

 The Android app quality: Time for a change, and here's how.  - kiriappeee
http://techstopmuse.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-google-needs-to-change-its-app.html

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stevenwei
I don't think the feedback/approval program is necessary at all, but I like
the idea of an official, curated, consistently updated top apps list that is
available directly on the device, much like the App Store app.

The App Store featured apps rotate every week and it gives developers a lot
more visibility that they would otherwise not be able to achieve, and if you
write a high quality app you have a reasonable chance at getting featured.

But the fact of the matter is, simply due to the economics of the App Store,
any developer spending the time writing a high quality app is going to want to
ship on iOS first (generally on both the iPhone and iPad), and then port to
Android later.

The only way I see this changing is if the app purchasing patterns of Android
owners reaches the same levels as iOS.

Otherwise, why would you start with the platform that generates half the
revenue of the other?

~~~
kiriappeee
Well it's like this. There are plenty of apps out there being developed for
android only. The thing is nearly every one of those android only apps are
well... rather crappy in design and performance. Apple developers put their
bets on paid apps since they have to go to hell and back just to get them
approved.

What you say is for the most part true but there are a lot of developers out
there on the ios platform too who have put that same effort into making apps
but they choose to make them free. Based on this I just thought to myself what
if the moderation concept was applied to the app market.

It's about motivation mostly and an effort to try and improve the quality of
the apps out there. Google needs to address this issue at some point. Apple
addressed the issue of fart apps didn't they. Higher quality apps being
developed as Android only means a lot to the folks at Google. It's excellent
pr and great for marketing the platform. Even with the featured app program
there currently I don't see improvement. I see apps ported from iPhone hitting
the top quite often actually.

So yea. I got what you said. But if Google wants to improve the app quality
they need to be proactive about it. Very! The question was how to be proactive
without killing the openess

Sidenote- as far as paid apps go Google devs anyway have a different mindset
which focuses on the freemium business model. So they wouldnt mind working to
get into the 'Google approved' list since that would just increase chances of
people purchasing their full software

Thanks for commenting btw. Really had to think on that

~~~
stevenwei
> Sidenote- as far as paid apps go Google devs anyway have a different mindset
> which focuses on the freemium business model. So they wouldnt mind working
> to get into the 'Google approved' list since that would just increase
> chances of people purchasing their full software

Of course, my understanding is that a lot of times they're forced into this
because collecting payments with Android is a lot more difficult than with the
App Store (especially for non US developers).

~~~
kiriappeee
fair enough. I'm about to start proper proper development for the market (all
this time it's been apps I made for myself when I needed something done) and
yes the first thought that came to my mind was if I implement the paid
component for this how do I go about actually marketing it (I'm not yet in a
paid app enabled zone). Hmmm. I didn't think about that being a direct effect.
Thanks. I shall research on this since I do recall an article from sometime
back about the market mentality of Android. Will start there.

cheers

