Market needs attention

[trick202]

I couldn't agree more with this article:

How Google's Failing the Android App Market

The market is awash with sub-standard dross. Open source should not be an excuse for mediocrity.
I have read countless reports about the purchasing habits (or lack thereof) of Android users Vs iPhone users, and disposable income differences etc - but I'm loathed to believe that stuff for the time being.

What does everyone else think?

Personally, If I was a dev with no axe to grind with regards to which platform I wrote for - I'd pick Apple every time.

So, as Hardcore Android users, what do you think about your marketplace? Do you think it needs Google to prune it a little? Some minimum standards? Some streamlining? Or, do you love it the way it is?

By the way, this is an Android/Google discussion - not an Apple/iPhone flaming session. Lets keep it on-topic please.

 

[Scooterman1]

I had 3 iPhones. I got 1 HTC EVO for 2 days, tried it, and went ahead and turned in all 3 iPhones in Sprint's Buyback plan. The price of the family plan is cheaper, and service is MUCH better than AT&T in the Houston area.
Now, for the Market. I know there are ways to Backup your purchased Apps onto the SD card with Apps like Backup Manager, or Linda File Manager.... then install them on my other 2 HTC's also.
This is where Apple is tearing up the Android Market. In iTunes, you can purchase the App once, have the other two iPhones set up for the same purchasing account, set up your Mail, and Sync separately.
In the Market, this is not possible. You can set the phones up for the same primary account (the first Google Account you set up) and you can set up your email separately on the phones. However, this messes with some other Apps, and you can't sync separate Calendars this way.
Android really needs to work on this.
On the iPhone, and in iTunes, one purchase is good for the families installations.
In Android Market, when you have to go to separate file transfers, and separate installations, and cannot update all three phones with Updated Apps through the phones Market, it's easier, and makes more sense, to go to a Pirate site, and download and transfer the files. Why should you pay for an App 2, or 3 times when in iTunes, you don't have to.
And when it counts on all phones, and you can update through iTunes, OR on the individual phones..... it makes good sense to purchase the App instead of stealing it. This way, people buy a LOT more Apps, and the DEV AND Google get a profit.
When is Google going to figure out why the iTunes App Store is so successful?

 

[ROBIN50N]

yep, devs should only be allowed to post 3 apps a month 5 if there a top rated dev. there should also be an option to avoid devs aswell for starters.

 

[photek1000]

I think open source or not, it does need some control, there are great Apps in the Market, but you tend to find those by recommendation, if I go browsing on there for Apps, I am usually disappointed by the selection of cr@p there and not being able to find the gem.

It would be nice to see some of the bigger developers in the iPhone App Store also look at porting to Android, and that is starting slowly, full App2Sd from Froyo may help some of the game developers want to try the Android arena, but the Market Place needs to be built right before they will consider it.

The lack of ability to sort by Rating or any other method is a real let down, as is the ability to search properly and fully from my PC.

That being said, I'm still happier I chose Android over iOS, although I think both OS's are excellent.

 

[trick202]

Brilliant posts guys.

Personally,while I like the idea behind 24hr refund, I'm sure it gets abused to hell.
Its also better to prune the crap rather than offer a refund. The market runs by the premise that its easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.

 

[trick202]

Brilliant posts guys.

Personally,while I like the idea behind 24hr refund, I'm sure it gets abused to hell.
Its also better to prune the crap rather than offer a refund. The market runs by the premise that its easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.

 

[IOWA]

No archiac app approval process like apple means I can get useful apps that will never hit the appstore. Like skyfire, dolphin, hndcent, and chomp, just to name a few.

Tapatalk. Samsung Moment. Yep.

 

[trick202]

Nice post. Missed the point by about a hundred miles. Open your eyes!
What's wrong with doing it bette than apple. Right now its just a joke.

BTW app store doesn't need handcent or chomp - they are facsimilies of the iphone messaging system. Duh.

 

[woofermazing]

Better apps will come if they can work on improving the payout for devs. Working on expanding the number of countries apps can be purchased in would be fine.

I'm not a fan of any kind of approval process, but removing apps based on complaints would be fine, especially if they are worthless to begin with. The appstore has a ton of junk too, you can never have enough fart machines apparently.

 

[IOWA]

Nice post. Missed the point by about a hundred miles. Open your eyes!
What's wrong with doing it bette than apple. Right now its just a joke.

BTW app store doesn't need handcent or chomp - they are facsimilies of the iphone messaging system. Duh.

Not quite. They may have iphone themes, but you can change them as well. "Duh". By not selectively choosing what apps do and don't make it into market on a whim, and not charging developers to submit apps to market, already has apple beat.

Now an ignore developer feature, would be nice.

Tapatalk. Samsung Moment. Yep.

