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Poll: Have you/Would you pay for Android apps?

20 points by jazzychad 16y ago

I'm curious about the current state of mind for the HN crowd regarding paying for apps on android. Have you, or would you, pay for Android apps? Please vote for all that apply.

citricsquid 16y ago
I don't own a smart phone, but I intend on getting one eventually. If it's Android I'd buy apps from the market, so I voted Yes (hopefully I was supposed to do that, because I would)
jseifer 16y ago
I've bought many android apps. There are some really good ones out there.
- araneae 16y ago
  I'm curious which ones. I have not bought any yet.
  - loganlinn 16y ago
    My favorite paid app at the moment is Locale
gaustin 16y ago
I spend $15-20 bucks a month on promising android apps. I should start writing reviews of them. I've come across some real gems. I absolutely hate ads, so ad-supported stuff is rarely an option for me, Google and Facebook being notable exceptions. If I could pay a fee and get ad-free StackOverflow, I'd be so happy.
- StavrosK 16y ago
  Can you share some of the gems? I'm in Greece so I can't buy (I rooted my phone and changed the market area until an update locked that down as well) but I'm always looking for good apps.
- phlux 16y ago
  You could easily write reviews and post them on an ad supported site that makes just enough to support your habit.
- olalonde 16y ago
  There are ads on StackOverflow?
  - spicyj 16y ago
    Some. You get fewer ads if you have at least 200 reputation: http://stackoverflow.com/privileges/reduced-ads http://stackoverflow.com/privileges/reduced-ads (Red boxes disappear, grey ones do not.)
  - dangrossman 16y ago
    There sponsored tags, and a banner ad or two if you're not logged in or have very low reputation. There is one square image ad on some pages, but they lead either to another StackExchange site in the network, or to an open source project. Each quarter new projects can apply for free advertising.
JshWright 16y ago
I generally use the ad-based version of an app (if available) for a week or so, then if I find myself using it regularly, I buy the "donation" (aka ad-free) version. I'm not a huge app person, and the only apps I can think of that I've purchased so far are Launcher Pro, GPS Status & Toolbox, and Clockworkmod's ROM Manager. In all three cases, I used the free version for a while then purchased the "donation" version. Edit: I would _gladly_ pay for an ad-free version of Angry Birds.
tednaleid 16y ago
I'll buy apps, but at a much lower rate than I do on iOS. I've owned a Nexus One for about 6 months and have spent ~$25 in that time on 4 apps (Advanced Task Killer, Locale, SlideScreenPro, and WeatherBugElite). I have not run across any other non-free apps that I have any interest in. I owned an iPhone for 2 years and easily spent an order of magnitude more on apps in the same initial time period, which continued throughout the length of time I owned it (and still continues with my iPad). So, I'd be willing to spend $ on android apps, but it'd have to be a very useful app for me to notice it. I'm just not as conditioned to browse and find android apps as I was on iOS. I haven't seen any statistics on it, but it wouldn't surprise me at all to find out that my experience is pretty normal for iOS vs Android users. EDIT: Just checked iTunes and I've purchased 163 non-free iOS apps in 2.5 years, or ~33 apps every 6 months, so it is close to an order of magnitude more for me (though the plural of anecdote isn't data and all that).
- zdw 16y ago
  I'm an iOS user, but I support a lot of people on both platforms. The general rule of thumb that I've sen is that there's a percentage of people who never buy anything on their devices, but this percentage is bigger on Android than on iOS, just because people are accustomed to the iTunes interface and buying stuff already. It's also easier to find things in it than in the Android market, which has some fairly substantial usability issues. I'd say this percentage is 15-20% on iOS, and closer to 30-40% on Android. In terms of free apps, if you've downloaded only one thing from the store, it's probably a free app. I don't know of people who only have paid apps, just because of things like Amazon's Kindle app or Facebook/Twitter/etc and if you're downloading something already, you might as well. Some people only download free stuff, especially kids in a family situation. I'd say that "Free Only" is probably 30-40% of iOS users, and 50-60% of Android users Now, paid apps. I'd guess that 40-50% of iOS users have purchased a paid app, compared to 10-20% of Android users, and that the average iOS user has purchased 4-8 times the number of paid apps. There are outliers of course - I know people who have >100 apps on each platform. I hardly ever see paid Android apps other than the ones on the small list in the parent post (ATK and Launcher Pro especially). I'm guessing that very few high profile apps make good money, but the "tail" of the Android marketplace is not a lucrative place to be, whereas the iOS "tail" is somewhat more successful.
siddhant 16y ago
Curious as to why more people have selected "Yes", instead of "Not yet, but I would pay for a worthy app". Is this because Android Apps tend to be good in general, or something else? (I don't own an Android.)
