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Android Tablets: Hardware and OS are Getting Better, but Apps are Still MIA

20 points by fredericl 15y ago

nextparadigms 15y ago
With Samsung and Amazon joining the market in the next few months, it could be a huge opportunity for developers to take advantage of this market since there won't be any competition. Virtually all Android tablet users will try your application.
ctdonath 15y ago
John Carmack (id Software, Doom, Quake, Rage, etc.) was asked if he will develop games for Android. He asked the audience how many people had spent more than $20 on apps. No hands. 'nuff said.
- kenjackson 15y ago
  But Angry Birds is making $1M/month on Android with ads. That's not a bad revenue stream. And you can do an ad-free version for $1.
  - programminggeek 15y ago
    Angry Birds made a lot more than that on iOS before it ever went to Android. Name an Angry Birds like success story that started on Android. All the big apps start on iOS and are ported to Android later.
    - mcantelon 15y ago
      Android activation rate trends indicates that this will likely reverse.
    - kenjackson 15y ago
      iOS had a pretty big headstart. Read Scoble's recent post on some hot Android apps [1]. They're just now beginning to do high quality apps first on Android. Momentum has started to shift. It won't happen instantly, but it does appear to be happening. [1]http://scobleizer.com/2011/05/09/what-i-learned-by-interviewing-23-startups-in-past-few-weeks/ http://scobleizer.com/2011/05/09/what-i-learned-by-interview... The money quote: "But the most interesting set of companies is being built around smartphones and here, for the first time, Apple’s iOS doesn’t have the coolest apps. For instance, Innobell lets you add social apps to a phone call. Only on Android today. TekTrak gives you really great security. But mostly on Android today. And WalkBase lets you track your phone’s movement through wifi and assisted GPS patterns in the room. Again, only on Android because Apple and Microsoft don’t let WalkBase talk to the radios the way Android does."
    - bockris 15y ago
      I don't know if it will ultimately be a huge success story but I think 'Cordy' http://www.cordythegame.com/ http://www.cordythegame.com/ is fantastic and is Android only. We bought the full version within a few minutes of playing the trial version.
    - darrenkopp 15y ago
      it made more in one big bang, but the million dollars a month is consistent and predictable revenue stream.
- FiddlerClamp 15y ago
  From the Cult of Mac article, "But when I asked how many people had spent 20 bucks on a game in the Android store, there was a big difference." Please point out how many $20 games there are in the Android market, or for that matter in the iOS market? Not many, I'll bet.
  - ctdonath 15y ago
    Elsewhere it was clarified that he asked about spending >$20 total on Android apps, not just a single game.
- Kylekramer 15y ago
  I don't know if a guy asking a leading question (Skip to 8:40 here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_SdC8LVODY#t=8m40s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_SdC8LVODY#t=8m40s) trying to justifying his own decisions is 'nuff said.
- shareme 15y ago
  I think you misunderstood the quote..as you can check if you want but there are no high selling games on iOS in $20 to $10 range..
- julianz 15y ago
  I've spent well, well more than $20 on Android apps. But I don't play many games.
dpcan 15y ago
Android devs are keeping their financial figures close to the vest I believe, which results in a lot of people thinking there's no money to be made on Android. It's smart. When the iPhone's App Store launched people were spilling their guts. Stories left and right of millions being made out of the gate. Land rush on! This time around, indie devs realized that if they keep their mouths shut about their successes, the competition will take much longer to get there. I will say that I've done very well in the Android Market. It's been an exciting year, but every week there's new competition, there's more apps to choose from, and my income is getting much harder to maintain. I'm making about 2/3 as much as I was just back in January, and 1/2 of what I was back in October. I'm creating updates and new apps in hopes of staying the course even as I imagine the landscape is going to change drastically.
- jdq 15y ago
  I realize you are talking about Android phone apps, but maybe what Android tablet apps need is a few devs bragging about the money they are making to attract more tablet app developers. Having less than 100 apps (last figure I heard) doesn't help to sell more tablets.
programminggeek 15y ago
Ok, having sold apps on both Android and iOS platforms I can tell you with 100% certainty that the same app will have sales that are an order of magnitude larger on iOS than they will on Android. Android users don't like paying for things as much as iPhone users do. Yes, Angry Birds makes a lot with ads, but they still made more on iOS. I think they had made something like $10 million on iOS before they made $1 on Android. So, yeah go and do Android dev, but you will easily make 5-10x as many sales with the same app on the iTunes app store. Build and app for both and try it. Also, if your app doesn't suck you can make way more selling the app than giving it away. I tested ads and they don't make nearly as much as paid downloads do. Now, I didn't have a top 100 app, so maybe if you have a big hit ad-supported stuff is good money, but if you have a top 100 app you should be making great money either way. I think the one place where there is a good chance of making money in Android land is to do android specific features that the OS should have had in the first place. Like, better UI/widget stuff, better keyboards, and so on. Things that can only be done on android.
vladikoff 15y ago
Just got an Android tablet at Google I/O, starting with development ASAP. Developing for Android 3.0 is impossible without hardware, the emulator is really really slow. There will be more tablet apps when there's more hardware choice and availability.
- dazzla 15y ago
  I held off buying an android tablet and doing any development for one leading up to google i/o. Now I have the hardware and knowlege to get started so will work on a tablet version of my app soon. However its still not my top priority as I don't feel the demand is there yet. No users have asked for it like they did for an iPad version.
surfingdino 15y ago
Android is fine for apps that are rich clients communicating with servers. For games, Android is a piece of shit. A close friend of mine sums it up best when he says, 'I make 30x as much money on iOS games and have 30x support tickets on Android.' Nuff said.
darrenkopp 15y ago
Personally, I'm waiting for the galaxy tab 10.1. I wasn't a fan of the Xoom price tag, so I didn't get one. Once I get a honeycomb tablet, then I'll begin writing apps for it.
- surfingdino 15y ago
  I wish Google would sell their reference hardware to developers via their developer store. They are much more keen on giving the hardware to journalists than selling it to developers. And then they wonder why there are no apps? I have to answer support questions from the people who got that f...ing tablet for free during Google IO, but Google won't sell me one. How stupid is that?
asymptotic 15y ago
A few days ago I tried to run Android Honeycomb in an emulator on my quad-core 12GB RAM box, and it's completely, 100% unusable, even after increasing the device RAM to 1GB. Google admits their emulator is completely unusable: http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/01/27/android-team-acknowledges-honeycomb-emulator-performance-problems-hard-at-work-on-fixes/ http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/01/27/android-team-acknowl... Android tablets are only going on sale on Amazon.co.uk start of June. Want to know why I'm unable to make tablet apps? This. Ask yourself a question - how did a unusable emulator manage to make it past the Android team's QA process? If that's how incompetent they are...well, I'm shaking my head.

