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Somewhat flawed logic as the article says: "Google’s data could be skewed. It is entirely possible that users with older devices simply don’t access the Market
by erikstarck 16y ago
Somewhat flawed logic as the article says:
"Google’s data could be skewed. It is entirely possible that users with older devices simply don’t access the Market as often because the apps they want aren’t compatible with older versions of Android."
This may be true but as a developer you're really only interested in your actual, addressable market and that includes only the people who in fact visit the app store.
So while it may be wrong to say that "77% of all Android devices run 2.1 or 2.2" it's true to say that 77% of your market as a developer runs 2.1 or 2.2.
And from a fragmentation point of view, that's what counts.
- arn 16y agoMaybe from a techinical/code perspective, that's what matters, but from a size-of-the-market perspective, there's a huge piece of key data missing here. 77% of devices accessing the App Market are 2.1 or 2.2. But what percentage of all devices sold are actually 2.1 or 2.2? Depending on that number, the size of the actual reachable market could be much lower than the installed base of all Android devices.
- erikstarck 16y agoTrue and a good point. Google should publish the number of unique accesses to the store as well.
- rmc 16y agoI agree that it's the size of your market that's important. However if a large percentage of Android users can't or don't access the market (because of old software), then your market is not as large as it could be, and that is not ideal.
- fragmede 16y agoBut, this isn't the iPhone, you can sell apps outside of the Market, though the market for non-Market software is admittedly smaller.