I think you hit the 'nail on the head' Niko with your "We can't judge Google based on knowledge we DONT have." - and maybe its the legal team who are driving the car.
The tech side of Android, including this group's info-feeders and strokers of the many considerable egos amongst us, are Great - and more power to them. But, if a publisher is trying to build a business plan upon development on Android, there are no available timeframes around the marketing aspects, and no avenue to find out whether or not the marketing aspects are in hand. I.e. Is there a marketing strategy for Android at all? Publishers have to base any business plans on faith, hope, hunches and hearsay. E.g. Unlike you, many publishers cannot sell their applications 'at all' (to experience the low volumes;) because they are from countries that are not amongst the current 9 where publishers can. e.g. Australia is still missing from that list. No one from Google can say anything about that - I've tried many info channels to no avail. Not just a time-envelope of when it may be added, but even whether it will 'ever' be added (e.g. Will ads within free apps supersede customer payment for apps entirely? Will Chrome OS become the main game? Should we be moving more development to Flash and away from Java? I.e. In this info vacuum comes speculation). Its not the programmers here "whinging" (at my company), its the Business Manager. Stepping back from the fray several hundred yards for some perspective on why people may grumble a bit (whether or not they are 'programmers') - It is a remarkable thing that a company such as Google, which is largely built upon search, itself built upon information produced by other people and other companies (web-site content; scanned books, uploaded video, etc), does itself make so little of its own information available - and keeping it from its early adopter developers and publishers, of all people. Personally, I am surprised at how many people don't 'whing' at all. On Nov 14, 3:38 am, niko20 <nikolatesl...@yahoo.com> wrote: > Ok, let me answer some of these myself. > > App sales sluggish - well android is still a growing platform, and yes > the latest improvements to the app store have helped, as well as all > the new phone releases as well, I'm seeing about double the orders per > day as before. Not to mention that we finally will probably actually > have customers that aren't also developers. > > ADP - you can just get a droid phone and develop with it. The only > reason to have an ADP is so you can flash it with different ROMS. If > you want to test against Android 2.0 you can just use a DROID to > develop with. Any android device can be used for debugging and > development. > > The Google market has improved over the last six months and will > likely improve again. Having on 325 characters may seem like a > restriction, but it does enable people's devices to download the data > faster, as well as preventing too much "spam" in their comments (like > keywords, and other garbage the is irrevlevant), that the apple Iphone > app store suffers from. Some of the apps I've looked at on the IPhone > store don't even say what they do in their description! It's usually a > little TOO long winded! > > Rumor and conjecture - the rules and agreements between Google and > developers are quite clearly stated in the Developer agreement. Some > people want to read between the lines and have hissy fits about every > little detail. Maybe that is just the way programmers are. But it's > pretty much standard legal fare. A lot of what you may see on this > board is just whining about small details that may only affect a > minority of developers. > > The IPhone system has its own flaws as well (approval process, etc). > And that system most likely is a take it or leave it agreement too. We > can't judge Google based on knowledge we DONT have. Speculation is > just that, speculation. I haven't seen any arguments that show the > opposing platforms advantages yet (like how their agreements work, > etc). > > -niko > > On Nov 13, 6:57 am, WoodManEXP <woodman...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > We have spent significant time & energy and $$ producing several > > Android applications on the bet/hope it will be able to cut into the > > iPhone market. Unfortunately little is happening. > > > - The apps sales are sluggish (the apps are hardly even being pirated > > as far as we can tell). > > - ADP cannot be updated to Android 2.0 yet Google has pushed hard for > > development to be updated to 2.0 and the Droid phone is released. How > > is one to test? > > - The Google Market seems ineffective. Consider limitations like the > > short app descriptions for instance. Google Market has a way to go to > > catch up with the magic of iTunes. > > - There is void of two-way communication between Google and the > > Android developer base so rumor and conjecture and trial and error > > prevail. > > - Distribution license agreement is updated in a take it or leave it > > fashion (with no meaningful explanation or attempt to point out > > changes). What was that all about? > > > The list of this dings goes on. Understandably it is a huge > > undertaking for Google/Verizon/HTC/Developers and the others to launch > > Android and support it to go after the market Apple iPhone has proven. > > On the plus side the SDK and ADP is obviously something Google has > > invested heavily in and the basic Android system is, IMHO, superior to > > iPhone system. So that's all good. Hopefully these developer > > irritations are part of the growing pains and will quickly be > > resolved. -- 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
