

The iOS and Android App Economies - tomerico
http://daringfireball.net/2010/12/ios_android_app_economies

======
jk8
I do feel that Google is sending out the message, that "your" app will do
better in sales, if it's provided for free. I don't think it's healthy for a
developer who wants to start a company writing Android apps. This is what
gruber is saying (at-least a bit). Every app we write has a value to it. I
don't think 99 cents is the right price but free is definitely wrong. What
happens when someone writes an app that blocks ads on the Android phone. Now,
the developer is not making any money from his free apps. If giving things
away for free becomes the norm in the Android app store, then it will end up
hurting the developer and Google in the long run.

There is a safety net to selling an app for a price (not free), because the
sales give an indication if the users like it or not and where to direct the
energy.

Also, 37 signals doesn't believe in giving away apps for free.

~~~
jsz0
_What happens when someone writes an app that blocks ads on the Android phone_

Already exists. AdFree. Requires a rooted phone. Blocks ads system wide. I
actually found out about this because of people complaining about the
obtrusive video ads in Angry Birds. I don't think the average person is going
to root their phone just to block ads but as more people are driven to use
alternative ROMs it may be an issue worth considering for developers.

------
Kylekramer
Eh, better than the last go around on the topic. There is a cultural
difference between the two. iOS does get a boost from the Mac culture: users
tend to be affluent and very engaged in their devices. And those people are
more likely to plunk down cash for apps. Gruber himself caters to and makes
his money off this audience (funnily enough, from advertising more than
selling product, but that is off topic). But I am with Wilson. The app ecomony
is going to be like the web's. Cause paid software does not work for the
masses. It works for enterprise, it works for the niches like gamers and Mac
users, but it will not scale. You can already see this in the App Store's
pricing race to the bottom. And if the iOS line is going to be more like the
iPod than the Mac, the paid app ecomony is going to be seen as an amusing
relic in a few years.

Also, I do not get why Gruber plays dumb about Angry Birds' profitablity on
Android when that report about Rovio hitting about $1M/month on Android was on
every tech site over the last few days.

~~~
w1ntermute
> Also, I do not get why Gruber plays dumb about Angry Birds' profitablity on
> Android when that report about Rovio hitting about $1M/month on Android was
> on every tech site over the last few days.

Gruber has a very specific audience that he targets his blog posts towards,
and he tells them what they want to hear.

------
albemuth
"If Instagram were an Android exclusive rather than an iOS exclusive, would it
have picked up 100,000 users in its first week and a million in its first
month? No way, I say."

The Android version of Angry Birds got a million downloads on it's first day.
Its existing hype and fandom obviously had a lot to do with that, but still
don't see why the _No way_

~~~
shawndumas
if angry birds were an android exclusive would you have seen 1 mil downloads
the first day?

------
metachris
I am so tired of these lengthy nitpicking posts about why in his opinion
iPhone is simply better than Android. Really, who cares? Both platforms are
great and have their advantages and problems. The market is certainly large
enough for a couple of players to compete and innovate.

I'd actually wish for one or two other, even more open platforms such as Meego
to get some traction.

~~~
ergo98
Personally I am perplexed why Gruber's opinion of Android or the Android
ecosystem has _any_ relevance. He can wax poetic about new iOS features and
iOS brilliance, singing to his choir, but he has no perspective or relevance
to preach about Android. His overwhelming bias (and years or snark) has
eliminated his ability to play the voice for any other platform.

No one should take that as anti-Gruber. It isn't. It's just that Gruber made
his "iOS or nothing" bed over the past couple of years, leaving him looking a
bit clownish when he tries to play peacemaker.

------
nl
_I don’t know how the purely ad-based Angry Birds is faring on Android.
Perhaps Rovio (Angry Birds’s developer) will make even more money from ads on
Android than they do from sales on iOS. We shall see._

We shall see indeed: "By end of year, we project earnings of over $1 million
per month with the ad-supported version of Angry Birds"
[http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/03/angry-birds-
android-1-milli...](http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/03/angry-birds-
android-1-million-advertising/)

~~~
rmc
Does anyone know how much they make from the paid for iOS version?

~~~
gtdminh
up till now about 4 million download from iOS ( in the same article
mentioned). so about 4 million

~~~
kenjackson
Wow, I thought they had sold a lot more on iOS. So in one month of ad revenue
on Android has brought in 25% of total iOS sales. If this ad revenue is
consistent that's pretty incredible news for Google. It will have made clear
that ad revenue on mobile devices is where the money is (and with Google being
an advertising company, this is great news).

------
strandev
The numbers for android are appealing as a third party developer, but how much
money is being spent in the android app store? Ads are viable, but hardly
ideal for all types of apps.

~~~
gtdminh
mostly android app earn income via ads , sales in google app store are really
bad. no body is buying.

~~~
simonh
This is at the heart of the problem. Nitpicking at Gruber specific points is
one thing, but the fact is that paid apps on the Android store are getting
nowhere. Arguing that "this doesn't matter because free is the way to go" is a
reasonable opinion to hold, but misses the point. Android developers don't get
to make a choice about that whatever their opinion, while iOS developers do.
The counter argument is that as these platforms mature and become more capable
the apps will become more functional and sophisticated, with attached services
and customers will be more willing to pay for them. iOS developers have a shot
at making that future happen, unless things change Android devs don't.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
Do you have any basis for your _fact_ that "paid apps on the Android store are
getting nowhere"?

I've seen a few things suggesting lower sales rates on Android, but since
almost none of them adjusted for installed base, I'd be wary of drawing any
strong conclusions. But even if they are correct in their inferences, they
were still suggesting simply lower sales (e.g. a third or half iOS) not that
no-one was buying apps at all. It's hardly a black and white picture,
particularly with the introduction of iAds by Apple.

------
Pewpewarrows
Probably one of the better articles written by Gruber in a year or two. Well
balanced, hit on the strengths and weaknesses of both platforms, and
definitely chose his words carefully to not try and seem biased to either
camp.

Nicely thought-out and researched pieces are what we need more of, with less
argument re-wording and throwing numbers around to try and play up your
favorite platform. I hope Gruber's posts continue in this direction.