- hendler 16y ago
  Android marketplace has some good paid apps - but they are not as easy to find as iOS app store. I answered yes because it simply means there is at least one app worthy of being paid for. Some of the best apps are free (Googles suite for example).
jacoblyles 16y ago
"Have you" and "Would you" are very different questions.
ylem 16y ago
I have actually paid for the occasional app if I think it is worthwhile. Sometimes I've upgraded to the paid version if I've liked an app and want to support the developer (even if the free version is enough for me). But, it seems that many of the apps for Android are ad supported. While there is free data, that works fine, but when/if Verizon starts charging for data...
SkyMarshal 16y ago
I just got my first android phone a few weeks ago and have paid for one or two. The pay version of Poweramp is the only one I recall off the top of my head but I think there were one or two more. Of course, I've downloaded over 50 free ones...
darklajid 16y ago
Actually I registered a virtual credit card (don't own one, don't care about them..) for android/checkout. And a game.. I recommend checking out http://www.spectrekking.com/ http://www.spectrekking.com/ (not affiliated, but on topic: Make me smile and I'll pay up)
- iamdave 16y ago
  This is the first I've heard about a virtual credit card; pardon my ignorance but can you tell me more about this? Email is in the profile.
julianz 16y ago
Yep. I've paid for a bunch of apps including BeyondPod, Vignette, Feedr, SwiftKey, TradeDroid Pro, gStrings and Soundhound. Why not? They're cheap and very, very good. If it's less than $5USD I'll probably not even notice, and between $5 and $10 I'll evaluate the app a bit more carefully first. I also paid for SplashID because I've used it for years on Palm and it was great. This one I resent because it was expensive and the Android app is a bit shit. I'd really like a quality password/secret thing app with desktop sync and would buy that too.
- julianz 16y ago
  Oh and I really dislike ad-supported apps. Handcent is the only one that I can think of that's not annoying, because the ads only show up in the config screens. I'd rather pay.
Nemisis7654 16y ago
I have and I will again. I just spent $6 on an app called Tasker (great app). I like supporting the developers who make my experience on my phone better.
njharman 16y ago
paid software is a dead idea. a few protected niches, monopolies, people ok with making midling amounts off .99 sales will lnger on. the echo chamber revertabrates appstore / indie hit but cancels outs the thousands of flops saas, subscrtion, powerups(in app purchase ala zynga), side channel sales (like mint, affiliates, 3d print avatar) and the like are the present and future making "big" money in software. everything else is amature hour and/or playing the lottery
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
msg 16y ago
The first one I bought was the hardware accelerated version of my guitar tuner, gstrings. I also bought a cool sequencer/composer called Loops. Over time the barrier has gone down significantly and I've bought more. My price level for no-brainers feels like $2. More than that and I search for reviews and such. I tend not to buy unless I can try first.
beoba 16y ago
I've had an android phone for about 6 months and haven't paid for any apps. In general I've found that for every paid app, there's a free app which is close enough if not better. I also dislike the idea of buying software for a device that I'll be replacing in a couple years anyway. I've been burned by planned obsolescence in the past. Not to mention I'm usually only on my phone for a very specific set of tasks, and I've already near-optimized those.
- markwweaver 16y ago
  If you plan to stick with Android phones, then go ahead and buy apps. I'm on my third android and the apps just download to your new phone when you sign in.
  - beoba 16y ago
    Yeah, I know, but the other two factors I mentioned regardless make me go with free apps.
EnderMB 16y ago
I will only ever buy if the app is of a very high quality, and if I feel that it is essential for me to have. The only application that has come remotely close was Locale.
lambda 16y ago
I've bought a few apps. In general, I'm happier paying < $5 or so for an app than getting a free app with ads and privacy intrusion (many of them want an internet connection, phone state and identity, and fine GPS coordinates, which is far more information that I'm willing to give up for a dodgy free app). I might buy more apps if they hadn't reduced the trial window to 15 minutes; there were some apps that I bought because I could try them out for a day, that I probably wouldn't have under the current rules. Really, only an hour or two is all I need; 15 minutes means that if I'm interrupted while trying it out, I have no way to come back to it, and for some apps, it means that I can't really give it a good trial at all.
jlgosse 16y ago
I would say that I've spent between $30 and $40 at this point, which isn't a lot, but isn't anything to scoff at.
ZeroGravitas 16y ago
Other: I'd much rather support open source apps when available, and I'm sad that neither Google nor a 3rd party has yet made this easy.

