Average paid Android apps are 2.5 times more expensive than iPhone apps - Page 2

Maybe not, you threw out 70% and were pretty darn close.

I agree that this does not even qualify as an analysis. A direct comparison of identical apps is the only thing that would make sense, and in that case the only thing that matters would be the number of sales on each platform for identical apps.

Is it?

http://thegamebakers.com/money-and-t...developer.html

There are a number of other articles out there as well.

If you assume that the costs involved in making your app (the cost of your Mac, your time, your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch etc) is zero, you might be happy with selling 1 or 2 copies of your app, but in reality those things are not free, they cost a lot of money and they take a lot of sales to make up, hence a lot of developers don't make any money from the app store. (the same can be said for a lot of industries, or app stores for other platforms).

I'm sorry, but just because you have a good app doesn't mean you're going to set the world on fire and make more cash than a rap star. The app store is huge and developers are going to need to take marketing seriously. Want to know a developer making money from iOS? Google. It makes more from it than Android.

From my understanding, developers get nothing for the free app download and Amazon can change the offering prices of their apps at will.

Yes, of course I agree that developing an app takes time and money, some more than others. However, I do believe that it is the developer's responsibility to know all of the facts surrounding how their business works.

As you stated at the end of your comment, that's how things are in a lot of industries.

For every iPad, there's going to be plenty of Xooms and TouchPads that fail miserably. It's only natural that the same applies to apps also. Not everybody can be a winner. And yes, some developers may not get rich from the Appstore. That's life.

I suggest that they write better apps, or come up with something truly amazing and original if they wish to have a shot at making some money. Nobody's forcing anybody to make any apps, it's their choice. Those people who do not succeed should find a new line of work.

Lucky Steve Jobs didn't have he same, absurd mentality that you have. He failed many many times but never considered "finding a new line of work". He pushed on, didn't quit and built the most successful company on Earth. Nobody bangs out a winner on the first try, takes allot of error. Of course simply quitting is always an option.

And there's a difference between a Steve Jobs and somebody releasing a weather app on the appstore, when there's already 178 of them. I just made that 178 figure up, but you get the point I'm sure.

Those people who are truly talented should stick to their plans and the bozos should know when to quit. It is survival of the fittest and business is not a walk in the park. Only the strongest survive.

Again, wrong. Steve was just a bozo working in his garage like so many back then. If people could predict the future as you suggest it would be easy but since they can not, they don't know they are talented until they have success and you can not have success without failure and being a bozo in their garage.

Yea...like releasing an MP3 player in a market full of MP3 players...or a smartphone when WinMo and Blackberry already have the market cornered...or a tablet when obviously the others that exist didn't do so well...

or as far as apps go...a photo sharing service (instagram) when others aren't doing so great

or a fling based physics game when there are oh so many out there...

etc.

One thing Steve Jobs proved is that you don't have to be first in a particular field to be successful, nor do you have to be immediately successful...you have to get up and try again...and be unique...and better.

All your examples prove that Apple was unique when they entered the market.

Well, I disagree. Objective people know if they're talented or not. And success does not have to equal talent.

If a 15 year old kid makes a game with graphics that rivals Infinity Blade 2, then that kid would qualify as talented.

It's just like the music business. There are a few good artists out there, but there's also so much damn crap.

And as I said, I don't feel sorry for any App developer who releases nothing but unoriginal garbage

Indeed it does.

If Apple released an MP3 player that was just like every other player out there, it would've sucked.

If Apple released an iPhone that looked and operated like every other phone out there at the time, it would've went nowhere.

If Apple released an iPad that was just like all of the other tablets that came before it, 7 people would have bought it.

Based on this post I will guess your age between 18 and 21 and have not really experienced life. If someone "knows" they are talented then 9 x out of 10 they are not and are a legend in their own minds. True, success does not equate talent but true talent will prove successful. A person doesn't just wake up talented one day and know they will be successful, if they could life would be so easy.

Hind site is 20/20. These observations are easy to make now. When Apple released these products, they had no idea how things would turn out but they did it anyway, they didn't let past failures stop them and quit as you suggest people should do because they should know what he future holds.

Nope, I disagree again.

Apple knew that they had something truly amazing. They didn't know for sure how successful each would product be, as nobody can predict the future and sometimes good products or ideas do not always succeed, but they surely knew that what they had was killer stuff.

