On Sat, Sep 18, 2010 at 3:59 AM, Alex <maroeb...@gmail.com> wrote: > We are constantly reading about the massive growth of Android and the 10s > of millions of devices out there, so why do most apps struggle to even grab > a tiny percentage of that user base? >
Just guessing, but: 1 - Clearly the Market is not the most elegant mechanism for discovering apps, so that's probably issue #1 right there 2 - Competition - how many task killer, tip calculator, ToDo, or file manager apps are there? Given problem #1, how do you stand out amongst your competitors? How do you convince people to pay for you app when others are free? I've seen $0.99 Flashlight apps and just laugh. C'mon, seriously? 3 - The system is skewed to the "big guys". The only apps I ever see "featured" are those by big name companies (including Google themselves) that steal all the attention and really don't need the promotional help to begin with. 4 - As a user, one reason I hesitate to buy an app is the lingering question - "is there something better out there now or will there be soon?" Yes, it's only $1 - $5, but it's still a "commitment" - once you purchase that app it's yours for life and there's no getting rid of it (on your current account anyway) so it better be all you hoped for. On Sat, Sep 18, 2010 at 6:29 AM, Neilz <neilhorn...@gmail.com> wrote: > I never bothered creating a paid version, as a) my own research suggested > not many people would pay for it, b) There wasn't much I could offer as an > extra (except losing the ads). One of the things that I get as regular > feedback is "It's free!" and I like to keep it that way. > > You never know though...maybe it's worth a shot. Hmmm. > It probably is. I've seen many, many user posts on apps requesting an ad-free paid version. There are quite a few people that are willing to pay to remove the adds and / or support the developer. Yes, these people often seem like myths, but they do exist. You really don't have much to lose and a lot to gain. On Sat, Sep 18, 2010 at 8:40 AM, DanH <danhi...@ieee.org> wrote: > It's hard to compete against free. Only if you're not offering much more, if anything, above what the free competition is offering. If your app has some killer features not found anywhere else that people really want, they'll pay for it. On Sat, Sep 18, 2010 at 11:11 AM, Prakash Iyer <thei...@gmail.com> wrote: > Just my 2c - the freemium model when executed well could be one answer. > Basically the free app version should do enough to not invite removal due to > either "not compelling" or "too irritating". This is what I do and I do think it works quite well. I get way more positives on the free version then negatives for being limited. And it means a huge base of potential new buyers. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TreKing <http://sites.google.com/site/rezmobileapps/treking> - Chicago transit tracking app for Android-powered devices -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
