Thank you for your 2 cent Kevin!! :-D I just thought of something as well... If the market place wasn't so messed up and I hadn't come across so many bunk apps.. I wouldn't be here right now. I wonder how many people that holds true for and how many people it will hold true for.
On Jun 9, 2:02 pm, Kevin Duffey <[email protected]> wrote: > Onomp, > > I think I get the gist of what you are worried about. I think all of us sort > of have that fear... will Android survive with so many buggy apps out there > and with more and more mom/dad/non-geeky people adopting android phones, > downloading these potentially problem apps, seeing them crash, and get > frustrated and leave... will Android survive through all this? I too have > had this thought from time to time. It is going to happen. People are going > to get android phones, realize they aren't iPhones.. and leave. It already > happens. People are going to see that android devices, while no harder than > other smart phones and offers a lot more to boot, can be difficult at times. > After all, android devices are essentially a dumbed down computer. It runs > multiple things at once, and sometimes those things crash. > > There are a few things for you to consider tho, before you give up on > Android as a platform to develop for. First, most PC owners are Windows > users.. and we all know the never ending jokes of blue screens, crashes, > etc. I think most users are familiar with program crashes to some extent. It > will look different in Android.. a Force Close message is not exactly > non-geek friendly, but most users these days will have a rough idea that the > app crashed, and either to restart it, or possibly to go to their computer > and look up the issue. Some people will get pissed and eventually leave. It > will happen. I think what you are possibly overlooking is that the world of > phones has drastically changed the past couple years, but that most end > users have not yet stepped up to them. Billions of cell phones, only a 100 > million or so smart phones. Prob < 5% of the world wide market is smart > phones at this point, but it's rapidly changing. It will be a few more years > before the majority of people are used to the idea of a phone that can do > everything their computer can... that you can download apps and play games, > read the news, an e-book, stocks, connect to your email, company vpn, etc. > It's catching on quick tho. So like the 80s and 90s when people slowly > adopted PCs (and Macs to a much lesser extent), the pains we all went > through with blue screens, and random reboots.. we're doing it again with > smart phones, only smart phones are a lot better at handling these issues. > It will just take some time for the mass consumers to get used to this new > way of communicating, playing, using, and understanding the issues that may > crop up. > > As for Android going away.. I honestly worried about the same thing. I > thought..man.. there are a LOT of issues with Android as a whole. The market > app is taking too long for updates.. we should be able to better filter > apps.. why not a way to allow us to see only 4 star apps with over 5000 > downloads for example? It's a very easy thing to do... google has all the > data, a simple query can pull that info and allow us to get more detailed > filtering on apps we may want ... or want to avoid. But, Android is far from > going anywhere. Despite it's flaws, like others said, it's an evolving > beast. It's going to get a LOT better. Froyo (2.2) in my opinion bumps up > Android devices to beyond iPhone, with the exception of games/music apps and > user interface. > > Part of what you are seeing and worried about is what drives iPhone so well. > The user interface on iPhone is the best, period. I personally like the > Android one better, but the majority of people including Android users will > say the iPhone interface is about as easy as it gets. There new iOS4 with > multi tasking should make it better. However, for the same reason a lot of > developers are leaving iPhone for Android.. the openness of Android, we're > going to see a lot of "painful" initial learning curves on the market. I > can't tell you how many threads I see in here and on other android forums of > people who want to write a game, and have no idea what Java is. It's scary > how many developers with almost no experience are coming out of the woodwork > to build a game for Android. It's both scary, yet good too.. because that > means you have a huge interest in the development of Android apps. I bought > my Droid in November, there were 5000 apps on the market. Now there are over > 55,000 7 months later. In a year, we'll be up to 150,000 apps. That can be a > good thing IF the market app itself improves and allows more filtering > options, but I am sure you're worried that the bulk of those are going to be > horribly bad apps, and most end users won't know, and will get scared and > return their android phones and thus the android market will shrink. > > I think the opposite tho.. I think.. .well, I hope that what we see in > Froyo.. the new google free service that developers can now log in and see > the full stack trace + comments of a crashed app, will only improve in many > ways. The biggest thing that urks me right now with regards to the market is > how fast your app can stop being downloaded based on user feedback. There is > no way to really respond to user feedback in the market... so even if you > get a bad comment, and you fix a bug and want to, you can't comment back in > a threaded manner that shows you are a good developer, fixing your issues, > supporting the users. The current market comment system in my opinion is the > single biggest downfall to the market right now, and it could be fixed > pretty easily. Allow developers to respond so like you see in blogs, a > "comments.." link is there below the first comment, and a user can see if a > developer responded, fixed it, etc. As well, allow consumers to remove their > comments, or edit them. I may really like an app, but it keeps crashing on > my Droid.. so I post a 1 star feedback and a comment that it crashes all the > time on my Droid. Developer responds with a comment about looking into it, > then fixes the issue, submits an update.. I get it, try it out again, it > works, I can then go back and edit my comment, re-rate the app.. and my 1 > star becomes a 4 star. That would greatly improve the ratings of apps too. > If I leave 8 comments, all 1 stars, then I leave 1 comment with a 5 star.. > there are still those 8 1 stars that are hurting that apps overall score. > It's a flawed system and I hope google fixes that in particular, as it will > greatly help apps chances of survival. Right now, much like on iPhone.. if > you download, dont like, rate it bad, and never check back.. and more people > do this.. an app will eventually not get downloaded. Even if the developer > fixes it, updates, etc.. they lost all those users who no longer have the > app installed. They'll never get the updates or notices. It's a crappy way > to run the market right now, and Android has the chance of really fixing > this issue. > > Anyway, bit long winded.. don't give up. Try to ride it out and see if you > can influence others... make it better. Perhaps someone at google will read > this or other threads like this and maybe they are looking at ways to make > it better. > > On Tue, Jun 8, 2010 at 10:02 AM, theSealPortalTeam < > > > > [email protected]> wrote: > > I'm sorry but, I have an Andorid phone and never had a problem after > > the most recent release. Just like anything, perfecting an operating > > system takes time and patience. I'm very proud of what Google has done > > to open up mobile development, in fact many developers would agree > > with me. Android is not dieing, its evolving. > > > Without the openness of Andorid, developing for a mobile platform > > would be difficult as it was in the past. > > > On Jun 8, 11:36 am, Onomp <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Unless google implements a way to track the force closings of > > > applications (maybe even phone specific) and has a market for flawless > > > programs and seperates the the ones which still need work, all of your > > > application ideas will be stolen by the competitors working for the > > > other OS's and as android takes off and the consumers feel the devices > > > are too bugged, android will die, your work and learnings will be for > > > nothing. > > > > Anyone else agree? > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > > Groups "Android Developers" group. > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > [email protected]<android-developers%2Bunsubs > > [email protected]> > > For more options, visit this group at > >http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. 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