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Simple solution is to just stop writing apps for Google's platform. There are other avenues that aren't dependent on the corp whims of entities you can't really

Simple solution is to just stop writing apps for Google's platform. There are other avenues that aren't dependent on the corp whims of entities you can't really talk to.

Sargos 6y ago
Not really. The only other option is to limit your service to only desktop PCs/websites which is not super helpful to normal people that just use their phones for everything. Google has a monopoly on phone apps. If they don't like your app then you pretty much don't exist. You don't have many options.
- rsj_hn 6y ago
  "Normal people" do not just use their phones for everything. Normal people use their phones for getting around and they stare at the screen when they are bored, for example waiting for a bus or waiting in line. When they want to do real work or real play they don't do it on their phone, they need a larger form factor with more power, a bigger screen, and better input technology, whether that is a laptop/desktop or game console. This idea that if something isn't available on your phone, then it's not available is silly. There are many things that, while you can technically put on a phone, really don't thrive there. Phones are low powered, minimal form factor devices with inferior inputs. You do stuff on the phone because the benefit of doing it from any location far surpasses the unpleasantness of the interface. For example getting a cab, or figuring out how to get from A to B, or sending a quick message to someone when you are away from the house. If it's not related to helping you move around from place to place, or helping you connect to a friend quickly, it's not going to thrive on the phone even if you put it there, and if you look at the usage statistics of phone apps versus regular PC apps, you'll see this confirmed.
  - macintux 6y ago
    > When they want to do real work or real play they don't do it on their phone, they need a larger form factor with more power, a bigger screen, and better input technology, whether that is a laptop/desktop or game console. That’s clearly not true. For a large portion of the world, the smartphone is their only computing device. There are about 6 billion smartphones in use. Last I heard, the desktop/laptop install base was around 1 billion, but that’s a fuzzy memory.
    - rsj_hn 6y ago
      Counting install base doesn't matter when you are comparing such different devices. There are more shoes than cars in the world, but that doesn't mean you are going to sell hood ornaments to people who only have shoes. The large number of cheap smartphones simply aren't going to be useful to run your office app, regardless of the size of the install base. And for the types of phones that will run your app well and give you access to the customers with the spending power you care about, you will discover that they cost a lot more than a standard desktop and about as much as a decent laptop. People who can afford those phones have options to use the best form factor and will use their phone when mobility is much more important than a lousy interface, which is why there has been so little success in the mobile app world outside of the top 10 apps, which are stuff like Uber, google maps, etc. But if your reasoning is to be followed, it must be the case that billions of people care mostly about maps, connecting with friends on facebook, and getting taxis than about using other applications, which isn't the case at all, it's just that's what people do on their phones.
      - macintux 6y ago
        Roughly half of lower-income Americans don’t own a PC[1], and we have some of the highest market share in the world. I don’t have numbers handy outside the U.S. but again, 1 billion PCs doesn’t cover much of the population. The trend has been obvious for years: more and more people do all of their computing on smartphones. [1] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/05/07/digital-divide-persists-even-as-lower-income-americans-make-gains-in-tech-adoption/ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/05/07/digital-div...
        rsj_hn 6y ago
        89% of US households have a laptop or desktop. That doesn't mean each family member has their own, whereas it's more likely to have each family member have their own phone, say on a family plan. But in terms of revenue generating opportunity, if someone cannot afford a laptop or a desktop, they will not own an iPhone either, which accounts for 2/3 of mobile revenue, and they are not going to be running your complex smartphone app on their discount android device, so you haven't responded to my argument at all; you keep fixating on counting the number of devices rather than looking at actual addressable markets and the best way to generate revenue from people who can afford to pay for your product or that advertisers will pay to market to. Just to throw some numbers out there, as of 2018: iOS revenue: 47 B. (global, all sources, software, ads, etc) [1] Google play: 25 B (global, all sources, software, ads, etc) [1] Global software revenue: ~450 B (global) [2] Total software revenue (US only): ~260 B. [3] You are right about the 90% and 10%, but it's not pointing in the direction you think. So you can keep counting devices with very different characteristics and insisting that one number is higher than the other, or you can start counting dollars. [1] https://www.businessofapps.com/data/app-revenues/ https://www.businessofapps.com/data/app-revenues/ [2] https://www.statista.com/markets/418/topic/484/software/ https://www.statista.com/markets/418/topic/484/software/ [3] https://www.statista.com/statistics/184124/estimated-revenue-of-us-software-publishers-since-2005/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/184124/estimated-revenue...
  - colejohnson66 6y ago
    > If it's not related to helping you move around from place to place, or helping you connect to a friend quickly, it's not going to thrive on the phone even if you put it there, ... Then why is the games category the #1 promoted category on the Apple App Store?
- vanviegen 6y ago
  Well, there's always the web. PWAs are well-supported on Android, and require nobody's permission.

