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I have run endless tests comparing Android revenue to iOS revenue. It's pretty difficult to make money from Android with the same apps. Either with Ads or Paid

I have run endless tests comparing Android revenue to iOS revenue. It's pretty difficult to make money from Android with the same apps. Either with Ads or Paid - the Android version of the exact same app gets less downloaded (even if free), the revenue from Ads dies out quicker and if it's paid, it will get bought much, much less. I believe the core problem is that there is no clear discovery mechanism. With iOS people use iTunes to sync. They open the app store and can try to discover new and unknown apps that happen to be in the charts. The same does not exist in Android. New apps don't get discovered. Almost all apps in Android making money are externally marketed or viral. Making an app for android is like making a website - nobody will come unless you do something else. iOS however, does the marketing for you.

arnorhs 15y ago
That's a very good point. A few other points: - Anecdotally, some (most?) of the "normal users" (non techies) I have seen use their android, don't have their Google account set up on the device. I would find it very interesting to know what percentage of people actually end up doing that, because on Android it's optional. - If you don't have your Google account set up on your phone, you can't access the marketplace and some people don't understand how that works and what the marketplace has got to do with their Google account. Normal users associate their phone with their cell provider and don't even realize that Android is made by Google, etc. I simply think that not that many people are installing and setting up apps on their phones. This will probably change in the future. Ironically, this is very similar to the Mac vs PC wars in the 90s, but my belief is that Android will be the dominant player in a few years and even though, the market is small (so far), that that will change a lot. Besides.. having a smaller piece of a bigger pie seems like worthwhile in the long run.
- mwidarto 15y ago
  I was under the impression that Ice Cream Sandwich will require user to enter the credit card and associate it with their gmail account to activate the device? Is that true? I remember reading something about this.
  - ugh 15y ago
    That … seems stupid? And I don’t really think that can be true. I don’t even have a credit card (like many Europeans I only have a bank card) and I’m also not enthusiastic about giving my payment information for just using something or even just looking around.
    - mwidarto 15y ago
      I found the article that I was referring too. It's not required but there will be prompt for it. http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/17/ice-cream-sandwich-prompts-users-to-join-google-enter-credit-card-information/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/17/ice-cream-sandwich-prompts-...
yock 15y ago
Won't this change as the need for iTunes and external synchronization goes away? Apple has made a big deal about future iOS devices not requiring a PC for sync. Does the app store on iOS devices provide similar discovery mechanisms or will iOS apps soon find themselves in a similar position as Android?
- roc 15y ago
  I wouldn't think so. The only thing that's changing is the requirement to plug an iOS device into an iTunes-running PC to do OS updates and backups. And there's a very large contingent of users who rarely (if ever) did those things after the initial setup anyway. So if cutting that cord was going to negatively effect sales, I'd expect that's long since been reflected in the numbers. All that said, I have no idea what discovery mechanisms people think are so key in iTunes vs Android market. The only apps I "discovered" via iTunes were in the top lists and dev picks; features I'm pretty sure every app store has in stand-alone marketplace apps, on-device apps and web stores. The big difference to me, between iTunes and Android marketplace is that when I search for an app in iTunes I don't really even think about getting the 'right' one. Sure, there are some "Angry Bird Cheats!" sorts of apps out there, but precious few apps are of the shameful knockoff/deliberately misleading variety. With Android marketplace, last I waded through it, there remained significant confusion over knockoffs and misleading apps and non-trivial effort required to try to ensure that I'd found the 'right' app and then all sorts of doubt raised by those UAC prompts. (why would a social game want access to my call log? was this really the right app? what the hell did i just install?) If Google really wanted to sell more apps, I think they'd clean that up. But (as I've said before) I get this feeling that Google really doesn't care for apps. And would much prefer it if people just used the browser.
  - gonzo 15y ago
    With iOS 5, both OS updates and backups can happen without plugging into iTunes.

arnorhs 15y ago

That's a very good point. A few other points: - Anecdotally, some (most?) of the "normal users" (non techies) I have seen use their android, don't have their Google account set up on the device. I would find it very interesting to know what percentage of people actually end up doing that, because on Android it's optional. - If you don't have your Google account set up on your phone, you can't access the marketplace and some people don't understand how that works and what the marketplace has got to do with their Google account. Normal users associate their phone with their cell provider and don't even realize that Android is made by Google, etc. I simply think that not that many people are installing and setting up apps on their phones. This will probably change in the future. Ironically, this is very similar to the Mac vs PC wars in the 90s, but my belief is that Android will be the dominant player in a few years and even though, the market is small (so far), that that will change a lot. Besides.. having a smaller piece of a bigger pie seems like worthwhile in the long run.

mwidarto 15y ago
I was under the impression that Ice Cream Sandwich will require user to enter the credit card and associate it with their gmail account to activate the device? Is that true? I remember reading something about this.
- ugh 15y ago
  That … seems stupid? And I don’t really think that can be true. I don’t even have a credit card (like many Europeans I only have a bank card) and I’m also not enthusiastic about giving my payment information for just using something or even just looking around.
  - mwidarto 15y ago
    I found the article that I was referring too. It's not required but there will be prompt for it. http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/17/ice-cream-sandwich-prompts-users-to-join-google-enter-credit-card-information/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/17/ice-cream-sandwich-prompts-...

yock 15y ago

Won't this change as the need for iTunes and external synchronization goes away? Apple has made a big deal about future iOS devices not requiring a PC for sync. Does the app store on iOS devices provide similar discovery mechanisms or will iOS apps soon find themselves in a similar position as Android?

roc 15y ago
I wouldn't think so. The only thing that's changing is the requirement to plug an iOS device into an iTunes-running PC to do OS updates and backups. And there's a very large contingent of users who rarely (if ever) did those things after the initial setup anyway. So if cutting that cord was going to negatively effect sales, I'd expect that's long since been reflected in the numbers. All that said, I have no idea what discovery mechanisms people think are so key in iTunes vs Android market. The only apps I "discovered" via iTunes were in the top lists and dev picks; features I'm pretty sure every app store has in stand-alone marketplace apps, on-device apps and web stores. The big difference to me, between iTunes and Android marketplace is that when I search for an app in iTunes I don't really even think about getting the 'right' one. Sure, there are some "Angry Bird Cheats!" sorts of apps out there, but precious few apps are of the shameful knockoff/deliberately misleading variety. With Android marketplace, last I waded through it, there remained significant confusion over knockoffs and misleading apps and non-trivial effort required to try to ensure that I'd found the 'right' app and then all sorts of doubt raised by those UAC prompts. (why would a social game want access to my call log? was this really the right app? what the hell did i just install?) If Google really wanted to sell more apps, I think they'd clean that up. But (as I've said before) I get this feeling that Google really doesn't care for apps. And would much prefer it if people just used the browser.
- gonzo 15y ago
  With iOS 5, both OS updates and backups can happen without plugging into iTunes.