[dpcan]

Just a word of advice on Android, polish your app really well before launch. The Android Market comment system is relentless. If you don't have a smashingly nice app out of the gate, you'll probably get a couple 1-star "sucks"/"rubbish" reviews before you can finish your post-launch exhale.

[ZoFreX]

This is interesting because I, having no knowledge of the Android market but a lot of knowledge of development in general, would give the exact opposite advice! In general I think it's agreed that the best thing to do is release, and then tweak.

If the Android Market punishes people that do this then I think that's a very real problem with the market that will directly lead to poorer quality software.

[kenjackson]

The release and tweak model works well for web apps -- today. Because there is no real review model for web apps.

Mobile apps are a lot more like movies. Opening weekend means a LOT. If you are weak out the gate, you'll have bad reviews. When you update, no one will care, because not many people will buy the updated app because of all the one-star reviews.

The only time this doesn't apply is if you a huge built in userbase like Facebook, where even with bad reviews, people will still get the updated version of the app.

[ZoFreX]

What would you advise then for app developers - how easy is it to operate a closed beta on Android or iPhone, for example?

[joelhaus]

For Android, the market can be avoided by just offering the .apk file (e.g. you can self-host the .apk and only share the link with a select group, or if that's not secure enough, require a unique key to unlock the app once it's loaded).

More here: http://www.google.com/search?q=android+sideload+apk

P.S. Has anyone had success developing an Android app with Google's App Inventor tool (http://appinventor.googlelabs.com/about/index.html)?

[msbarnett]

On iOS it is quite easy using the excellent TestFlight service: http://testflightapp.com/

[kenjackson]

I don't know for iphone and Android, but Windows Phone just added private betas :-)

[SomeCallMeTim]

It's very, very true that you need to be solid out of the gate on Android OR iPhone. Android's app rankings, in particular, seem to be tuned to give an advantage to new apps, so apps that get good ratings and a bunch of downloads out of the gate can potentially place.

Once an app is a month or two old, even if it's well rated and doing decent, it can crash in the rankings and get buried under thousands of other apps, even if it has a lot of enthusiastic fans. And it seems like this happens simply if people don't download it ENOUGH -- if it loses momentum, you're toast.

[bignoggins]

this is just as true on iOS. In mobile you can get away with releasing something that is unfinished, but you cannot get away with releasing something that is unpolished.