Android Development: The App Makers Still Cannot Make Money
Great article:
http://www.ismashphone.com/2010/10/a...ll-suffer.html
Quote:
a quote by developer Steve Demeter, who created Trism for the iPhone, "Do I want to be spending 6 months to write the game, and another 6 months making if compatible? If I had Trism available for Android, and there are 50 Android devices and every time one of them crashes (the users) contact me, do I want that?"
a quote by developer Steve Demeter, who created Trism for the iPhone, "Do I want to be spending 6 months to write the game, and another 6 months making if compatible? If I had Trism available for Android, and there are 50 Android devices and every time one of them crashes (the users) contact me, do I want that?"
http://www.ismashphone.com/2010/10/a...ll-suffer.html
Comments
Clearly is easier for a developer to make apps for a phone like the iphone where he/she knows that if the game works correctly in his developing and testing phone it will work the same way in other phones.
I usually have to deal with compatibility problems because i am also a developer and trying to make an application that works in windows, MAC and sometimes linux is just crazy.
Look how many desktop versions of an OS there are and how many kernel extensions, peripherals etc you get to change the system configuration. It doesn't put people off developing for those. So long as the frameworks you use remain the same between them, there's no problem.
When people who don't develop for Android complain about fragmentation and people who do develop for Android say it's not a problem, what does that tell you?
Look how many desktop versions of an OS there are and how many kernel extensions, peripherals etc you get to change the system configuration. It doesn't put people off developing for those. So long as the frameworks you use remain the same between them, there's no problem.
There ARE a lot of Android developers complaining about fragmentation AND other issues like payments, purchase choices, the fact that paid Apps for Android Are Only Available in 32 countries, etc.
App Developers Not Happy With Android
http://gigaom.com/2009/11/29/android...ers-not-happy/
Who & What?s to Blame for Developer Woes
Android developer on Slashdot detailing the Android "fragmentation"
http://apps.ycombinator.com/item?id=1397941
"Android Tools Are Horrendous, OS Is Hideous," FB iPhone Dev Joe Hewitt Tweets
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1633708
When people who don't develop for Android complain about fragmentation and people who do develop for Android say it's not a problem, what does that tell you?
Look how many desktop versions of an OS there are and how many kernel extensions, peripherals etc you get to change the system configuration. It doesn't put people off developing for those. So long as the frameworks you use remain the same between them, there's no problem.
I don't think desktop OS variants are a reasonable point of comparison. Touch handset hardware/software integration is far more critical to the user experience than changing up peripherals or adding extensions to Windows or OS X.
I also wonder if "developers complaining" is even a very good metric of the problem. At the moment Android is enjoying a very steep growth curve, I would argue largely fueled by a general transition to smart phones by average buyers looking to upgrade their old feature or dumb phones. These are users with no prior experience with a smart phone of any description, and as such probably aren't very alert to compatibility problems. They regard any such as inevitable or just how these phones are.
So for the time being Android devs can be pretty casual about fragmentation without paying much of a penalty, as along as most of their stuff works most of the time, more or less (and it certainly doesn't hurt that most Android apps are free).
However, as more people get used to having smart phones this may be an issues for the overall Android market at some point. I don't think most people would be OK with Windows apps that behave erratically or not at all, and if it happened frequently enough it would have a bearing on how they felt about the platform. Critically, for the "this is Windows all over again" crowd, there isn't the hardware price differential to keep people using a less performative platform, if the options are clear and readily available.
There ARE a lot of Android developers complaining about fragmentation AND other issues like payments, purchase choices, the fact that paid Apps for Android Are Only Available in 32 countries, etc.
App Developers Not Happy With Android
http://gigaom.com/2009/11/29/android...ers-not-happy/
Survey of 30 developers. Add the two at the end of your post = 32 developers. I wouldn't call that lots. Android has 100,000 apps so the best information you have to go with these stats is that 0.032% of developers have some sort of issues developing for Android. I'm sure you could find 32 developers with similar issues developing for iOS.
The App Store marketplace is difficult to find apps too and the last item could be said about anything.
If developing for Android is such a pain, developers will stop building apps and we won't see much more than 100k apps. Time will reveal all.
Survey of 30 developers. Add the two at the end of your post = 32 developers. I wouldn't call that lots. Android has 100,000 apps so the best information you have to go with these stats is that 0.032% of developers have some sort of issues developing for Android. I'm sure you could find 32 developers with similar issues developing for iOS.