20 points by jazzychad 16y ago

I'm curious about the current state of mind for the HN crowd regarding paying for apps on android. Have you, or would you, pay for Android apps? Please vote for all that apply.

citricsquid 16y ago

I don't own a smart phone, but I intend on getting one eventually. If it's Android I'd buy apps from the market, so I voted Yes (hopefully I was supposed to do that, because I would)

jseifer 16y ago

I've bought many android apps. There are some really good ones out there.

araneae 16y ago
I'm curious which ones. I have not bought any yet.
- loganlinn 16y ago
  My favorite paid app at the moment is Locale

gaustin 16y ago

I spend $15-20 bucks a month on promising android apps. I should start writing reviews of them. I've come across some real gems. I absolutely hate ads, so ad-supported stuff is rarely an option for me, Google and Facebook being notable exceptions. If I could pay a fee and get ad-free StackOverflow, I'd be so happy.

StavrosK 16y ago
Can you share some of the gems? I'm in Greece so I can't buy (I rooted my phone and changed the market area until an update locked that down as well) but I'm always looking for good apps.
phlux 16y ago
You could easily write reviews and post them on an ad supported site that makes just enough to support your habit.
olalonde 16y ago
There are ads on StackOverflow?
- spicyj 16y ago
  Some. You get fewer ads if you have at least 200 reputation: http://stackoverflow.com/privileges/reduced-ads http://stackoverflow.com/privileges/reduced-ads (Red boxes disappear, grey ones do not.)
- dangrossman 16y ago
  There sponsored tags, and a banner ad or two if you're not logged in or have very low reputation. There is one square image ad on some pages, but they lead either to another StackExchange site in the network, or to an open source project. Each quarter new projects can apply for free advertising.

JshWright 16y ago

I generally use the ad-based version of an app (if available) for a week or so, then if I find myself using it regularly, I buy the "donation" (aka ad-free) version. I'm not a huge app person, and the only apps I can think of that I've purchased so far are Launcher Pro, GPS Status & Toolbox, and Clockworkmod's ROM Manager. In all three cases, I used the free version for a while then purchased the "donation" version. Edit: I would _gladly_ pay for an ad-free version of Angry Birds.

tednaleid 16y ago

I'll buy apps, but at a much lower rate than I do on iOS. I've owned a Nexus One for about 6 months and have spent ~$25 in that time on 4 apps (Advanced Task Killer, Locale, SlideScreenPro, and WeatherBugElite). I have not run across any other non-free apps that I have any interest in. I owned an iPhone for 2 years and easily spent an order of magnitude more on apps in the same initial time period, which continued throughout the length of time I owned it (and still continues with my iPad). So, I'd be willing to spend $ on android apps, but it'd have to be a very useful app for me to notice it. I'm just not as conditioned to browse and find android apps as I was on iOS. I haven't seen any statistics on it, but it wouldn't surprise me at all to find out that my experience is pretty normal for iOS vs Android users. EDIT: Just checked iTunes and I've purchased 163 non-free iOS apps in 2.5 years, or ~33 apps every 6 months, so it is close to an order of magnitude more for me (though the plural of anecdote isn't data and all that).

zdw 16y ago
I'm an iOS user, but I support a lot of people on both platforms. The general rule of thumb that I've sen is that there's a percentage of people who never buy anything on their devices, but this percentage is bigger on Android than on iOS, just because people are accustomed to the iTunes interface and buying stuff already. It's also easier to find things in it than in the Android market, which has some fairly substantial usability issues. I'd say this percentage is 15-20% on iOS, and closer to 30-40% on Android. In terms of free apps, if you've downloaded only one thing from the store, it's probably a free app. I don't know of people who only have paid apps, just because of things like Amazon's Kindle app or Facebook/Twitter/etc and if you're downloading something already, you might as well. Some people only download free stuff, especially kids in a family situation. I'd say that "Free Only" is probably 30-40% of iOS users, and 50-60% of Android users Now, paid apps. I'd guess that 40-50% of iOS users have purchased a paid app, compared to 10-20% of Android users, and that the average iOS user has purchased 4-8 times the number of paid apps. There are outliers of course - I know people who have >100 apps on each platform. I hardly ever see paid Android apps other than the ones on the small list in the parent post (ATK and Launcher Pro especially). I'm guessing that very few high profile apps make good money, but the "tail" of the Android marketplace is not a lucrative place to be, whereas the iOS "tail" is somewhat more successful.