20 points by fredericl 15y ago

With Samsung and Amazon joining the market in the next few months, it could be a huge opportunity for developers to take advantage of this market since there won't be any competition. Virtually all Android tablet users will try your application.

ctdonath 15y ago

John Carmack (id Software, Doom, Quake, Rage, etc.) was asked if he will develop games for Android. He asked the audience how many people had spent more than $20 on apps. No hands. 'nuff said.

kenjackson 15y ago
But Angry Birds is making $1M/month on Android with ads. That's not a bad revenue stream. And you can do an ad-free version for $1.
- programminggeek 15y ago
  Angry Birds made a lot more than that on iOS before it ever went to Android. Name an Angry Birds like success story that started on Android. All the big apps start on iOS and are ported to Android later.
  - mcantelon 15y ago
    Android activation rate trends indicates that this will likely reverse.
  - kenjackson 15y ago
    iOS had a pretty big headstart. Read Scoble's recent post on some hot Android apps [1]. They're just now beginning to do high quality apps first on Android. Momentum has started to shift. It won't happen instantly, but it does appear to be happening. [1]http://scobleizer.com/2011/05/09/what-i-learned-by-interviewing-23-startups-in-past-few-weeks/ http://scobleizer.com/2011/05/09/what-i-learned-by-interview... The money quote: "But the most interesting set of companies is being built around smartphones and here, for the first time, Apple’s iOS doesn’t have the coolest apps. For instance, Innobell lets you add social apps to a phone call. Only on Android today. TekTrak gives you really great security. But mostly on Android today. And WalkBase lets you track your phone’s movement through wifi and assisted GPS patterns in the room. Again, only on Android because Apple and Microsoft don’t let WalkBase talk to the radios the way Android does."
  - bockris 15y ago
    I don't know if it will ultimately be a huge success story but I think 'Cordy' http://www.cordythegame.com/ http://www.cordythegame.com/ is fantastic and is Android only. We bought the full version within a few minutes of playing the trial version.
  - darrenkopp 15y ago
    it made more in one big bang, but the million dollars a month is consistent and predictable revenue stream.
FiddlerClamp 15y ago
From the Cult of Mac article, "But when I asked how many people had spent 20 bucks on a game in the Android store, there was a big difference." Please point out how many $20 games there are in the Android market, or for that matter in the iOS market? Not many, I'll bet.
- ctdonath 15y ago
  Elsewhere it was clarified that he asked about spending >$20 total on Android apps, not just a single game.
Kylekramer 15y ago
I don't know if a guy asking a leading question (Skip to 8:40 here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_SdC8LVODY#t=8m40s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_SdC8LVODY#t=8m40s) trying to justifying his own decisions is 'nuff said.
shareme 15y ago
I think you misunderstood the quote..as you can check if you want but there are no high selling games on iOS in $20 to $10 range..
julianz 15y ago
I've spent well, well more than $20 on Android apps. But I don't play many games.

