I imagine there's a lot of red tape).

There's a lot of talk of fragmentation in the Android Market, but it's really not much different than developing for the PC. Detractors tend to want to compare Android mostly to Linux, while supporters tend to compare it to Windows. In reality, it's a mix. The SDK does a good job of making it relatively easy to support the various hardware/firmware configurations.

Anyway, new Android phones are still streaming out into the market. Sprint just announced the Evo, the first 4G smartphone, and it's an Android device. Nexus One sales are weak, but the jury is still out on that sales model. The Droid has been an unqualified success, and is really the phone that has made Android viable for developers, IMO. With Android now on all the major US carriers, and with manufacturers like Dell and Acer yet to release their Android devices, the market is in full growth mode.

I make about half my revenue from sales and half from ads. There was a recent report that indicated that Android users were far less likely to purchase an app than iPhone users. The market is still heavily skewed towards males (I believe the ratio is something like 70/30). This will even out over time, but even in the short term, if you're smart about using free app monetization methods, you can do well.

Even for sales alone, here's a recent success story for a Car Locator app on Android, making $13,000 per month:

http://eddiekim.posterous.com/an-android-success-story-13000month-sales-0

Anyway, don't believe the doom and gloom. Android is growing, fast, and it's already mature enough to support full-time development if you're reasonably good and also a bit lucky.

 

I like Android Market.

The advantage of Android Market is the fact that good apps or games are not lost among piles of trash. Time and efforts spent on creating a serious app were completely worth it. Anyway, people are able to find good apps even though these apps are not featured in the Android Market spotlight.

The only problem is that only the devs from a limited number of countries are allowed to sell their apps via Android Market. I know that this is a big problem.

Finally I managed to find a good publisher - polyclef software LLC - www.polyclefsoftware.com. I can recommend it to all those devs who cannot sell via Market directly.

I continue working on both Android games and apps.

 

Yeah AT THE MOMENT.
For me it seems obvious that android will take the lead over Iphone, because,well it's an open standard.
But when everybody will turn their attention to android, do you think the situation will be any different from the Iphone market?
At least with android there is the possibility of opening alternate marketplaces (I think) so maybe there will be some sort of niche markets or something like the equivalent of game portals?

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but you can install any app on your Android phone regardless of whether it comes from their marketplace, no?

In that case at the very least there will always be the option to direct-sell to Android users from your own site. You're only at the bottom of the appStore slush pile if you allow yourself to be.

 

Pretty much everyone I know has an iPhone because they're popular. No one I know has an android phone, or cares about open standards. 99% don't know what an open standard is.

Maybe I'm mishearing what you're saying, but I don't see android taking the lead over the iPhone.

 

Give it time
What I think he means is that by being open, ANY manufacturer can produce an android phone. Here in italy the first ones started to appear from many different brand.
In other words, iPhone=Apple only, Android=everyone who wants to produce an android compatible phone (Nokia, Samsung, etc).
I think he's right that *potentially* could surpass the iphone. Also considering prices, and iphone is x2 expensive as an android phone here in italy and that in the long run will matter

 

Yes. It's obviously not true that opensource=market domination, otherwise Linux would be the dominant PC OS.

But so far the opensource model for mobile OS is working extremely well. You can see this by the fact that there are now multiple Android phones on every major US carrier, from a wide spectrum of manufacturers. And there are new phones coming out monthly (e.g., the new HTC Evo is an Android device, will be carried on Sprint and will be the first 4G smartphone in the US...rumors are that it will release in May).

The learning curve is pretty low for developing an Android app. You don't really have a lot to lose by downloading the SDK and giving it a spin. As for monetization, it's already a viable alternative to the iPhone.

 

I plan on developing some games for the droid in the near future. I bought a droid specifically for game development

 

There are more reasons that Linux isn't the dominant OS than its source being available. When two OSes (or other kind of software) are in equal (or somewhat equal) terms, the opensource one will usually win. This is very clear in server space with Linux, Apache, PHP, Java, etc winning over Windows Server, IIS, ASP, .NET. But in desktop OSes, Linux doesn't only have to face Windows itself but also their legacy.

Windows is dominant not because its "better" (otherwise Mac OS X would be the dominant OS ;-), but because its simply an old OS and has the most programs.

In environments where legacy doesn't matter that much (such as mobiles), an opensource OS has a much better chance to become the dominant one (assuming of course the OS fits in that environment).