http://gigaom.com/2010/08/02/android-sales-overtake-iphone-in-the-u-s/ found it interesting maybe the beginning of a new era?
Seems kind of logical when not everybody is buying just an iphone. It's the whole Apple vs Microsoft again, if your OS runs on anything you'll have more hands on your OS in the long run. Too bad they all have so many screwy issues with their developer program and sales being limited to certain regions.
You make it sound like people have stopped buying iPhones. Selling Android apps is STILL limited to 9 countries people. Austria France Germany Italy Japan Netherlands Spain UK US That list hasn't changed in like a year (and that was to add Japan). WTF!
No Canada? In the world of iPhone, that list would probably account for about 95% of sales anyway. So the fact that there's only 9 contries, I wouldn't think is such a big issue; as they're all pretty big contries, with regards to sales.
Didn't he mean publishing by selling? Like with XBOX indie games? We don't have Live in Poland (yet) and I can't make indie game for it, because I won't be able to sell it.
It really isn't. The tools are worse, the fragmentation is worse, all those extra phone sales still haven't translated into actual software sales, plus I can't actually sell the port I have sitting here because I'm in an unsupported country and they're pretty good at detecting my attempts to get round that. (And don't hold your breath for other countries to be added - this is Google; if it's not search or ads, there's an even chance they'll just get bored and forget the whole thing.) iPhone is easier to develop and sell for. webOS is way cheaper and more developer friendly. Don't know about WP7, but if there's one thing Microsoft is good at, it's the whole "developers developers developers" thing so I'm looking forward to it. Android continues to be a pain, and the only argument I'm really seeing in its favour is that it's not Apple.
Oh you can publish, if you don't mind it being free. But like James said it's a big bag of not fun. Neither of us (Canada and New Zealand) are allowed to sell. Here's the annoying part: We have pretty much every noteworthy Android phone for sale up here, but can we sell? Heck no! Seriously... WTF.
You can't sell on the android market, but is it not possible to bypass the market and sell directly? (having the user download it or something)?
It is possible to sell apps without going through the market, provided the carrier hasn't turned off that option. The impression I get (and I admit I haven't tried it, so I'm no expert) is that most people don't realise they can go searching for apps outside of the market. You're also in the position of having the advertising overheads and lower volumes of direct sales while still being compared on price to the 99 cent stack-em-high sell-em-cheap market.
I think people are overlooking something... Android is on every carrier and has dozens of models. This summer, Apple released it's 4th model and it remains exclusive with AT&T in the US. It was only a matter of time before Android overtook iOS. I don't think this shocking at all.
All those stats and numbers are really nice but it doesn't change the fact that nobody is buying software on Android. An iPhone owner is 10 times more likely to buy a game than an Android owner (and I'm not an Apple fan boy or a true believer that one can get rich on the App Store, far from it...). Just to put things in perspective, Symbian just announced that they had their best quarter, selling more than 27 million devices, which makes it a 300 000 a day device activation. As a cross platform game developer covering Symbian, I can tell you that Symbian sales for games are just abysmal. So let's stop looking at all those announcements "I'm bigger than you" and one needs to concentrate on other stuff: availability of the stores, how easy it's to buy, ...
My frustration with Android is growing day by day, first there is missing APPS on the HTC phone, and then I can't really buy anything in Android market from my planet. The only reason I stick with Android is .... I don't know.. Maybe I like all the free stuffs (ad supported) in Android market.
I'm gonna have to disagree here, as an indie dev who is currently making a nice living almost exclusively on Android. In what way? Eclipse is a decent tool, and the Android SDK is very well done. The one area I find lacking compared to the iPhone SDK is memory profiling, but what's your beef with the Android development tools? You mean like fragmentation for the PC game market? Yes, you have to account for different firmware/hardware configurations, but the SDK does a nice job of binning configurations into 3 categories. And the breakneck pace of Android development and new devices with shinier specs is just the price you pay for rapid innovation. I'd rather be developing on a platform where new generations of firmware/hardware come out every 3 months than once a year. Depends on who you talk to. I'm doing quite well, thanks. I also met a nice sampling of other indie devs at Google I/O this year who were doing well too. You can't just look at sales, either. For a number of reasons, ad-based apps are a great option. Yes, the Android user base tends to buy fewer apps and there is more of a 'free' mentality. But that can be exploited by releasing ad-based apps. I know of some devs who monetize almost exclusively this way. It's also a good strategy to circumvent piracy and is immune to complaints about not being able to release paid apps from your particular country. I don't think they're anywhere close to getting bored with Android. It's in an explosive growth phase right now, and Eric Schmidt has repeatedly noted Google's focus on mobile as the next frontier. The thing is, Android *is* search and ads, just in a whole new market that Google is now effectively penetrating. Android isn't going away anytime soon. In addition to my points above, how about: 1) An iPhone dev account is $100/yr. Android is $25, once. 2) You can develop on any hardware with Android. For iPhone you need a Mac. 3) The approval process for iPhone apps is sometimes lengthy and often arbitrary. The approval process for Android is post hoc. When you hit Publish your app goes live. If it violates market terms, users and/or other devs report it and Google pulls the app. 4) You can develop a much wider range of apps due to less restrictive development guidelines. There are disadvantages as well, especially for higher-end game development that pushes the limitations of the hardware (but there are still clever folks that do some amazing work within those constraints). There are pros and cons with every platform. If you've had success on the iPhone and you're happy with it, that's great. But I think you're pretty drastically underestimating the current and future state of Android.
You only need UK and US from my experience. The other countries won't buy a damn thing in comparison.
Yes, but I'm a developer not in the US or the UK. That's the problem. It's annoying, because I can develop and sell for every other platform (mobile and console), except Android. To them I offer my W's, my T's, and all my F's. But no worries. Once they fix this, I'll can move all my complaining to the NDK+Java hacking we have to do, instead of writing straight native apps.