I don't think that's the best example - I think if any app would have been sure to sell on Android, it would be Angry Birds. My belief is that Rovio did that to experiment with different types of revenue for mobile games, because they could afford to.
I was never one to argue that apps don't sell on the Android Market; however, I do believe that it's a tough business decision for a startup to invest time and resources to a platform that has a sell-rate worse than a fixed las vegas digital slot machine.
I think it depends on the kind of startup. If your startup is trying to grow an audience around a service with a free app, Android is a good place to start, if you are dependent on sales of the app for revenue, I'd go with iOS.
I don't see the compelling reason to start with Android in the free-app-as-front-end-to-web-service case. Is it because Android phones (briefly) outsold iPhones? Last I heard, iOS still has something like a 60% lead in install base, and the latest data says iPhone sales are outpacing Android phone sales again.
iPhone sales don't outpace Android. Android has a 50% market share in new sales last quarter in US, and iPhones have I believe 28-29%. The news was that Android dropped from 53% to 50% when the Verizon iPhone was launched, not about iPhones outpacing Android in market share.
They tried to make a big deal out of it, trying to show that it could be a downward trend, but it's nonsense. Android sales keep growing worldwide, and I'm sure it will rise above 50% in US by the time iPhone 5 launches (and take a hit again for a few months, and then rise again).
That was my thinking initially. I went to Android to create the first fundraising app for my competitive fundraising platform because i figured after some research that it would be easier to get people to try it out.
The app was never intended to be paid so making a free app with the ability to use a proprietary in-app payment mechanism (PayPal) was what lead to a really easy decision (PayPals Android Developer Challenge was another nudge into the Android direction).
The next step will be a webapp to which i'll redirect the iPhone customers. I didn't start with it initially because from the little research i've done, "wizard of oz"-style, people didn't find iPhone webapps stable and trustworthy enough to Donate Money via them.
Are you sure it's a good idea to develop iPhone or Windows Phone apps either? On average, those don't sell either... and they can be deleted by the Overlords for no reason whatsoever.
Despite the extremely high risk, people do it anyway. I'm guessing the risk vs. reward is about the same with Android, but since there's no Kool-Aid to drink, there are more people wasting time on iOS apps. Just a guess, though.
(As an Android user, I do think it's strange to pay $15 for the home screen when the whole OS is free.)
> (As an Android user, I do think it's strange to pay $15 for the home screen when the whole OS is free.)
Why should the value of an application have anything to do with the price of the operating system that hosts it? Why not apply the same reasoning to the hardware you run it on?
Because the OS already includes a home screen. When CyanogenMod ships with a processor, I'll be upset about paying for that, too. I'm not holding my breath, however.
Writing a launcher takes work. I don't think it's ever strange to expect payment in return. Just because Google wrote a launcher at some point in the past doesn't mean that all future programmer's work in that area should be released for free.
I happen to think this particular launcher is a gimmick, but it's clear that they put work into it and that it's very different than what Google ships.
Right, but if you are looking for a different one it means that you need/want something different than what's provided and satisfying your need surely must have some value to you.
> 400 000+ approved apps
> And getting more then $2 billion paid.
Which is an average of:
2 000 000 000/400 000= $5000 per app since 2008. How is that a good source of revenue again? It's the same as Android, only a very small percentage make a descent living out of it. It may be a bit more for the iPhone (for paid apps only because android apps make more on ads on average) but it's still very unlikely you'll make enough money to survive.
Remove the free apps, the poorly designed apps, and the one-app-per-ebook spammy apps, and you're left with a much smaller number to divide the major portion of that revenue against.
There are a few advantages to writing apps for iPhone / Android, one lots of people are looking for consultants, when people hire consultants they want to see a portfolio, so you can increase your skills and possibly make some money building a portfolio while there is the chance of making money. It's much better than doing spec work.
So what you do is to write trivial apps, when you get consulting gigs you can say "30 apps in app store", and have a portfolio of apps that look good, also, you write apps around features so you teach yourself the feature, etc, GPS, Gyro, Camera, BUMP API,FB Connect, etc. This is also an important part, spend time making your app look good. Customers can't see code quality, but they do see graphics. To customers good graphics == good code quality.
Now if you have 30 apps and one happens to hit a niche you've got a great way to promote your other apps and don't have to do consulting BS anymore, and because you have lots of apps in the app store and lots of experience writing against the various features you can justify a much higher hourly because you'll be delivering their app faster.
