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The Android app quality: Time for a change, and here's how.

2 points by kiriappeee 16y ago

stevenwei 16y ago
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 16y ago
  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 16y ago
    > 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 16y ago
      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

2 points by kiriappeee 16y ago

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 16y ago
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 16y ago
  > 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 16y ago
    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