Al, I agree that Symbian is going to be a tough nut to crack. In the short term, packaging the G1 or the upcoming Magic with a few apps and games that are already available shouldn't be that tough for Google (or T- Mobile). And they could improve some of the apps that are currently delivered with the machine, like the e-mail client. At least this would give the G1 a fighting chance while the Android OS is still developing.
--Ed On Mar 10, 4:10 am, Al Sutton <[email protected]> wrote: > Ed, > > I think one of the biggest problems is features that don't come as part > of the platform > > We need to admit we're chasing Symbian, even the report that said that > in 2012 Android will outsell the iPhone says that at that time Symbian > will still be the market leader, so if we compare the G1 to the Nokia > 5800 (A modern Symbian touch screen device) we see that out of the box > the 5800 has; > > For CIOs; > > - Viewers for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDFs > - Supports Microsoft Exchange > > For "Cool Kid" Games players; > > - It has access to all the J2ME games already developed > - Has good enough loudspeaker audio to act as media player > > For your Sister > > - Plays 3GPP (H.263), Flash Video, H.264/AVC, MPEG-4, RealVidea, and WMV > 9 videos at around 30fps. > - Has a long standing picture viewer which shows almost any format you want > > In General > > - It's cheaper > - Has Flash Lite 3.0 in the browser > - Supports bluetooth tethering & file transfer > > Again, this is all out-of the box. No need to hunt down additional apps, > not need to reflash the firmware, this is what you get from day one. > > To me that's something that only Google, OEMs, and the Android > distributors can do something about. > > Al. > > Full specs are at;http://www.forum.nokia.com/devices/5800_XpressMusic > > > > Ed wrote: > > Stoyan, > > > I think you're probably right, it seems that most G1 users aren't > > willing to pay right now. There should be some new marketing by T- > > Mobile and/or Google (we've all seen the iPhone ads)--something along > > the lines of Apple's "There is an app for that" campaign. > > > I believe that many professionals that would have been the most > > desirable customers tried out the G1, hated it and returned it, and > > then told their friends to do the same. A CIO who is a good friend of > > mine is returning his G1 despite my protests that it is finally > > becoming what it should have been to start with. I notice that there > > is now a PDF viewer, MS Office viewer, and an Exchange push client on > > the Market. Too late for him. > > > Another group that ditched was the younger game-playing crowd that > > grew tired of the "paid apps are coming" mantra, and the relatively > > simple games (not all, but most) that were available for the phone > > until recently. I argued with one of these guys on xda recently, but > > it was tool late for him also. > > > Finally, people like my wife and my sister hated the fact that good > > video players weren't available until later on, and apps like the > > picture viewer were woefully behind the iPhone in utility. Of course, > > the camera problems and the lack of a motion camera was another > > problem for them. > > > The people that are left are those that want free apps and/or an open > > source platform (not a noted segment for profitability). > > > This trend is reversible, but the G1 needs good and ubiquitous PR > > ASAP. > > ---Ed > > > On Mar 9, 4:15 pm, Stoyan Damov <[email protected]> wrote: > > >> It's not that paying users complain Ed. On the contrary, my paid game > >> has a rating of 4.56 and no complaints but has 200 downloads, and my > >> free demo has 3.82 with ~8K and lots of complaints in the line of > >> "great game, but too short" (it's 10 levels) and bang a 1 star. I even > >> saw a great paid game (can't remember which) which had this comment - > >> "great game, the 24 hour period is great, thanks Google, uninstall" > >> and again a low rating. Both of my games were released around ~19th of > >> Feb, so maybe I'm expecting too much, but the thing is that there are > >> many apps who existed long ago before Market w/ paid apps support was > >> launched, had a lot of "where's the paid version" and have laughable > >> sales as well. > > >> So it appears that either G1 owners are [1] not willing to pay for > >> apps (this might or might not change), [2] the apps really suck, or > >> [3] seem expensive to users, [4] users are not comfortable with Google > >> Checkout, or [5] are enjoying the 24-hour period. > > >> [2] is not the case, because I've seen quite a lot of great apps (all > >> free, I don't have access to paid apps yet) and even the free versions > >> are worth some money! > >> [3] should not be the case, because many great apps are $0.99 or in > >> general less than $5 > >> [4] might be the case but I don't have any evidence of that > >> [5] might be the case for games (especially arcade ones, and even > >> those w/ replay value) > >> [1] is what concerns me the most - you see, iPhone, and iWhatever in > >> general is bought by users to support their lifestyle. Now, iPhone > >> might not be as capable as G1 (theoretically), but