I definitely agree with you that writing a single app to try and strike it rich in the app store is foolhardy, unless you already have people signed up to buy it.
Any more information on security/DRM/anti-piracy on Android apps? From what I hear, it seems to be a significant problem, even for apps with ridiculously low prices.
Unfortunately the main problem is that Android devices allow arbitrary packages to be installed. There will always be someone willing and able to crack and distribute any given app that relies solely on client-side security. Your best bet is to roll your own obscure anti-piracy and hope you get most of your sales in the first few days, or look at a solution based on IAP receipts.
The same problem exists on iOS, but jailbreaking is an extra inconvenience that only 10% or so of users will accept.
Also I doubt many users think twice about downloading a pirated app nowadays (and they should, due to the very real threat of trojans). It's been over a decade since "don't copy that floppy" was replaced by the music/film industry's crusade.
If you foster a positive community relationship, you don't get hurt as bad by it. I don't think its really worth the struggle. (See Swype for example, people would just like for them to take their money, I still don't know if you can buy it yet.)
well, in the android market apps tend to be on the cheaper side. You rarely see app for more than $5, so compared to the rest of the market, the price might seem high.
This tells it all. Looks like they were developing it for at least 1 year, I'm guessing they had something to the tune of 4-6 people (if not more) actually working on the development.
Still, if they keep up this revenue for a year, it could end up being some very nice returns. Will they really be selling ~$1m a month, or will it taper off soon?
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[ 1.6 ms ] story [ 26.4 ms ] threadThey tried to make a big deal out of it, trying to show that it could be a downward trend, but it's nonsense. Android sales keep growing worldwide, and I'm sure it will rise above 50% in US by the time iPhone 5 launches (and take a hit again for a few months, and then rise again).
Android has 38% install base vs 27% for iPhone.
The app was never intended to be paid so making a free app with the ability to use a proprietary in-app payment mechanism (PayPal) was what lead to a really easy decision (PayPals Android Developer Challenge was another nudge into the Android direction).
The next step will be a webapp to which i'll redirect the iPhone customers. I didn't start with it initially because from the little research i've done, "wizard of oz"-style, people didn't find iPhone webapps stable and trustworthy enough to Donate Money via them.
Despite the extremely high risk, people do it anyway. I'm guessing the risk vs. reward is about the same with Android, but since there's no Kool-Aid to drink, there are more people wasting time on iOS apps. Just a guess, though.
(As an Android user, I do think it's strange to pay $15 for the home screen when the whole OS is free.)
Why should the value of an application have anything to do with the price of the operating system that hosts it? Why not apply the same reasoning to the hardware you run it on?
I happen to think this particular launcher is a gimmick, but it's clear that they put work into it and that it's very different than what Google ships.
Right, but if you are looking for a different one it means that you need/want something different than what's provided and satisfying your need surely must have some value to you.
And it is not the same as Android by far.
Just saw this app in action on a friends Samsung Galaxy S II.. worth every cent!
So what you do is to write trivial apps, when you get consulting gigs you can say "30 apps in app store", and have a portfolio of apps that look good, also, you write apps around features so you teach yourself the feature, etc, GPS, Gyro, Camera, BUMP API,FB Connect, etc. This is also an important part, spend time making your app look good. Customers can't see code quality, but they do see graphics. To customers good graphics == good code quality.
Now if you have 30 apps and one happens to hit a niche you've got a great way to promote your other apps and don't have to do consulting BS anymore, and because you have lots of apps in the app store and lots of experience writing against the various features you can justify a much higher hourly because you'll be delivering their app faster.
I definitely agree with you that writing a single app to try and strike it rich in the app store is foolhardy, unless you already have people signed up to buy it.
The same problem exists on iOS, but jailbreaking is an extra inconvenience that only 10% or so of users will accept.
Also I doubt many users think twice about downloading a pirated app nowadays (and they should, due to the very real threat of trojans). It's been over a decade since "don't copy that floppy" was replaced by the music/film industry's crusade.
http://www.google.com/events/io/2011/sessions/evading-pirate...
Also I'm not so sure the DRM has much to do with the app's success. I found pirated versions easily.
Still, if they keep up this revenue for a year, it could end up being some very nice returns. Will they really be selling ~$1m a month, or will it taper off soon?