~~~
kenjackson
Definitely one of his better articles. But I think he still has on his Apple
blinders. He asks the wrong question still.

He asks, "Why doesn't Android have X, Y, Z?". Rather the question should be,
"At what rate is Android picking up X, Y, Z?"

Furthermore, he hints at the cultural divide, but misses the big motivator.
Android exists to get you on the web. iPhone exists to get you to buy Apple
product(s). I'm sure Google would be just as happy if every app moved to the
web, and app stores disappeared. I'm less certain Apple would be as happy.

~~~
revorad
He doesn't miss it. Perhaps you didn't read till the end.

 _The economy for Android apps may well trend toward resembling the economy of
the web. I think that’s the mindset with which Android was designed. But I
don’t think the iOS App Store resembles the web economy at all. Isn’t that the
whole point, the reason Apple created the App Store in the first place?
Apple’s pre-App Store “just write mobile web apps for Mobile Safari” developer
story for the iPhone in 2007 was unsatisfying, both for users and developers.

....

The differences between the iOS App Store and Android Market are a microcosm
of the differences between Apple and Google. Apple is a retailer, a purveyor
of well-crafted goods that people will line up to purchase. Google is an
advertising company that builds popular services that command large
audiences._

~~~
kenjackson
You're right, I missed this. Gruber should really front-load his articles with
punchline, rather than expecting people to make it through his text... and
while this was better than most of his articles, I think he's expecting too
much for any non Apple fanboy to make it through to the end of even this ;-)

------
ZeroGravitas
No one seems to remember that a good part of the reason why iPhone had good
developer support from day one was that it was a new start for developers with
obscure skills on a dead-end platform.

Yes, I know Cocoa and Objective-C are cool _now_ , but Mac OS X has rebounded
partly because of the success of the iPhone. At the time those developers were
getting squeezed by Apple themselves on one side with high quality, bundled,
often free apps and free web apps on the other side.

 _That_ is why the web apps only message got boo-ed by an audience of Cocoa
developers, it wasn't an unbiased appraisal of what was best for either Apple,
the iPhone or its customers, it was the sound of people having a potential
escape hatch slammed shut in their face.

~~~
sudont
> obscure skills on a dead-end platform.

I seem to remember the buzz on the mac platform in 2006 being about it's high
rate of adoption in hacker and web-development circles, not to mention
surprise about how quickly it was being adopted on college campuses. In 2007,
the campus tech purchasing board I was on was seriously considering chucking
their Compaq licence to dual-boot mac-minis. This was coming from senior IT
staff, all of who were anti-Apple to the point of blocking Mail.app from
wireless networks.

The mac was doing well before the iPhone came out.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
Yes, I bought a Mac for similar reasons in 2001 but you have to remember that
these people were buying it for programming Unix, Java and Web Development
rather than Cocoa apps.

Similarly, the college campus users were buying it for Web access and
Microsoft Office without worrying about viruses (plus they look cool and/or
expensive). Again, native Cocoa wasn't really a factor.

I wasn't talking about the Mac doing well (though I'd argue with that as
well), but about _Cocoa developers_ doing well.

~~~
sudont
Wil Shipley used this image in a 2005 WWDC talk to rebut the claims that Cocoa
developers weren't doing well:

<http://i.imgur.com/Q9c13.jpg>

[http://wilshipley.com/blog/2005/06/student-talk-from-
wwdc-20...](http://wilshipley.com/blog/2005/06/student-talk-from-
wwdc-2005.html)

------
watty
"It’s highly doubtful something like Rage HD is even possible on any Android
device today." - Can someone explain why an iPhone is more powerful than "any
Android" device?

~~~
starnix17
I don't think iPhone hardware is more powerful than Android hardware, but
games support in the Android SDK is lacking.

Currently you need to use their weird NDK and wrap it with Java code. For
example, there's no way to play audio without using the Java SDK.

Many of these problems have been fixed in Android 2.3, but it takes ages for
updates to ship out to the majority of devices (a good chunk of devices still
don't have Froyo).

~~~
Xuzz
The other issue is that there is no "Android Hardware" -- the older or lower-
end devices might not be able to power it. Then, though, it would only support
a subset of the devices, and the more expensive ones at that, and Id is
blamed, not the device itself.

~~~
watty
I don't have a problem with the author commenting on fragmentation or API
issues increasing dev time. Does Rage HD run on all iPhones?

My comment was due to the way it's stated, "even possible on any Android
device today", meaning that even with excess dev time, the application could
not run on the newest Android device.

~~~
Xuzz
Good point. I misread that.

RAGE works on all the iPhones that support iOS 4, which excludes the original
iPhone and iPod touch. However, the hardware on those are reasonably identical
to the second generation of devices, so that restriction is an arbitrary one
by Apple.

------
Guzba
I want bolded headings to guide my scanning.