Simple solution is to just stop writing apps for Google's platform. There are other avenues that aren't dependent on the corp whims of entities you can't really talk to.

Sargos 6y ago

Not really. The only other option is to limit your service to only desktop PCs/websites which is not super helpful to normal people that just use their phones for everything. Google has a monopoly on phone apps. If they don't like your app then you pretty much don't exist. You don't have many options.

rsj_hn 6y ago
"Normal people" do not just use their phones for everything. Normal people use their phones for getting around and they stare at the screen when they are bored, for example waiting for a bus or waiting in line. When they want to do real work or real play they don't do it on their phone, they need a larger form factor with more power, a bigger screen, and better input technology, whether that is a laptop/desktop or game console. This idea that if something isn't available on your phone, then it's not available is silly. There are many things that, while you can technically put on a phone, really don't thrive there. Phones are low powered, minimal form factor devices with inferior inputs. You do stuff on the phone because the benefit of doing it from any location far surpasses the unpleasantness of the interface. For example getting a cab, or figuring out how to get from A to B, or sending a quick message to someone when you are away from the house. If it's not related to helping you move around from place to place, or helping you connect to a friend quickly, it's not going to thrive on the phone even if you put it there, and if you look at the usage statistics of phone apps versus regular PC apps, you'll see this confirmed.
- macintux 6y ago
  > When they want to do real work or real play they don't do it on their phone, they need a larger form factor with more power, a bigger screen, and better input technology, whether that is a laptop/desktop or game console. That’s clearly not true. For a large portion of the world, the smartphone is their only computing device. There are about 6 billion smartphones in use. Last I heard, the desktop/laptop install base was around 1 billion, but that’s a fuzzy memory.
  - rsj_hn 6y ago
    Counting install base doesn't matter when you are comparing such different devices. There are more shoes than cars in the world, but that doesn't mean you are going to sell hood ornaments to people who only have shoes. The large number of cheap smartphones simply aren't going to be useful to run your office app, regardless of the size of the install base. And for the types of phones that will run your app well and give you access to the customers with the spending power you care about, you will discover that they cost a lot more than a standard desktop and about as much as a decent laptop. People who can afford those phones have options to use the best form factor and will use their phone when mobility is much more important than a lousy interface, which is why there has been so little success in the mobile app world outside of the top 10 apps, which are stuff like Uber, google maps, etc. But if your reasoning is to be followed, it must be the case that billions of people care mostly about maps, connecting with friends on facebook, and getting taxis than about using other applications, which isn't the case at all, it's just that's what people do on their phones.
    - macintux 6y ago
      Roughly half of lower-income Americans don’t own a PC[1], and we have some of the highest market share in the world. I don’t have numbers handy outside the U.S. but again, 1 billion PCs doesn’t cover much of the population. The trend has been obvious for years: more and more people do all of their computing on smartphones. [1] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/05/07/digital-divide-persists-even-as-lower-income-americans-make-gains-in-tech-adoption/ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/05/07/digital-div...
      - rsj_hn 6y ago
        89% of US households have a laptop or desktop. That doesn't mean each family member has their own, whereas it's more likely to have each family member have their own phone, say on a family plan. But in terms of revenue generating opportunity, if someone cannot afford a laptop or a desktop, they will not own an iPhone either, which accounts for 2/3 of mobile revenue, and they are not going to be running your complex smartphone app on their discount android device, so you haven't responded to my argument at all; you keep fixating on counting the number of devices rather than looking at actual addressable markets and the best way to generate revenue from people who can afford to pay for your product or that advertisers will pay to market to. Just to throw some numbers out there, as of 2018: iOS revenue: 47 B. (global, all sources, software, ads, etc) [1] Google play: 25 B (global, all sources, software, ads, etc) [1] Global software revenue: ~450 B (global) [2] Total software revenue (US only): ~260 B. [3] You are right about the 90% and 10%, but it's not pointing in the direction you think. So you can keep counting devices with very different characteristics and insisting that one number is higher than the other, or you can start counting dollars. [1] https://www.businessofapps.com/data/app-revenues/ https://www.businessofapps.com/data/app-revenues/ [2] https://www.statista.com/markets/418/topic/484/software/ https://www.statista.com/markets/418/topic/484/software/ [3] https://www.statista.com/statistics/184124/estimated-revenue-of-us-software-publishers-since-2005/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/184124/estimated-revenue...
- colejohnson66 6y ago
  > If it's not related to helping you move around from place to place, or helping you connect to a friend quickly, it's not going to thrive on the phone even if you put it there, ... Then why is the games category the #1 promoted category on the Apple App Store?
vanviegen 6y ago
Well, there's always the web. PWAs are well-supported on Android, and require nobody's permission.