 

[cred05]

yep, devs should only be allowed to post 3 apps a month 5 if there a top rated dev. there should also be an option to avoid devs aswell for starters.

I think this is a good idea.

 

[A.Nonymous]

Personally, If I was a dev with no axe to grind with regards to which platform I wrote for - I'd pick Apple every time.

I'm curious as to why? I thought of writing an iPhone app at one point just for fun. I was more curious than anything as to whether my coding skills were still up to par or not. I had planned on putting together something pretty simple like a calculator or something that I'd likely never even bother publishing. Anyway, just to submit an app was $100. I'm told there's up to a 6 month wait just to get approved as a developer as well.

On the surface, this kind of makes sense as you'd think people who want to make buggy, crappy or malicious apps aren't going to pay the $100 to submit an app. But Apple ads on by making you wait through an approval process to publish your app, then they can arbitrarily reject your app for any reason they choose. Like the guy who developed an app to let you sync with iTunes wirelessly. Apple supports wi-fi on their devices. iTunes is their software which they own. Yet they rejected this app because they didn't want the iPhone/iTouch to function this way.

I think open source or not, it does need some control, there are great Apps in the Market, but you tend to find those by recommendation, if I go browsing on there for Apps, I am usually disappointed by the selection of cr@p there and not being able to find the gem.

It would be nice to see some of the bigger developers in the iPhone App Store also look at porting to Android, and that is starting slowly, full App2Sd from Froyo may help some of the game developers want to try the Android arena, but the Market Place needs to be built right before they will consider it.

The lack of ability to sort by Rating or any other method is a real let down, as is the ability to search properly and fully from my PC.

That being said, I'm still happier I chose Android over iOS, although I think both OS's are excellent.

I totally agree with all of this. The fact that the marketplace can only be searched from the phone is a big limitation. I can browse the app store from my iTouch, but never do.

The computer lets me search much more robustly than the phone does, I can view comments easier, etc.... Plus I can download the app directly to my computer, then sync it to my iTouch at my convenience.

Better apps will come if they can work on improving the payout for devs. Working on expanding the number of countries apps can be purchased in would be fine.

I'm not a fan of any kind of approval process, but removing apps based on complaints would be fine, especially if they are worthless to begin with. The appstore has a ton of junk too, you can never have enough fart machines apparently.

I looked to see what payouts were for devs on Apple vs Android. I couldn't find hard numbers for either. I found some that said Apple paid out 70% to devs, but that seemed pretty high to me. I found some that claimed Android paid out 70% as well and others who said Android only paid out 30%.

No approval process is nice. A removal process would be fine as long as it's spelled out that XYZ = bad app. If I write an app that's a good app, but a rival developer gives me bad review after bad review I would hate to see my app yanked.

 

[woofermazing]

I was mostly referring to the linked article, which said Apple has paid out 50 times more cash. Some of that could be due to the difference in maturity though. Android pays out 70%, the same as Apple.

 

[ari-free]

I'm all for an app removal process as long as it is backed by the market community and not because the app competes with google. It should be a distributed approach and that would work better in the long run than a centralized one once we're dealing with hundreds of thousands of apps.

btw this has nothing to do with open source. Windows is closed source and you can have any app you want for it.

 

[IOWA]

Have any of you tried app brain.... open source at its finest.

Tapatalk. Samsung Moment. Yep.

 

[Pryomancer]

Of course you'd pick Apple if you had no reservations about which platform you prefer.

200,000* apps and more market share = more potential customers and more money

40,000+ apps at the last count and less market share = less money

*technically has 200k apps, how many are actually useful? Excactly. The number of genuinely good apps is probably about the same on each, Apple has lots of spammy crap, Android doesn't have the numbers to match it, but it has better apps and more devs are going to Android from iOS.

 

[chrisinsocalif]

Of course you'd pick Apple if you had no reservations about which platform you prefer.

200,000* apps and more market share = more potential customers and more money

40,000+ apps at the last count and less market share = less money

*technically has 200k apps, how many are actually useful? Excactly. The number of genuinely good apps is probably about the same on each, Apple has lots of spammy crap, Android doesn't have the numbers to match it, but it has better apps and more devs are going to Android from iOS.

To play a devils advocate:
Why not choose the Android platform? Write a good application for the less populated Android platform which can give you big market potential since there are many untapped growing Android users.
Apple is flooded and there is more competition between Dev's which may result in lower unit sales.
In the US there are 8.7 million Android users with 40k aps, where Apple has 10.7 with 200k worth of apps. There is a 2 million person gap, but with but android has roughly 1/4 the number of apps.
Worldwide its a little different with iPhone users being almost 3 times more than android but there is still market potential with Android and less restrictions. Just my two cents.