No need to project some sort of a "fair and balanced" stance on this issue.
Fact #1: there are LOTS of people complaining about this issue.
Fact #2: 99.999999999% of Android app developers are not making money.
-App market is crap
-Payments suck
-Piracy/app cracking
-Google=free mindset. android users ARE NOT Buying apps.
-Google does not care.
dozens of people complaining about android fragmentation and other issues.
http://apps.ycombinator.com/item?id=1397941
Read 500+ comments, mostly negative comments about Android (fragmentation, etc.)
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl...4&cid=32426078
575+ comments, mostly negative comments about Android fragmentation, crappy OS/device/marketplace, etc.
http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/...the_so_called/
People not happy about the Android marketplace. App cracking, piracy, multiple app stores.
http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/28/and...-on-the-fritz/
Yep. I used to work as a J2ME porter; this sounds exactly like what the author is describing. Hundreds of phones, each one with a different screen size, each one with radically different performance and memory, each one with a different bug somewhere in the framework. For most of these problems, the only way to make your app work across the majority of devices is to buy each and every one of them.
You are completely right that Google's control over the platform could curb this. They could enforce it easily by restricting the Android trademark and marketplace. They could have enforced hardware acceleration and minimum memory requirements per resolution (and not just for games, but to make a snappy UI that competes with the iPhone.) Unfortunately they just don't care. The more this goes on, the more I think they aren't really smartphones at all; they are just the new shitty feature-phones to replace J2ME.
I am not looking forward to doing Android development. They still don't allow Canadian merchants for undisclosed reasons so my decision is kind of made for me right now; maybe they should keep it this way.
here's one comment from an Android developer from one of the links i posted.
The sentence "I am not looking forward to doing Android development" suggests he's one of the many non-Android developers fearful of how bad the situation is but is only going by how it's portrayed.
The fact that apps even work across vastly different screen sizes is an improvement over iOS, which just pixel-doubles iPhone apps on the iPad and blocks iPad apps from the iPhone. There are just 10,000 iPad apps and although it runs iPhone apps, like I say they are pixel-doubled.
If you buy an Android app, at least it's designed to buy once and work on anything. Even if it doesn't work right every time, at least they let you do it.
The sentence "I am not looking forward to doing Android development" suggests he's one of the many non-Android developers fearful of how bad the situation is but is only going by how it's portrayed.
The fact that apps even work across vastly different screen sizes is an improvement over iOS, which just pixel-doubles iPhone apps on the iPad and blocks iPad apps from the iPhone. There are just 10,000 iPad apps and although it runs iPhone apps, like I say they are pixel-doubled.
If you buy an Android app, at least it's designed to buy once and work on anything. Even if it doesn't work right every time, at least they let you do it.
ROFL ok now i know you're just trolling
I usually have to deal with compatibility problems because i am also a developer and trying to make an application that works in windows, MAC and sometimes linux is just crazy.
design patterns will help in the porting effort.
ROFL ok now i know you're just trolling
Ok so they have the same stance as Apple for cross-device apps:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology...ility-question
If anything, this is where their fragmentation is going to become an issue because the tablets won't sell in nearly as large a volume from individual manufacturers so they will get far less software support.
Ok so they have the same stance as Apple for cross-device apps:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology...ility-question
If anything, this is where their fragmentation is going to become an issue because the tablets won't sell in nearly as large a volume from individual manufacturers so they will get far less software support.
Android tablets are not going to be able to run Android (phone) apps? WOW.
Android tablets are not going to be able to run Android (phone) apps? WOW.
It's not that far fetched, after all we do run desktop systems that scale from 1024 x 768 to 2560 x 1440 and beyond and apps don't have to be specifically compiled for both. There's no real reason why they can't use a scalable UI, even if it means bundling a couple of UI files in each app.
And being linux based, I would think Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) would be trivial. The libraries necessary were written over a decade ago.
I usually have to deal with compatibility problems because i am also a developer and trying to make an application that works in windows, MAC and sometimes linux is just crazy.
I can imagine that would be one heck of a task. I'm amazed by developers of software like Firefox, Chrome, VLC, Transmission, MPlayer, Open Office, AbiWord, Maya, etc, at how well their teams handle the various platforms, toolkits, libraries etc. But Android is one toolkit, and one OS, so I'm not sure where the comparison is going(?).