I am estonished by what some people write and believe. If Apple knew so much, what happened with all the things that didn't do so well? Why didn't they know about those products? Or did they just choose to produce them anyway? I take back the 18-21 age guess. I'm thinking 15-17 at best which explains this.

So because some things weren't the hit they wanted it makes the rest of their accomplishments dumb luck? Bullshit.

And there is no hindsight is 20/20 crap. Looking back just proves what people said needed to be done before Apple released their products just as now people are saying that Apple slapping an AppleTV inside a TV and declaring that the future will be a failure. Apple needed to redefine how we interest with the programming for it to be a success. Of course, until they successful show that quarter after quarter I we can't bloody well prove it.

Even I knew that it was going to be wildly successful. I'm pretty sure that Apple and Steve Jobs knew that too.

There are those who are clueless and then there are those who are smart. The first time that I saw the iPad, I instantly knew that it was going to be huge, as in extremely huge.

There were also those who instantly declared it a flop. Those people are clueless losers and they do not possess the skills to succeed, as their judgement is horrible.

And before you go lowering my age anymore when you write your next post, might I remind you that you spell like a 13 year old?

You just don't get it. If your expectations were right 100% of the time, you wouldn't be posting on this site because you would be too busy making money hand over fist either in the stock market or through miraculous inventions. In reality, you have strong opinions on things, and sometimes a lot of other people make the same assessment as you, making you feel "right" through a massive alignment of opinions (e.g. you love the iPad and so do a lot of other people so it becomes successful and you feel validated). In other cases, your opinions are equally strong, but those opinions differ from the opinions of most other people. These are cases where you don't feel predictive success, and you blame the difference in opinion on the ignorance of those who disagree with you rather than on your own failure to identify the likely potential outcome (e.g. you love AppleTV and think it will be a success but most people find it useless and therefore must not have the capacity to understand the ingenuity of the product).

What you're demonstrating is a classic case of confirmation bias and a heaping load of arrogance.

*Note: my speculations on your opinion of the iPad and AppleTV are not meant to be taken as fact but merely as a vehicle to make a point.

Nobody is 100% right all of the time, and I've certainly never claimed that I am always right, though I am more often right than not, and that's good enough in my book. It sure beats the pathetic track record of certain people who predict doom and failure for Apple every time that they launch something new.

And I am not an inventor, so I don't have any plans to invent anything. As for the stock market, I have recently decided to enter it, and we shall see how that goes. I would be very happy with somewhere around a 50% return on my initial investment after 12 months and I believe that I possess the skills required, as I consider myself to be a highly skilled poker player with a decent understanding of human psychology and herd mentality.

They make a whole lot more than they do on Android and nearly infinitely more than they did before the App store. The App store has ot caused any mobile developers to make less money. Perhaps some publishers like handgo, it not the actual developers.

Well I am 40 and can assure you that most truly talented people recognize their own talent. It is silly and absurd to believe otherwise. Your argument is pointless. Sure most people who think they are talented probably aren't, but everyone who is talented "knows" they are. You don't think Michael Jordan or Michael Phelps know they have talent? I have heard them both say they have talent.

It really is silly. Don't these age remarks count as personal attacks. They are certainly intended as insults. Probably best to ignore him.


Of course I won't. Is there any statement you won't try to twist around? You realize you have looked more and more foolish with every statement. It is like you are screaming "I am not smarter than a 5th grader." If the people you are debating are all children, why are all of your responses logical fallacies and ad hominem attacks?

And just now the morning news show on the local CBS affiliate station referred to this "analysis" but without reference to how it was done (top 100 apps, etc). They simply said, unequivocally, that Android apps cost twice as much as iPhone apps, inferring that this was on an individual app basis.

I recently visit the Android Market homepage and those prices are pretty steep. I've never own a Android device, but if I was a Android owner I would definitely minimize my spending on the Android Market.

However, the Android Market is growing quite nicely and that's a good sign for the Android users.

Agreed, over time, through hard work their talent came to light, they didn't just wake up one day and say "I have talent", just like people don't wake up one day and say "I have no talent". It is a process, not an enlightenment.

Weird, because as an app dev for both platforms I made my Android app cheaper than the iPhone app. And for the very same reasons, but my thinking is, if Android users could possibly get my app else where for free, making it cheap makes it more likely they might pay for it, while with Apple, they have to jailbreak and hope they can pirate it or they just pay for it. So if I have a better chance of a sell with Apple, hike the price up.