siddhant 16y ago

Curious as to why more people have selected "Yes", instead of "Not yet, but I would pay for a worthy app". Is this because Android Apps tend to be good in general, or something else? (I don't own an Android.)

hendler 16y ago
Android marketplace has some good paid apps - but they are not as easy to find as iOS app store. I answered yes because it simply means there is at least one app worthy of being paid for. Some of the best apps are free (Googles suite for example).

jacoblyles 16y ago

"Have you" and "Would you" are very different questions.

ylem 16y ago

I have actually paid for the occasional app if I think it is worthwhile. Sometimes I've upgraded to the paid version if I've liked an app and want to support the developer (even if the free version is enough for me). But, it seems that many of the apps for Android are ad supported. While there is free data, that works fine, but when/if Verizon starts charging for data...

SkyMarshal 16y ago

I just got my first android phone a few weeks ago and have paid for one or two. The pay version of Poweramp is the only one I recall off the top of my head but I think there were one or two more. Of course, I've downloaded over 50 free ones...

darklajid 16y ago

Actually I registered a virtual credit card (don't own one, don't care about them..) for android/checkout. And a game.. I recommend checking out http://www.spectrekking.com/ http://www.spectrekking.com/ (not affiliated, but on topic: Make me smile and I'll pay up)

iamdave 16y ago
This is the first I've heard about a virtual credit card; pardon my ignorance but can you tell me more about this? Email is in the profile.

julianz 16y ago

Yep. I've paid for a bunch of apps including BeyondPod, Vignette, Feedr, SwiftKey, TradeDroid Pro, gStrings and Soundhound. Why not? They're cheap and very, very good. If it's less than $5USD I'll probably not even notice, and between $5 and $10 I'll evaluate the app a bit more carefully first. I also paid for SplashID because I've used it for years on Palm and it was great. This one I resent because it was expensive and the Android app is a bit shit. I'd really like a quality password/secret thing app with desktop sync and would buy that too.

julianz 16y ago
Oh and I really dislike ad-supported apps. Handcent is the only one that I can think of that's not annoying, because the ads only show up in the config screens. I'd rather pay.

Nemisis7654 16y ago

I have and I will again. I just spent $6 on an app called Tasker (great app). I like supporting the developers who make my experience on my phone better.

njharman 16y ago

paid software is a dead idea. a few protected niches, monopolies, people ok with making midling amounts off .99 sales will lnger on. the echo chamber revertabrates appstore / indie hit but cancels outs the thousands of flops saas, subscrtion, powerups(in app purchase ala zynga), side channel sales (like mint, affiliates, 3d print avatar) and the like are the present and future making "big" money in software. everything else is amature hour and/or playing the lottery

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

msg 16y ago

The first one I bought was the hardware accelerated version of my guitar tuner, gstrings. I also bought a cool sequencer/composer called Loops. Over time the barrier has gone down significantly and I've bought more. My price level for no-brainers feels like $2. More than that and I search for reviews and such. I tend not to buy unless I can try first.

beoba 16y ago

I've had an android phone for about 6 months and haven't paid for any apps. In general I've found that for every paid app, there's a free app which is close enough if not better. I also dislike the idea of buying software for a device that I'll be replacing in a couple years anyway. I've been burned by planned obsolescence in the past. Not to mention I'm usually only on my phone for a very specific set of tasks, and I've already near-optimized those.

markwweaver 16y ago
If you plan to stick with Android phones, then go ahead and buy apps. I'm on my third android and the apps just download to your new phone when you sign in.
- beoba 16y ago
  Yeah, I know, but the other two factors I mentioned regardless make me go with free apps.

EnderMB 16y ago

I will only ever buy if the app is of a very high quality, and if I feel that it is essential for me to have. The only application that has come remotely close was Locale.

lambda 16y ago

I've bought a few apps. In general, I'm happier paying < $5 or so for an app than getting a free app with ads and privacy intrusion (many of them want an internet connection, phone state and identity, and fine GPS coordinates, which is far more information that I'm willing to give up for a dodgy free app). I might buy more apps if they hadn't reduced the trial window to 15 minutes; there were some apps that I bought because I could try them out for a day, that I probably wouldn't have under the current rules. Really, only an hour or two is all I need; 15 minutes means that if I'm interrupted while trying it out, I have no way to come back to it, and for some apps, it means that I can't really give it a good trial at all.

jlgosse 16y ago

I would say that I've spent between $30 and $40 at this point, which isn't a lot, but isn't anything to scoff at.

ZeroGravitas 16y ago

Other: I'd much rather support open source apps when available, and I'm sad that neither Google nor a 3rd party has yet made this easy.