dpcan 15y ago

Android devs are keeping their financial figures close to the vest I believe, which results in a lot of people thinking there's no money to be made on Android. It's smart. When the iPhone's App Store launched people were spilling their guts. Stories left and right of millions being made out of the gate. Land rush on! This time around, indie devs realized that if they keep their mouths shut about their successes, the competition will take much longer to get there. I will say that I've done very well in the Android Market. It's been an exciting year, but every week there's new competition, there's more apps to choose from, and my income is getting much harder to maintain. I'm making about 2/3 as much as I was just back in January, and 1/2 of what I was back in October. I'm creating updates and new apps in hopes of staying the course even as I imagine the landscape is going to change drastically.

jdq 15y ago
I realize you are talking about Android phone apps, but maybe what Android tablet apps need is a few devs bragging about the money they are making to attract more tablet app developers. Having less than 100 apps (last figure I heard) doesn't help to sell more tablets.

programminggeek 15y ago

Ok, having sold apps on both Android and iOS platforms I can tell you with 100% certainty that the same app will have sales that are an order of magnitude larger on iOS than they will on Android. Android users don't like paying for things as much as iPhone users do. Yes, Angry Birds makes a lot with ads, but they still made more on iOS. I think they had made something like $10 million on iOS before they made $1 on Android. So, yeah go and do Android dev, but you will easily make 5-10x as many sales with the same app on the iTunes app store. Build and app for both and try it. Also, if your app doesn't suck you can make way more selling the app than giving it away. I tested ads and they don't make nearly as much as paid downloads do. Now, I didn't have a top 100 app, so maybe if you have a big hit ad-supported stuff is good money, but if you have a top 100 app you should be making great money either way. I think the one place where there is a good chance of making money in Android land is to do android specific features that the OS should have had in the first place. Like, better UI/widget stuff, better keyboards, and so on. Things that can only be done on android.

vladikoff 15y ago

Just got an Android tablet at Google I/O, starting with development ASAP. Developing for Android 3.0 is impossible without hardware, the emulator is really really slow. There will be more tablet apps when there's more hardware choice and availability.

dazzla 15y ago
I held off buying an android tablet and doing any development for one leading up to google i/o. Now I have the hardware and knowlege to get started so will work on a tablet version of my app soon. However its still not my top priority as I don't feel the demand is there yet. No users have asked for it like they did for an iPad version.

surfingdino 15y ago

Android is fine for apps that are rich clients communicating with servers. For games, Android is a piece of shit. A close friend of mine sums it up best when he says, 'I make 30x as much money on iOS games and have 30x support tickets on Android.' Nuff said.

darrenkopp 15y ago

Personally, I'm waiting for the galaxy tab 10.1. I wasn't a fan of the Xoom price tag, so I didn't get one. Once I get a honeycomb tablet, then I'll begin writing apps for it.

surfingdino 15y ago
I wish Google would sell their reference hardware to developers via their developer store. They are much more keen on giving the hardware to journalists than selling it to developers. And then they wonder why there are no apps? I have to answer support questions from the people who got that f...ing tablet for free during Google IO, but Google won't sell me one. How stupid is that?

asymptotic 15y ago

A few days ago I tried to run Android Honeycomb in an emulator on my quad-core 12GB RAM box, and it's completely, 100% unusable, even after increasing the device RAM to 1GB. Google admits their emulator is completely unusable: http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/01/27/android-team-acknowledges-honeycomb-emulator-performance-problems-hard-at-work-on-fixes/ http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/01/27/android-team-acknowl... Android tablets are only going on sale on Amazon.co.uk start of June. Want to know why I'm unable to make tablet apps? This. Ask yourself a question - how did a unusable emulator manage to make it past the Android team's QA process? If that's how incompetent they are...well, I'm shaking my head.