Mark, I 100% agree that the Market should let you filter the
visibility of your app in other ways besides country/carrier.
There are already filters applied based upon hardware. These are
specified in the Manifest of the app.
A filter based upon language/locale would seem to be a good addition.


On Feb 24, 10:50 pm, Mark Carter <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> You make a fair point, but I do think the rating is unreasonable.

<snip>

> Now, suppose I don't speak English (let's pretend I'm Thai). Do
> you think it's reasonable for me then to go and post a 1-star review because
> it's not in my language?

But users aren't reasonable, don't expect them to be.
However they are reasonably predictable. Use that instead.

In this instance you're being given a one star rating because the app
was offered to the user for a particular purpose. Maybe they have
enough English to be able to determine what the app is for based upon
the name/description of the app, and since it was offered in their
market they expected any internal dialogue to be translated to their
language. That's actually a reasonable expectation IMHO. When they
attempted to use the app they found that was not so, so their
expectation was not met. At this point they have invested sometime
(and perhaps download cost) in trialling the app and will have felt
duped when that was in vain, hence the one-star rating. Ie they are
pissed off at this point.

Few end users will be aware of the delineation of responsibilities
between the app and the market. Eg who is responsible for determining
what is visible for them in the market. Hence any fault is likely to
be directed at your app, not the market. Though in this case since you
have some crude control over whether your app is visible or not ..
well, you know where I stand.

In this instance we are talking Japan. 11.75% speak English, so a
potential market of 15M (assuming 100% of the population have
Androids). Weight that up against the 112M who would see your app
(crowding out Japanese language apps) and are able to rate your app
down. Since we can only filter based upon country, this is a business
decision for you. You need to determine where the cut-off point at
which publishing your app provides more value to you than harm from
bad ratings, extra support calls (from both publishing and not).

BTW if you are concerned that people can't find your app via the
market because you don't publish in their country, then publish it on
your own site and point them there. AFAICT there are only a few (one)
carriers that has locked down the phone to forbid side loading.


> Also, who does it benefit for me to do so?  These are genuine questions, not 
> personal attacks!

As I said above, you are making an assumption that the user is
reasonable and/or rational.
This is demonstrably not true in all cases. Get used to it.

Lower your profile to the nut jobs.
Piss off as few as you can and try to appeal favourably to those whose
attention you want.

William

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