I think one main reason is that there isn't enough Android phones out there yet. There are probably between 1-2 million G1 phones out there, compared with close to 20 million iPhones (they sold 17.4MM through 12/08 and averaging about 5M per quarter). A number of other Android phones will be release this year, which will definitely help. Also, for those 20 million iPhones, users have close to 30,000 apps to choose from. I think there are only a little more than 1000 apps on the Android Market for the 1-2 million G1 users. Assuming the new Android phones by HTC and Motorola and Samsung are well made, Android app sales should increase accordingly.
On Mar 9, 2:15 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? --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