ROFL ok now i know you're just trolling
Yes, the global forum moderator, who has been here at least 3 years longer than you, is a troll.
Yes, the global forum moderator, who has been here at least 3 years longer than you, is a troll.
I think it's because I occasionally try to discount some his many negative threads and posts about Android/Google:
Android Development: The App Makers Still Cannot Make Money
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=114183
NYTimes: SECURITY ALERT: Android App Forwards Private Text Messages
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=114219
DEVELOPERS BEHOLD!!! .....the OPEN Android Architecture.
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=113950
Google in Big trouble in China
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=114056
"Google's revenue from Android = ZERO"
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showp...8&postcount=22
Signature: ANDROID SECURITY ALERT: Android wallpaper app that steals your data was downloaded by millions
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...theft_app.html
Android apps caught covertly sending GPS data to advertisers
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=113506
Google scrambling to revrse shrinking China market share
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=113186
Facebook iPhone Dev: The more I work with Android the more it reminds me of Windows.
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=112480
"wouldn't surprise me, the typical Android users are pimple-faced ugly geeks wearing braces."
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showp...8&postcount=39
Android users cant get laid: iPhone owners have sex 2x than Android users
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=112060
Nasty and Expensive SMS-sending Android Trojan reported
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=112042
Google now admits to being in talks with Verizon. GOOGLE = EVIL.
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=111974
"admit to being a troll" - to some talking positively about Android
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showp...&postcount=173
"Android is insecure for the same reason Windows is insecure.
Android = Windows of mobile."
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showp...8&postcount=44
"News to DEVELOPERS:
Android users are cheap Penny Pinching FreeLoaders. THEY DONT BUY APPS.
Good luck wasting your time developing and selling your apps to these people."
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showt...53#post1687253
Skyagent: potentially-rogue binary present on ALL HTC EVO 4G
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=111236
Wallstreet: Google is a one trick pony. lost $58 Billion in stock value.
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=111180
AT&T bans non-Market Android apps due to security concerns
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=111063
Google bows down to China. Removes redirect. Is Google evil and gutless?
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=110963
Google: We will delete your Android Apps
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=110872
Android phones should not be allowed in the Enterprise
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=110862
Report: A fifth of Android apps expose private data
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=110770
Report confirms Google Wi-Fi code collected UNAUTHORIZED PERSONAL DATA
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=110354
Now Everyone's Cutting Their Google Estimates -- No Wonder The Stock Has Tanked
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=110495
There might be a trend in there somewhere . Everyone's entitled to their opinion of course, I just feel that people are trying too hard to keep Google's efforts down because they took a lot of their ideas from Apple without crediting them for it and now hope to gain from it at Apple's expense.
Like I've said before though, Apple doesn't do high volume because they don't lower their prices to hit that volumes of consumers so the alternative is that Microsoft, RIM, Nokia step in to take that place and dominate. I'd rather it was Google than anyone else - they do need to stop taking some cheap marketing shots at Apple but if they are evil, they are the lesser of 4 or more evils.
They consistently push people to iPhone and Android development, they have eliminated Windows from their offices, they make improvements to open source code and back open source movements and industry standards. Google and Apple would make better friends than enemies. If anything, their arguments seem like a smokescreen to keep the FTC out of the picture.
Ultimately, they will come to the realisation that both systems have to co-exist and have their respective flaws.
Yes, the global forum moderator, who has been here at least 3 years longer than you, is a troll.
That's one of the perks of being a moderator
I think it's because I occasionally try to discount some his many negative threads and posts about Android/Google:
just because they're negative doesn't mean they're not true. THEY'RE ALL TRUE.
GOOGLE IS THE DEVIL.
just because they're negative doesn't mean they're not true. THEY ARE.
GOOGLE IS THE DEVIL.
actually,
- Steve Jobs is Jesus Christ.
- Microsoft is the Devil.
- Google is the False Prophet.
bragging about freedom with their Android OS while they censor(ed) search results in China (for 4 years) and 28 other countries. HYPOCRITES!
http://seekingalpha.com/article/1995...er-products-in
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Google
Ultimately, they will come to the realisation that both systems have to co-exist and have their respective flaws.[/QUOTE]
oh yeah iOS and Android can co-exist alright. doesn't mean Android doesnt SUCK!