Win for me.

Not sure who looks more foolish? Someone that maintains the same point of view regardless of the popular opinion or someone who posts about ad hominem attacks and then goes on to post ad hominem attacks? Hypocrisy at its finest.

This study is silly. The don't study like for like. They don't take into account the differences in the ecosystems. For example, look at popular apps like Tasker (CA$ 5.99) or Beautiful Widgets (CA$ 2.60). The former has been downloaded between 100 000 - 500 000 times. The latter has been downloaded between 1 million - 5 million times. BW could never exist on iOS. I am skeptical that an app like Tasker would be allowed. They are clearly popular and expensive (by paid app standards). And clearly they are in demand. Look at apps like Swiftkey, Camera Zoom FX, ADWlauncher, AirSync by Doubletwist, etc. All popular apps. All costing several dollars. And most would never be allowed on iOS. And this study will hold it against Android that these apps are successful at selling their wares for more than a dollar.

What kind of double standard is this? When the apps are cheaper, it's apparently because Android users are cheaper. And when popular apps sell at higher prices, there's something wrong with Android because it's too expensive?

The study also completely misses the issue of supply and demand in each ecosystem and market saturation. Android has fewer paid apps. And gaming has only recently taken off. Given that there's less competition, this means that developers with popular apps can get away with charging more. Meanwhile, $0.99 is becoming the de facto ceiling on iOS. And given the volume of apps, you're pretty much dead unless you get featured. The situation is admittedly not great for Android users who want those apps. But till there's more competition in the Android ecosystem, this is a great situation for developers. They have less competition and more market flexibility. And perhaps even a bigger pool to play in this year if Android does surpass the iOS installed base in 2012.

Good post Jetz. Nice to see that some people are still capable of independent critical thinking.

Thanks. So many people here accuse me of being a troll if I take a contrarian viewpoint based on the personal experience of using Android and Apple devices.

I own several Apple items and only one Android device. Unfortunately, for some that's just not towing the party line enough.

If you look at the price of an iPhone the price looks pretty steep.

What is your point? You pay what you believe something is worth, if you think it is too expensive don't buy it

How many of those downloads occurred when those apps where sold for $0.10 during the Android promotion?

I am sorry too that both of you seem to be replying to ghosts and not me. Wo talked about rap star money? We are talking about people not being able to put food n the table. And who said anything about google? Both apple and google are talking advantage of the average app store joe or Jane developer. They should both be selectively subsidising devs if you ask me... Oh yeah but it's about free market economies... The market is not so free though when you have e Chinese militia counteracting revolts so you can make your products in china for peanuts as mega corporations as apple do...

@Wovel. I never drew comparisons with android, as for before the app store, well there was no real touch tablet market mature enough was there? In any case don't take the discussion where you want, the app store has been a very good strategy but nowhere close the huge success and money making story for devs like apple would like us to think, at the end of the day, the vast majority of devs barely go by from the app store and they put a lot of work and creative effort and actually make the product the best seller that it is. While apple touts a reminders app (wow the amount of development that went into it) but they haven't gotten around to releasing a decent in house maps app despite the millions they ve throughn behind start apps, the average dev. Who s still making only a decent living at best, is helping them sell tons of iPads and iPhones... Just saying so we put things into perspective because the idolatrous attitude here towards apple esp. By a few gung ho posters has started to get on my nerves.

That....was my point...

I may be an outlier having both iPhone 4, a LG Optimus 2X and Motorola Xoom 3G (all purchased outright). I wont call myself an expert but i do read blogs. developers forums and try to apply the findings onto my devices or helping out a friend or a colleague. Here are my experiences and thoughts:


iOS/Apple Devices:


* I hate iOS cause i have very little option to modify it before going thru the painful JB process.
* I hate iOS for not letting me utilize my screen.
* I love the smoothness and consistent design on iOS
* Games are fun in iOS (i didnt say graphics, thts a whole diff story)
* I tend to purchase apps and games if I like them.
* i was about to purchase an iPAD but then finding out i need to purchase the same app for iPAD separately stopped me from doing it.
* I hate it how i hate to convert every little video file into iPhone optimized format.
* I hate depending on iTunes
* I love the sound quality of iPhone 4
* Most of my friends or colleagues found iPhone complicated (i guess thts because they came from a non smartphone background )


Android Devices:

* I love Android cause i can change most settings, even silly little tweaks. (now most ios users think its just the themes, but its not, i can change from cpu frequencies to which storage i want to use by default, then i can chagne which shell i want to use rather than the stock shell in android term the Launcher or even the keyboard)

* I can change my battery, in fact Optimus 2X came with a 1500mAh battery now it has a 2450mAh battery (for iphone 4 i had to purchase mophie), + additional 32GB micro SD.

