Android Market Needs Gift Cards

[JarrettV]

I think iTunes gift cards are a huge reason paid apps are more successful for the iPhone. The gift cards also expand the access to the market and give free exposure to Apple.

What do you think?

 

[necosino]

I think this would be a great idea, especially as the market grows and more expensive apps are introduced.

 

[jev]

Won't work. The Android market consists of applications, not music. How many people spent more than, say, $10 on applications and how many spent more than $10 on music?

 

[nomarsgirl]

iTunes gift cards are great gifts for kids since they don't have credit/debit cards and no parent with any sense is going to link their own credit card to the child's iTunes account.

I don't see a need for it in the Android Market. There aren't a lot of paid apps out there for Android that a child would need. And they can't get their music there. My daughter never uses her iPod anymore since she got her Droid Eris. But she still will download music from iTunes and load it on her phone.

 

[cabbie]

What if an android gift card is also usable to buy music through amazon as long as you use the app? or any store thats on the market? theres a ton now that have monthly fees, particularly the music streaming ones.

 

[julianmarble]

I strongly agree that iTunes gift cards was great choice. iTunes gift cards are available in multiple colors and themes. That was great idea.

 

[cabbie]

i definitely think people would use the gift card for buying games and other apps. but remember that android is not a fully 'mature' OS until gingerbread later this year with its major UI overhaul and other goodies like google music streaming and that sort of thing, so i wont be surprised if we see gift cards enter the picture for the holiday shopping season

 

[SoFLO]

Android Market gift cards would be awesome. I would love to see some type of Google gift card when Google Music rolls out later this year. Hopefully those credits would be able to be used for applications as well.

 

[Roze]

I think Google needs to OPEN the Paid Market to ALL countries FIRST. Considering only 13 countries out of how many countries in the world with Android phones cannot buy apps on the market; an Android Gift card would be useless to those people, no?

 

[SoFLO]

It would be useless for those people but useful for me

 

[Alyssalu6]

I think it would be a great idea cuz I don't have a credit card of my own and I've been looking for it and I thing it should have been drawn a long time ago.

 

[Tre Lawrence]

You could, in theory, use a Visa, MC or Amex-branded gift card.

 

[admile3]

You could, in theory, use a Visa, MC or Amex-branded gift card.

Yes, you could... But at the same time, you could use Visa, MC, or Amex-branded gift cards in places other than the Android Market as well..

What gift cards like these do, is confine people to purchase from a certain place. Visa and MC gift cards, you can use most anywhere. An Android gift card can only be used for the Android Market.

Personally, I think an Android Gift Card would be a GREAT idea. 1) It would pump more revenue into the market, driving developers to create better/higher quality applications that are more worth people's money. 2) It would give developing companies and studios who have already created successful apps on other platforms more reason to invest time/manpower into creating more of the apps that everyone is missing/wanting on Android. 3) It would be much more beneficial to those creating apps, which is really what will help the market and the OS grow. Apps play such a pivotal role in the success and longevity of a mobile OS. The less money that continues to be spent in the Market, the less innovation, the less quality, the less diversity there will be; the more crap themes, the more crap "sexy pics" apps, the more pointless games we will see flooding the market.

Several people think that gift cards are only good for those who are too young to have a credit card to purchase apps. That's not the case. Sure, spending $20 cash for a $20 gift card to purchase apps would be used by those unable to use a credit card is very popular over on Apple. But a HUGE number of cards are also sold as gifts, or are given as incentives to purchase things.

If Google took the initiative, showed they were serious in supporting the developers, a gift card would be the perfect thing. According to some numbers, there are 300,000 Android activations occuring EACH DAY. If Google even did something like "On this certain phone, you will receive a $10 Android gift card after your purchase", that would be a HUGE amount of revenue that would be sure to hit the market in many different ways. All for the benefit of the community.

I really hope Google has this on their roadmap somewhere. Sooner than later, please.

 

[Pholds]

For everyone on here that has wanted a gift card to purchase Android apps with, there's finally one available: It's called Mobiroo - they're doing app gift cards for Blackberry and Android - and they're launching in Target and Radio shack in late October in the States, as well as Canada and Europe. You can check out their website here: mobiroo.com

Disclosure: (mobiroo is a client of the PR company I work for, but if there's anywhere that's appropriate to let people know about their product it's definitely here.)

 

[coinslab]

Why don't you just get an amazon gift card and shop over the amazon droid app market. It says right on them "Give MP3 music, movies and TV shows, Kindle books, or games and apps for Android with an Amazon Digital Entertainment Gift Card, redeemable toward millions of items storewide at Amazon.com."

 

[rui-no-onna]

Why don't you just get an amazon gift card and shop over the amazon droid app market. It says right on them "Give MP3 music, movies and TV shows, Kindle books, or games and apps for Android with an Amazon Digital Entertainment Gift Card, redeemable toward millions of items storewide at Amazon.com."

Choice. There are a lot more apps available on the Android Market than on the Amazon Appstore. App updates are also another thing to opt for the Android Market. There are apps in the Amazon Appstore that are very slow to update to the latest version.

 

[tsandroid]

Here's the google group for it (shortened using bit.ly): Google Groups

 

[KyleHH]

I think iTunes gift cards are a huge reason paid apps are more successful for the iPhone. The gift cards also expand the access to the market and give free exposure to Apple.

I couldn't agree more. Other main reasons are: Apple has a bigger market share with smartphones and most apps are developed for the iphone first.

 

[sohguanh]

Such statements really depend on what is the date you take the statistics. I would agree if you are back in year 2006-7. Now it is year 2013 is it still valid? Or for this thread posting you are talking about the app store gift card specifically?

I couldn't agree more. Other main reasons are: Apple has a bigger market share with smartphones and most apps are developed for the iphone first.