you gotta have it > >> (I don't because I'm not of these guys who *ought* to own an iPhone). > >> G1, on the other hand seems to be bought either by geeks who want to > >> have that phone w/ the open source Android OS, or geeks who ought to > >> have a G1 because it's the latest gadget (and thus will throw it away > >> when the next one comes up), or some other people who I can't classify > >> :) > > >> Cheers > > >> On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 10:50 PM, Ed <[email protected]> wrote: > > >>> I am somewhat surprised. I have paid for 7 applications and games on > >>> the Market for less than $20 total, and I am an extremely happy > >>> customer. How can anyone complain about a $1 or $2 download? Is the > >>> economy really that bad? > > >>> I wonder if the problem is partly related to the payment method (just > >>> a wild guess). I had never used Google checkout before, and most > >>> people are comfortable with PayPal. > > >>> On Mar 9, 3:40 pm, Sundog <[email protected]> wrote: > > >>>> My demo was at one time averaging a thousand downloads a day. My paid > >>>> app is averaging 10 to 15. > > >>>> I think this is a watershed moment of sorts for the platform. Either > >>>> Google figures out - rather quickly - what's causing the abysmal sales > >>>> figures, or bye-bye serious developers, bye-bye any hope for decent > >>>> apps, bye-bye customers, interest, etc. > > >>>> My suspicion is that no one cares, nothing will be done, the market > >>>> will fail, and everyone will point fingers at each other. I apologize > >>>> for my bleak outlook today, but I'm feeling a little silly for working > >>>> in Android at all at this point. > > >>>> On Mar 9, 1:56 pm, Incognito <[email protected]> wrote: > > >>>>> The iPhone continues to do great though. Sales are in the thousands per > >>>>> day for a successful game. > > >>>>> On Mar 9, 2009, at 10:20 AM, Sundog <[email protected]> wrote: > > >>>>> Yeah... I'm trying to be patient... but I have a game in the top 20, > >>>>> rated OVER 4.5, with a 90% install rate... and a couple of hundred > >>>>> sales in two weeks. About ten sales over the weekend. For a game whose > >>>>> demo was downloaded almost a hundred thousand times. > > >>>>> I've pretty much already frozen development of the other things in the > >>>>> pipeline until I see if it's going to be worth it at all. So far the > >>>>> sales are downright laughable. > > >>>>> On Mar 9, 4:49 am, Incognito <[email protected]> wrote: > >>>>> That really sucks. Cheap bastards... > > >>>>> On Mar 8, 2009, at 7:57 PM, Stoyan Damov <[email protected]> wrote: > > >>>>> Ahahahahaha, I did look at the downloads of the top 10 apps - they are > >>>>> PATHETIC, the max number of downloads I saw was 1000-5000. How many G1 > >>>>> owners are out there, I'd bet on < 100K. > > >>>>> On Sat, Mar 7, 2009 at 10:42 PM, friedger <[email protected]> > >>>>> wrote: > > >>>>> Android stats say here are 10 paid > >>>>> applications.http://androidstats.com/ranking/applications?filter=paid > > >>>>> However, I don't know what this stats are based on, better check the > >>>>> market yourself... > > >>>>> Friedger > > >>>>> On 7 Mrz., 00:16, JP <[email protected]> wrote: > >>>>> You can find out for yourself. Browse the market with a G1 and check > >>>>> the number of downloads of some of the at-price apps that compare to > >>>>> your friend's vision apps and that have been made available for > >>>>> download for a few weeks now. This would be a 15 to 30 minute exercise > >>>>> that will give you the business intel you are looking for. Then assume > >>>>> a return rate, deduct Google's 30% cut from the revenue. You're friend > >>>>> will now the applicable taxes, ODC etc. > >>>>> This will be an order of magnitude estimate only, but should be > >>>>> accurate enough to arrive at a conclusion. > > >>>>> On Mar 6, 2:20 pm, Anil <[email protected]> wrote: > > >>>>> An acquaintance who runs a small business (not in the mobile area) and > >>>>> employs one programmer, is wondering whether to develop apps for > >>>>> Android Marketplace. He wondered whether it is financial sense to do > >>>>> so and I recommended the Android marketplace, but do not want to > >>>>> mislead him. While the commercial success of the iPhone marketplace is > >>>>> well known, what has been the commercial story of apps sold in the > >>>>> Android marketplace? > >>>>> How many downloads per month, how much sales volume in $, average > >>>>> price of an app, how many are free downloads vs paid, how many apps, > >>>>> how many G1 phones are around etc. Are there any reliable statistics > >>>>> from Google on this? > > -- > > * Written an Android App? - List it athttp://andappstore.com/* > > ====== > Funky Android Limited is registered in England & Wales with the > company number 6741909. The registered head office is Kemp House, > 152-160 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX, UK. > > The views expressed in this email are those of the author and not > necessarily those of Funky Android Limited, it's associates, or it's > subsidiaries. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. 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