The problems with the Android Market are well known and have been much discussed here. Only developers in a few countries can sell apps. Only customers in a few countries can buy apps. Only Google-approved devices can connect to it. It's badly organized. And so on.
Given that, it's no surprise that lots of alternative app stores have been created. Some try to compete directly with the Android Market, while others are more specialized: only apps that support a particular language, or only apps that work well on tablets, for example. But none of them has more than a tiny fraction as many apps as the Android Market. The main reason for that, I suspect, is simply that there's so many of them, and you have to submit your apps separately to each one. That's a huge hassle. Maybe it's not a big deal for commercial developers, but it's a major impediment to individual developers writing Android apps in their spare time. Also, some people are concerned about fragmenting their download statistics: if people can buy an app through many different stores, that could hurt its ranking on each one (especially the Android Market), which might end up being a net loss. It seems to me what we really need is for all the different app stores to work together. There should be one central place where you can submit apps, set pricing for them, and grant permission for them to be listed on any affiliated store. (That doesn't mean they actually WILL be listed. Each store can decide for itself what apps it wants to include.) And they should share download statistics with each other so users can see the total number of downloads of an app through all affiliated stores. (Of course, each store is free to rank apps however they want. But they would at least have the option of incorporating total downloads into the rankings.) Does this sound plausible? I don't expect Google to sign up for something like this, but perhaps we could convince some of the alternative stores that it's in their best interests. And if someone who works for an alternative store happens to read this, I'd really like to hear your views on the idea. Peter -- 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.
