

Android Market Sales data: pitiful $64/day for a Top 5 app - adamhowell
http://larvalabs.com/blog/iphone/android-market-sales/

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Andys
Here are some reasons why:

1\. Poor availability of app store in many countries in the world compared to
iPhone

2\. Ability to purchase apps outside the appstore - I bought an app from an
author's website directly, paying by Paypal.

3\. Fewer actual handsets in use worldwide.

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mis
The problem is with the Market application. It's horrible.

That being said, I don't have a top 5 app, not even a top 100 app for that
matter, but I do make between 50 and 20 dollars a day from it. Better than
nothing, and the trend is upward.

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torpor
There are alternatives to the Android Market:

<http://www.mymarket.cc/>

Try it out, see what you think ..

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redorb
This actually makes me want to jump in / its a indicator to me that your not
that far behind in the game (getting in early, with the android system) -

\- I really think it 3-5 years android will be what apple is today; I'm not
saying to wait around - but perhaps plan for it.

~~~
enjo
I absolutely think your correct. I fully expect Android to eclipse the iPhone
in market share within the next 3 years. I say that with a couple of caveats,
however:

1\. Google has to get serious about competing with Apple. They need to adopt
multi-touch, and they need to do it NOW. I get there is a legal question
around it, but that didn't stop them from aggressively pursuing YouTube.

2\. Google needs to show that they're serious. The app-store for Android is a
mess (as the article clearly articulates). There is a lot of money to be made
there, but Google needs to step up to the plate and make that a vibrant eco-
system. They need to be Microsoft to Apples..well.. Apple. Be more developer
friendly, more marketing friendly, and let the openness of their system
eclipse the closed off world of the iPhone.

If they do that, Android should be a huge win. They've built the technology.
Just as S60 dominates the smart phone market today, Android is similarly
positioned. It can support a lot of price points and a lot of different form
factors. That variety allows for a huge number of devices to collectively
drive that share through the roof.

Since the device is more open, it creates an environment for developers to
build truly killer apps that utilize the full system in a much more advanced
way. Again, that is predicated on Googles ability to bring a truly robust
store to their phones. If they do, that further increases Android's viability
and gives them a marked advantage over the iPhone.

Google is REALLY close with this.. they just need to take the next step.

~~~
barrkel
I don't think supporting a lot of form factors and "price points" (i.e.
hardware capability) is necessarily a recipe for success. The baseline
hardware has to be pretty capable, e.g. including a 3D graphics chip, generous
memory, ample storage, etc. The phone can't be too cheap, or apps will run on
some Android installations and not on others, leading to platform
fragmentation.

If anything, something like Vista's machine performance score could be
implemented, with the lowest-scoring element being the total score.

~~~
davidw
> I don't think supporting a lot of form factors and "price points" (i.e.
> hardware capability) is necessarily a recipe for success.

It worked for Nokia.

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barrkel
No it didn't. Nokia doesn't have a successful app platform.

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davidw
Most people, until very recently, did not care in the slightest about 'apps'
on cell phones. You guys are thinking way too much like silicon valley geeks
about this.

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acangiano
What prevents a startup from creating an alternative marketplace that accepts
all sorts of mainstream payments methods, works within and outside of the US,
and doesn't suck? It was my understanding that Android, unlike the iPhone,
could install applications from elsewhere.

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breck
It's true if you want to make money, develop for the iPhone and not the
Android.

But if you want to build neat, useful things I'd say in the long run the
Android platform will be better.

I think Android versus iPhone is kind of an Apples to Oranges comparison. It's
like comparing the PC with the Xbox. Sure, you can make a ton of money
developing games for the Xbox, but that also means you have to develop games.

From what I've read(with some exceptions), the real money made on the iPhone
is in developing games.

I wouldn't develop for the Android to make money. I would do it to make cool
apps that I would use myself and could distribute myself without going through
the App store & review process. I think the Android will be the cooler
platform to develop for eventually, unless all you care about is making money.
In which case make games.

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potatolicious
_"It's true if you want to make money, develop for the iPhone and not the
Android."_

I would argue that if you want to make money, develop for _neither_.

~~~
enjo
Yep. The economics on both platforms are really nasty right now.

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jacquesm
It's all in the number of devices out there. As the number of devices goes up
so should the sales.

Using google checkout is just plain silly though, buying an application for a
phone for the most part would be 'impulse' buys, in which case you want to
remove any possible barrier. That's good business sense anyway but for this
kind of product it is an absolute must.

~~~
dejb
> It's all in the number of devices out there. As the number of devices goes
> up so should the sales.

Actually I disagree. The Android marketplace isn't compulsory so many people
would be getting their apps from other sources. It's kind of like comparing
the the approval rating of the leaders of North Korea with that of the US.
Before the iPhone came along nobody would have thought of using a centralised
'app store' as the measure of a platform's strength.

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colinplamondon
Holy crap- so much for porting to Android, that's absolutely abysmal.

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jamesk2
It is abysmal but isn't it a bit early in the game to call Android out?

Multiple companies are involved in getting these things out and it takes
longer to set up than having one company control everything.

There's a lot of marketing dollars at work with android and the network
effects of the users will ramp up. The first generation of androids were ugly
and inelegant compared to the iphone but the next gen looks better thought out
and prettier inside and out.

Like Wayne Gretsky said, "Skate to where the puck will be"

