Thanks for your feedback Zsolt, We love working on Android apps, but at the end of the day we need to be paid for our efforts. If LVL isn't going to result in increased revenue for us, then we may not want to dedicate any time to it (it's not just the time we worry about, but the potential bugs, obfuscation issues, build management, etc). As I do more research I become even more confused. For example some scenarios after DRM was added (note not all of these are Android apps):
Minor increase: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=17350 No difference: http://games.slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&type=story&sid=08/11/15/0239219 Increased sales (although there is some cross-promotion of DRM technology here): http://eddiekim.posterous.com/selling-shovels-to-android-gold-miners Related Articles: http://www.thunderboltgames.com/opinion/article/why-drm-doesnt-work-opinion-for-pc.html http://www.androidguys.com/2009/12/22/rethinking-android-app-piracy/ At this point I'm leaning towards no DRM... hopefully that's the right decision. -Chad On Nov 22, 10:00 pm, Zsolt Vasvari <zvasv...@gmail.com> wrote: > Why would the sales increase by adding LVL? The vast majority of > pirates wouldn't pay for your app in the frist place, this has been > shown many times since the very early days of personal computers. > > So I wouldn't add the LVL to increase sales, but to make it harder for > people to simply steal my work. > > I had a pirate just yesterday having the nerve to send me a long > feature request e-mail. I looked up his name and I saw he pirated my > app over a month ago. So I asked him how come he's using the paid > version of my app, and he actually responded saying that he canceled > the purchase, but was considering buying it if I add feature X. OK, > right. > > These are the people I would like to stop with the LVL. > > On Nov 23, 5:17 am, Sheado <chad...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > thanks for the feedback guys, > > > Pent - have you noticed if your sales have increased since adding LVL? > > I know it's different on a case-by-case basis, but I always like > > hearing specific cases. > > > JP - we're definitely going freemium with one of our apps, but the > > other niche ones we need to charge some $ upfront for since in-app > > payments or ads won't work well in those cases. > > > It be great if there was a study linking (or not) app sale increase > > with LVL on Android (if anybody knows of one please let me know!) > > > thanks! > > -Chad > > > On Nov 20, 7:34 am, JP <joachim.pfeif...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > In case you have the luxury to think concept - as far as I can tell, > > > there's a "seismic shift" going on in what independent developers > > > consider viable business approaches to the generation of revenue > > > through apps. 'round where I live (San Francisco), you hear the high > > > velocity, app market style app sales model declared dead, and you > > > won't find many devs any more announcing apps that do not emphasize > > > monetization through user engagement. This trend has a few drivers, $. > > > 99 a pop apps mostly, but also, in Android, the absence of a viable > > > and convenient solution in Android Market to buy and sell apps the old > > > fashioned way. Based on that, perhaps think about giving away the app > > > for three, which serves as a vehicle for in-app payment that points > > > back to you (and only your), and that allows you to control > > > authorization at the point of payment. > > > > On Nov 19, 4:09 pm, Sheado <chad...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > Hi All, > > > > > Sorry for starting yet another post on this subject. We're trying to > > > > decide on whether to go with LVL or just un-protect our apps > > > > altogether (currently using the copy protection feature). So my > > > > question: > > > > > * Are you copy protecting/DRM/LVL licensing your apps? > > > > > Some of our concerns include: > > > > * ROI on time spent with LVL code/testing/bugs versus actual increase > > > > in sales > > > > * lack of copy protection in other markets > > > > > Some info we found in other posts: > > > > * piracy breakdown of a popular app:http://keyeslabs.com/joomla/ > > > > projects/auto-app-licensing/152-a-global-piracy-heat-map > > > > * some have mentioned going free (ad-only) - some of our apps are > > > > niche apps, therefore this strategy will not work well for some of > > > > those apps. > > > > > On a side note: we liked the deprecated copy-protection feature > > > > because it involved no extra development work and seemed secure enough > > > > to thwart a "casual pirate" from easily sharing an app with all of > > > > their friends. (another side note: we have incurred the wrath of tons > > > > android1.5 users after removing the copy protection feature - proceed > > > > with caution if you do so) > > > > > any feedback would be awesome! > > > > thanks, > > > > Chad- Hide quoted text - > > > - Show quoted text - -- 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
