5 ms·

An Android app that generated $150,000 in a month

69 points by chuckfalzone 16y ago

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
- ryandvm 16y ago
  As a side-time Android developer, I can tell you that the platform is anything but buggy. For a while Android antagonists were painting the diversity of handsets as a huge testing hurdle, but that's just not the case. Write sane code and don't engage in sloppy shortcuts and you can get by with testing on a single handset (the emulator is too slow). My main app is a live wallpaper that pulls radar imagery from NOAA (http://www.appidio.com/apps/radar-wallpaper/ http://www.appidio.com/apps/radar-wallpaper/) and I have yet to hear of a device that it doesn't work on.
  - gcheong 16y ago
    Do you recommend any particular handset?
    - ryandvm 16y ago
      I'm pretty pleased with the Droid Incredible. It's quite fast, so it makes a good dev handset. I'm not necessarily sold on the HTC Sense UI. I don't think it's necessary. Especially since I suspect it increases the amount of time it takes them to port new Android releases.
      - seancron 16y ago
        Wouldn't a slower handset be best to test on? That way, if it runs smoothly on the slower handset you'll know it runs smoothly on faster ones.
  - roc 16y ago
    > "I have yet to hear of a device that it doesn't work on" Other than those that can't access the store and those that won't be getting an update to 2.1?
    - veeti 16y ago
      "those that can't access the store" ...such as?
      - roc 16y ago
        Pick a tablet.
        veeti 16y ago
        You mean the Samsung Galaxy Tab? It has the Market. Perhaps the upcoming Motorola XOOM? Yep, it has the Market. The only two exceptions I can think of are the Archos tablets and Notion Ink: Archos doesn't fulfill Google requirements, and I don't know what the problem with the Adam is. (Obviously, no-name Chinese tablets also don't get the Market, but that's not a huge surprise.)
        roc 16y ago
        I'd have phrased it the other way: the only two exceptions that I know of that can access the market are the Galaxy and Xoom. One of which isn't available and the other is almost a poster child for the uncertain upgrade path problem. No-name Chinese tablets aren't a surprise, but the fact that they get casually included when people talk about ecosystem devices and sales is part of the problem.
      - zrgiu 16y ago
        besides devices that can't access the store are those with limited access. Like the HTC Wildfire and the other devices with screen resolutions lower than 320x480
        16y ago
  - miniatureape 16y ago
    What platform are you on? I found the emulator unusable on modern OSX and Windows 7 desktops and, to my surprise, perfectly usable on my two year old laptop running Ubuntu.
    - cosgroveb 16y ago
      I find the emulator rather slow on Ubuntu... Best just to develop on a handset!
      - barista 16y ago
        It's a pain to use on Windows. I had a pretty beefy machine that was brought to a crawl by the emulator. I hope Google is listening. Visual studio for Windows Phone 7 was not such a hog and I tend to spend more time working in it these days.
      - barista 16y ago
        It's a pain to use on Windows. I had a pretty beefy machine that was brought to a crawl by the emulator. I hope Google is listening. Visual studio for Windows Phone 7 was not such a hog and I tend to spend more time working in it these days.
    - nl 16y ago
      What SDK version are you using in the emulator? I find 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3 good (on Windows), but the 3.x prerelease is pretty slow (it's unoptimized yet, so I guess I should expect that)
- gcb 16y ago
  to the downvoters, please, go here http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/list?can=2&q=type=Defect&sort=-stars&colspec=ID%20Type%20Status%20Owner%20Summary%20Stars http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/list?can=2&q=typ... and count how many top voted, old, issues, have official google comments. second, we have cases like: http://www.androidcentral.com/htc-patches-911-glitch-rogers-magic-and-dream-android-phones http://www.androidcentral.com/htc-patches-911-glitch-rogers-... ... there's also an old history about one dialer replacement app that prevent one guy from dialing 911 while he was witnessing a robbery. Those are all extreme examples. but since android allows an app to mess with core functionality, how do you deal with supporting something that should be extremely well tested, such as a dialer, that isn't even easy to be well tested by google or operators? Third, there are several of the bugs i mention on step 1, such as some devices fails to connect to hidden wifi networks, that affects one or more app... what if you write an app that facilitates wifi connection for people on the go, and the user starts to waste your support teams time with requests for that platform bug? All that said, i'm still an Android user and developer. I really think IOS is a worse platform because it tries to avoid most problems instead of solving, and that's just too delusional to be good. And Maemo is too closed to solve the problems in a sane manner.
zrgiu 16y ago
Android is (very) slowly starting to pick up. My apps have just started to bring a little more than $10k/month, from ads alone, while I have friends with million-dollar apps on the iPhone who haven't passed the $30k mark on the Android with the same PAID apps after a whole year. On Android, you have to build trust, even a user base (if you're not Angry Birds) before launching a paid product. Quality must be top-notch from day one, and god-forbid your app doesn't work on one device and some upset user "rewards" you with a first 1 star-review. I've seen countless apps being pounded for small issues at launch. Long story short, if you want to make money with Android, you need to have loads of patience :-)