~~~
colinplamondon
It's a matter of prioritization- with numbers like that, we'll prioritize to
being on every other platform before we go to Android.

~~~
jamesk2
With 65k apps in the apple app store, it's going to be pretty hard to get any
attention for your iphone app.

Launching a cool app on Android first will get you a lot of press. There's
just less competition there. There are tons of well read bloggers and
journalists who would be very interested in your Android App and the people
marketing the phones would probably feature it in their ads like apple did
with the "There's an app for that" ads. That's how marketers think. "It worked
for Apple, so we'll do it too."

Going to the iphone first will probably take two weeks to a month to get
approved while the Android version can update faster with less hassle. You get
to iterate faster and get feedback on the latest results. A faster feedback
loop is essential to iteration and improvement.

After you get some attention, then you can make an iphone version and if
you're a top 5 Android app, that's a good reason for people to take a look.

In the history of software, I'd say look at Microsoft Excel. It launched on
Mac which had some crazy new features like a GUI. It quickly became the top
spreadsheet on the mac (there was little competition). Launched on Windows a
couple years later and went on to dominate the category.

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jsz0
If Google is serious about their App Store, and with Google that's always a
concern, they should be promoting the platform. Apple is actively highlighting
third party apps as a major selling point of the iPhone platform with constant
TV commercials showing off some of the best apps. Google's approach to
multiple handset vendors already makes the situation confusing to consumers so
it's even more important they advertise. A Google commercial showing off 2 or
3 different Android handsets running some third party apps would be a massive
boost for the platform and handset makers.

Someone pointed out that the Android platform is really starting to feel like
"Linux on the desktop" where it's always the next handset, the next OS
revision, etc that's going to change everything. The same basic rule applies:
If you fall too far behind commercial alternatives you will lose no matter how
good your platform is. Personally I think Google's window of opportunity is
very small here. If they can't start making some headway the game is over when
the iPhone hits Verizon.

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jrockway
I don't think Google has even tried to market Android yet. Letting the
technical users get all the bugs out is a good strategy. Once that is taken
care of, Google can open the floodgates. They're an advertising company,
remember, so when they want to get the message out, they will do it.

But anyway, this is not critically important right now. Andorid and iPhone
both satisfy the "I wonder if there's an app for..." for any reasonable value
of ... right now. If you have an Android phone, it will do anything you want a
phone to do. If you have an iPhone, it will also do anything you want a phone
to do (minus being location aware, or having third-party caller ID data loaded
when someone calls, or writing your own programs for it, etc.).

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alex_c
I got an HTC Magic recently for development, and the first thing I did was
check the App Store (sorry, the Market) - I can't find ANY paid apps, even if
I mess around with the buried menu setting mentioned by the article.

 _Google checkout only way to buy_

And that could be why - last I checked, Google checkout wasn't available in
Canada.

~~~
wmoxam
Paid apps aren't available in Canada yet. I can see them if I use a T-mobile
SIM card.

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p47
I have 2 apps on AMarket right now, making far to less money to live from
them. Only solution is to work as a consultant for bigger players.

But still the same model is on App Store, my friend who is independent do the
same.

Nice thing about Android is that casual users won't even know they are using
Android, when smartphones will become standard. And slowly they are becoming.

From my perspective, AMarket when GOOG will finally make it usable (2.0 in
month) may become really profitable. 3 mln users right now.

Also new handhelds look really promising, and if Motorola treats Android as
their last resort, well I, as a small fish need to follow bigger players
behaviour.

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paulsilver
I haven't seen any adverts for Android phones pushing that they have 'Android'
as a feature, nor have I seen any adverts for the Android app store. Whereas
the iPhone was heavily marketed at normal consumers. It is not surprising that
very few people are using the Android store, given that few people know of
it's existence.

Google and the phone makers are playing the game very differently to Apple. I
think it's going to be a long time before I could claim Android is a failure,
it's still very early days for the project.

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spaghetti
Give Android Market some time. Recall iTunes was hugely successful before the
iPhone came out. Also purchasing music for an iPod is almost identical to
purchasing an app for the iPhone (relatively small price for a relatively
small item). So App Store just has a huge lead. Doesn't imply Android won't
catch up. After all compare Apple vs MS today to Apple vs MS 10-15 years ago.

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jonursenbach
Their claim about requiring a credit card purchase is bogus because to open up
an iTunes account, you need a credit card.

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tptacek
You never need a credit card on you to buy an app.

~~~
ajross
The Android market uses Google checkout, and all android phones are tied to a
Google account. There's certainly no requirement that you physically have a
credit card on you, though before you can use the market you do need to set up
payments on checkout either via the phone or on your laptop, etc...

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dejb
I think comparing 'Android Marketplace' with Apple's 'App Store' is somewhat
comparing 'apples with oranges'. Android doesn't require all apps to go
through their marketplace so you would expect less downloads per user. Android
could flourish without any centralised marketplace. Desktop OS's certainly
have.

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technomancy
As Milton said: "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven."

~~~
lurch_mojoff
On the other hand, and much more pragmatically, better $3000 a day than $60 a
day.

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maxklein
Android is the linux of the smartphone OSes, and the iPhone OS is the windows.

~~~
dejb
The compulsory centralised app store model of the iPhone makes it an entirely
new beast (apart from consoles). The difference is big enough to invalidate
the comparison with Windows. Also the fact that their market share is still
below below 10% world wide also puts a dint in your metaphor.

