Not so sure about the G1 or Magic being cheap compared to the iPhone. In the UK you can get a 8GB iPhone without a contract direct from O2 (the UKs nominated carrier) for £342.50 (~520 USD), The cheapest total cost (including minimum contract payments) you can get a G1 from T-Mobile is £457.87 (~695 USD), and the cheapest you can get a Magic from Vodafone seems to be £630 (~950 USD), although you can get it off contract from a non-Vodafone store for £440 (~670 USD) that's still £100 more expensive than an iPhone, so you can get an iPhone + the SDK for less than you'd pay in total for the cheapest Android handset.
Even if you go non-consumer and look at the ADP 1, to get it to the UK you're looking at 399 USD + 171.53 USD shipping which gives ~380 GBP (571.52 USD) which is less than the iPhone + SDK, but still more than an 8GB iPhone, and around 10 to 15 GBP cheaper than the "top-end" 16 GB iPhone. As for the issues with Market and Checkout; I think they're a combination of QA problems and lack of understanding of global Business to Consumer transactions, possibly combines with a lack of resources to fix the problems. Al. --- * Written an Android App? - List it at http://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. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Aaron Sent: 18 May 2009 05:28 To: Android Discuss Subject: [android-discuss] Re: Sad Application Sales... Well the problem is will Google Market FIX all of these issues? Some of the issues are so easy to encounter, it bewilders me on how it even passed Quality Assurance. Android Market is definitely a big disappointment in general. Overall I think the user base, the prolong free market, and the payment methods are the reasons for sad sales. Most of android users are more geeky and are less "stupid" than the Apple market where people just buy every darn application out there. The android users are also very cheap and the prolonged free market has clouded their minds that everything should be open-source and free. I do not know how many reviews I have gotten such as "great application, why charge?" This is due to people on android having a number of free alternatives and believing nothing should be charged. They are cheap because they are able to live with ugly phone like the G1, while people were willing to pay more for the Iphone, hence more of upper end of the middle and higher classes. The payment methods are also disgusting. I am sure there are a number of kiddies that can't buy because they do not have a credit card. For apple, it's tied to your itunes account and they already have an established user-base so parents are more likely to give their kiddies their itunes account to buy music and apps. I think the Iphone has created a more unrealistic situation and everyone thinks the same will happen for Android. And lastly, the Market and Google Checkout bugs are definitely terrible. I am sure sales will improve a fair amount of everything on that is fixed. On May 17, 11:26 am, "[email protected]" <[email protected]> wrote: > Looking on the bright side, there's a number of apps which have sold > 10,000+ copies. > > Also the market has only been open less than 3 months, only 2 phones > (one for only 2 weeks) and market currently only open to limited > countries. > > There are market issues that need to be addressed - screenshots, SD > card storage, download issues, etc, but I don't think its all that > bad. > > On May 17, 6:58 pm, Incognito <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Hmmm... It appears I may have spoken too soon. > > > On May 17, 2009, at 11:52 AM, Incognito <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Sorry it sounds rude but there is a reason my alias is incognito. > > > On May 17, 2009, at 11:05 AM, mike quinn <[email protected]> wrote: > > > What's your application icognito? > > > On Sun, May 17, 2009 at 3:01 PM, Incognito <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Application sales in Android are not only bad, they are extremely bad. I > > have an application in iPhone and every single day I sale copies. I'm not > > rich but it is enough to pay my rent and then some. In Android I released > > the same app and sales are bad, no, extremely bad. I cannot even pay for a > > meal at a restaurant. I'm now convinced that until sales start to pick up, > > if ever, it is extremely stupid for me to develop for Android. I will now > > only develop for Apple. I will however participate in Android challenge. > > > My 2 cents. > > > On May 15, 2009, at 12:47 PM, Sundog <[email protected]> wrote: > > > All of which is true but means nothing if the user's PERCEPTION is > > that buying apps on Android is a pain in the rear. You can't argue > > with end users and say "Your perception is incorrect". The customer is > > always right. > > > The proof is in the pudding, to use another ancient expression. No one > > is buying. > > > On May 14, 7:48 pm, Psym <[email protected]> wrote: > > I'm not sure about this argument. At some point they had to enter > > their details into PayPal, it's just that at the time they happened to > > be on a full sized keyboard. Once they've gone through all the hoopla, > > it'll be far easier than paypal to use to buy new apps and when the > > next online payment method comes along they'll be asking if they can > > avoid all the hoopla and just use their checkout account. > > > On May 12, 2:29 am, Sundog <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Check out this support email I got yesterday... says it all, really. > > > "Can I buy via pay-pal? It would be WAY easier than going through the > > hoopla of pulling out me cc and entering all that ridiculous info on > > this tiny keypad". > > > Yup. You and a million other non-customers, ma'am.- Hide quoted text - > > > - Show quoted text - --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. 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