| I agree with your comments in general, and I have developed apps on iOS and Android personally; I had a somewhat similar experience to what you describe. That said, I was actually thinking of a different point, and one that is still a significant pain point for developers (really on both platforms) -- app discovery. It's bad on both platforms, but it's definitely worse on Android. This is in part because of Google's ethos and choices -- search many a word on the Android market, you'll find what you were looking for, and six copies of the same name item from China which ask for dubious permissions -- and in part, just the nature of the app-sales-on-a-small-mobile-screen beast right now. Apple has this same problem, as evidenced by the many, many graphs showing the sales hockeystick once you hit 'top ten' status, but my guess is that there is a little more love shared around with different developers than with Google. Why do I think that? I think that because "Robo Defense" has been a top game on Android since I bought my first G1. Every day, every week, every month. Rather than someone at Google judiciously marketing and bringing out new app and game developer product on the 'top' section of the store, they are totaling up all sales ever, and giving those people top slots. This is what I mean by the algorithm making things worse, in this case, particularly for app discovery. Even a simple 'tops this month' with an editor-chosen list on the first day of the month would make a big difference in reach for developers. In the end, I guess I disagree with you -- I think the Android app store is broken, as is the Apple app store. It's just that Google's is a little bit worse, and doesn't seem to have a credible plan to change the game yet. We'll see! |