69 points by chuckfalzone 16y ago

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

ryandvm 16y ago
As a side-time Android developer, I can tell you that the platform is anything but buggy. For a while Android antagonists were painting the diversity of handsets as a huge testing hurdle, but that's just not the case. Write sane code and don't engage in sloppy shortcuts and you can get by with testing on a single handset (the emulator is too slow). My main app is a live wallpaper that pulls radar imagery from NOAA (http://www.appidio.com/apps/radar-wallpaper/ http://www.appidio.com/apps/radar-wallpaper/) and I have yet to hear of a device that it doesn't work on.
- gcheong 16y ago
  Do you recommend any particular handset?
  - ryandvm 16y ago
    I'm pretty pleased with the Droid Incredible. It's quite fast, so it makes a good dev handset. I'm not necessarily sold on the HTC Sense UI. I don't think it's necessary. Especially since I suspect it increases the amount of time it takes them to port new Android releases.
    - seancron 16y ago
      Wouldn't a slower handset be best to test on? That way, if it runs smoothly on the slower handset you'll know it runs smoothly on faster ones.
- roc 16y ago
  > "I have yet to hear of a device that it doesn't work on" Other than those that can't access the store and those that won't be getting an update to 2.1?
  - veeti 16y ago
    "those that can't access the store" ...such as?
    - roc 16y ago
      Pick a tablet.
      - veeti 16y ago
        You mean the Samsung Galaxy Tab? It has the Market. Perhaps the upcoming Motorola XOOM? Yep, it has the Market. The only two exceptions I can think of are the Archos tablets and Notion Ink: Archos doesn't fulfill Google requirements, and I don't know what the problem with the Adam is. (Obviously, no-name Chinese tablets also don't get the Market, but that's not a huge surprise.)
        roc 16y ago
        I'd have phrased it the other way: the only two exceptions that I know of that can access the market are the Galaxy and Xoom. One of which isn't available and the other is almost a poster child for the uncertain upgrade path problem. No-name Chinese tablets aren't a surprise, but the fact that they get casually included when people talk about ecosystem devices and sales is part of the problem.
    - zrgiu 16y ago
      besides devices that can't access the store are those with limited access. Like the HTC Wildfire and the other devices with screen resolutions lower than 320x480
      - 16y ago
- miniatureape 16y ago
  What platform are you on? I found the emulator unusable on modern OSX and Windows 7 desktops and, to my surprise, perfectly usable on my two year old laptop running Ubuntu.
  - cosgroveb 16y ago
    I find the emulator rather slow on Ubuntu... Best just to develop on a handset!
    - barista 16y ago
      It's a pain to use on Windows. I had a pretty beefy machine that was brought to a crawl by the emulator. I hope Google is listening. Visual studio for Windows Phone 7 was not such a hog and I tend to spend more time working in it these days.
    - barista 16y ago
      It's a pain to use on Windows. I had a pretty beefy machine that was brought to a crawl by the emulator. I hope Google is listening. Visual studio for Windows Phone 7 was not such a hog and I tend to spend more time working in it these days.
  - nl 16y ago
    What SDK version are you using in the emulator? I find 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3 good (on Windows), but the 3.x prerelease is pretty slow (it's unoptimized yet, so I guess I should expect that)
gcb 16y ago
to the downvoters, please, go here http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/list?can=2&q=type=Defect&sort=-stars&colspec=ID%20Type%20Status%20Owner%20Summary%20Stars http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/list?can=2&q=typ... and count how many top voted, old, issues, have official google comments. second, we have cases like: http://www.androidcentral.com/htc-patches-911-glitch-rogers-magic-and-dream-android-phones http://www.androidcentral.com/htc-patches-911-glitch-rogers-... ... there's also an old history about one dialer replacement app that prevent one guy from dialing 911 while he was witnessing a robbery. Those are all extreme examples. but since android allows an app to mess with core functionality, how do you deal with supporting something that should be extremely well tested, such as a dialer, that isn't even easy to be well tested by google or operators? Third, there are several of the bugs i mention on step 1, such as some devices fails to connect to hidden wifi networks, that affects one or more app... what if you write an app that facilitates wifi connection for people on the go, and the user starts to waste your support teams time with requests for that platform bug? All that said, i'm still an Android user and developer. I really think IOS is a worse platform because it tries to avoid most problems instead of solving, and that's just too delusional to be good. And Maemo is too closed to solve the problems in a sane manner.

zrgiu 16y ago

Android is (very) slowly starting to pick up. My apps have just started to bring a little more than $10k/month, from ads alone, while I have friends with million-dollar apps on the iPhone who haven't passed the $30k mark on the Android with the same PAID apps after a whole year. On Android, you have to build trust, even a user base (if you're not Angry Birds) before launching a paid product. Quality must be top-notch from day one, and god-forbid your app doesn't work on one device and some upset user "rewards" you with a first 1 star-review. I've seen countless apps being pounded for small issues at launch. Long story short, if you want to make money with Android, you need to have loads of patience :-)