* I love the idea tht my handset maker doesnt have tight control over my phone (i loved the LG supplied ROM but i love my CyanogenMod7 ROM more)

* I love it when i dont have to rely on iTunes thts on my laptop but i can plug my device anywhere, mount the sd card and load contents onto the device.

Now lets come to the applications part, for which the article is about and forced me to create an account here...

i think i have purchased over $200 softs from each store. while most apps from App Store are games, others being GPS softs, QuickOffice and such.

but from Android Market the apps i purchased are mostly utility software, for example ROM Manager (5.99), Titanium backup (6.03), ADW Launcher EX ($3.10). Tasker (6.34), MX Video Player (5.34) and such. Most games on my android devices are free. Angry Birds, Dragon Fly, Fruit Ninja, Super KO Boxing, Tiki Cart 3D, Zombie Dash and such. I did but some games from Android market just to see if my devices are good enough or not. Some Great apps are free or free to try.

I am not here to argue that games/apps comes first in iOS platforms first or whether they make more money thn android market or not. Android users choose different sort of apps than iOS users. Developers can certainly improve sales if they reduces the price of games and apps in any environment regardless of the platform. About fragmentation issues, I use 3 different android devices, OS 2.2, 3.2.1 and 2.3.7, and i can install the same app everywhere. Do i care about the fragmentation issue as an end user? NO. but i am sure the developers are doing a great job in developing those apps. And before iFans say anything i have the first gen iPod Touch and 2ng Gen iPod touch (1 for my wife and another one is for me ), can i install all the apps tht i can install in my iphone 4 on those devices? why dont you try it out.

Before one fanbase insult the other, please have the courtesy to use wht the others are using. If you cant, dont start calling one another poor or ignorant. Before i challanged my friends, i did buy a macbook to see how the experiences differ.

And i hate these one sided journalism these days. They are becoming so obvious like the politicians.

My findings are simple. while iOS users like simplicity android users love to play around with their devices. why not the haters check both the store for top100 paid app list and see wht type of apps are there and why there is this price difference?

And pls pls grammer and spelling nazis stay away from my post. its not meant for you. Its for techies. and my first language is not English.. So Stay Away

Theming and piracy. That's really why jailbreaking exists anymore.


What does this mean? Could you elaborate?


TimCookOhBoyHereWeGo.png (note to our long-time readers, that's not my naming convention for my actual images)


You found out wrong. You don't have to do that at all! iPhone/iPod touch applications work just fine on an iPad, and there are thousands of applications designed for both natively.


You don't have to do this, either.


A little jab here: yes, because you HAVE to do this to get through a day.


You'd rather the telecoms, then?


Not sure why you'd even bring this up when Android devices are notorious for not being allowed to ever officially upgrade from the software on which they were shipped while iOS devices get three years' worth of updates. Yes, the user can create his own software made from newer builds of Android, but for 95% of people, that's just not what they want to do with their phones.


Indeed, and you've made some great points here on both sides. A great first post, if there ever was one.


And your English is perfectly acceptable; don't worry about that. Heck, your English is better than that of many people who profess to be able to write it natively!

Are you trolling or are you serious? All of those apps were well known and sold in the hundreds of thousands or millions (like Beautiful Widgets) well before the Holiday Promo (which happened weeks before anybody got an Android device as a Christmas gift). And some, like Tasker, were never included in the sale. In reality, most of the apps featured during the sale were really popular, which meant, most people (excepting new users) already had them. I seriously doubt that sale really impacted their bottom line. Maybe for a few of the small game app developers who got featured....

Errr, if you can't see the connection between having a solid business/marketing plan and "putting food on the table" then you should exit the conversation now. Throwing an app up in either platforms' markets is no guarantee of earning a living and that's neither company's fault. And I brought up Google because you had stated that developers weren't making money and that is clearly not true as Google is certainly making money on ios along with many others. It's almost like you feel that people are simply entitled to success and if it doesn't happen it's automatically someone else's fault.