I see a lot about Android having a high market share. I've seen numbers like 70-75%. But I think Apple buyers are more affluent and buy more apps even though their market share is only 20%. A lot of people who used to have feature phones or buy the cheapest pre paid phones they can get, now get android phones. Virgin Mobile has one for like $60 my in-laws have. So my point is, while the high android market share is there, as an app developer, the market share in relation to app usage and spend is still skewed towards Apple for now.
While I think you're right about average app expenditure, when we're talking about a 70-75% market share, I think the sheer numbers outweigh that.
I know that some time back there were complains that the Android Market wasn't making anyone money, but I think that's changed these days. And Samsung appear to be doing a great job of marketing a premium Android phone that will attract big spenders.
Secondly having Samsung in the market means nothing. It's the ability to sideload apps that is reason for the high piracy rate and less willingness to pay for apps.
> It's the ability to sideload apps that is reason for the high piracy rate and less willingness to pay for apps.
This hasn't been true at all in my experience. Whereas it's very easy to jailbreak an iOS device and set up a 3rd party app store with pirated applications, having to manually download and sideload APKs on Android phones makes it much more difficult to pirate apps. In fact, I know several iOS users who have pirated all their apps, but I don't know any Android users who have.
At the same time, I don't see very many iPhone 5s around - I only know one person who has one (though they can be difficult to differentiate from the 4/4S), whereas it seems like everyone has a Galaxy S2 or S3.
The S2 really caught on in Australia due to some very agressive pricing. I'd say I see as many S2/S3s around as iPhones (and probably more than iPhone amongst younger people). They're everywhere.
That being said, there is an additional layer of difficulty when it comes to purchasing apps on Android that iPhone doesn't have - most people had an iPod and one point and have an iTunes store account set up already, possibly with some credit already on it (ITMS gift cards were popular presents for a while). Play store requires you to enter your credit card on a new account, which I suspect is a significant barrier to app purchases for many people, out of caution or laziness.
Also, due to the more technical nature of the Android developer crowd, with the exception of games, there is almost always a free equivalent to paid apps which are as good or almost as good.
The iPhone 5 was very difficult to walk in and buy without taking out a two year contract (the Apple Retail Store reservation system was a raffle). It only got better within the past two weeks. You can walk in and buy at an Apple Retail Store, and others like JB and DSE are selling the 16GB model outright.
I'm not from Australia, but I got a Google account with a credit card before getting an iTunes account, even though I owned an iPod for years before getting an Android. It's true nonetheless that iTunes has more people hooked up because of iPods, but it's only a temporary problem and I don't really think there are many young people with a credit card anyway.
On the technical nature of Android developers and free equivalents, personally I tend to get paid apps.
For instance I bought "Extreme Call Blocker", because blocking calls and SMS messages is difficult as Android's APIs for it are private and I couldn't find a free app that worked well. I also got "GreenPower Premium" for saving battery, because such an app saves you money (I needed more battery life and the alternative would have been to replace my phone). I also bought "Paper Camera" because it's a fun app and cheaper than one coffee.
In truth there aren't many free apps that are worthwhile, most of the useful ones being clients of online services.
As a 18 year old Australian, virtually everyone I know (my age) possesses a debit card, which is virtually the same for purchasing most things. Mastercard start giving them out when you are 16, so most young people have them. That is also the age most people start getting more expensive phones, but my opinion might be skewed by the fact that the iPhone came out in Australia when I was roughly that age.
True, not every Android phone is positioning itself as a powerhouse smart device.
As such, buying a cheap Android device today may not tell us much about OS loyalty?
May be a mute point.
Windows saturated the world for decades and people just used it because it swamped them of choice..... that still worked very much in Microsofts favour, and may ultimately mean Android/Adsense wins.
But the key point is for now. Given current market trends, in the not too distant future there will be more money in Android. (Particularly since you don't need to give Apple a 30% cut.)
Actually if you want to sell apps through the Google play store you still need to give google a 30% cut [1]. With android you always do have the option to try through other app stores, or just allowing users to download the .apk from your website. However given how few people actually look anywhere else but the play store, you are going to take a hit much larger than 30% if you are not in google play.
With Android you don't have to go through their store. For example I bought one Humble Bundle [1] pack of Android games (which was quite successful) directly from their website. Then I got a link in my email for their downloads and I could install them directly.
> given how few people actually look anywhere else but the play store
I do not believe the truthfulness of this statement, considering how many services get popular outside any app store. Do you think people find out about Twitter or DropBox by browsing the app store?
> you are going to take a hit much larger than 30% if you are not in google play
It really depends on what channels of distribution you can tap into. Some apps are popular only because they get promoted on the play store. Other apps are popular by other means. And no, you don't necessarily need a middleman.
IMHO, Android is much better in every regard, because on Android the walled garden is optional for everybody.
Heh, actually I bought the Android humble bundle as well. I loved the fact that they could do something like that on Android. Its true that there are loads of services that people find outside the app/play store such as twitter or drop box. But if I wanted to install a drop box client, the first place I would go is to the play store to search for dropbox!
It would be a really interesting experiment for an existing service to host an .apk on their website in addition to listing in the google play store. I wonder how many people would side load the app, vs just going through play?
But at least you have the option of not using their app store. And I doubt that they are as draconian as Apple about in-app additional purchases for apps in their store.
Sure, you have the option of not using their app store. Any sane developer would realize that its financial suicide to ignore Google Play and release a purely sideloaded-apk app (or through Amazon's store, for that matter).
Google charges the same 30% transaction fee for in-app purchases as well, though I don't know what their policy is regarding Dropbox/Kindle/Skydrive-type apps.
From what I understand the policy is roughly: If you are selling something that can be used "outside" your Android app, then you are not required to use Google's payment processor and you can avoid the 30% cut. Amazon (and other ebook vendors) use this to sell books directly from their reader apps. I'm not sure what Dropbox, SkyDrive, etc do.
Can we address this '30% cut' stuff? You are not blithely giving Apple or Google 30% of your 'profit', the 'cut' is actually a fee for hosting, distribution, license management, payment processing, possibly more and yes, a small amount of operating profit. If you sell your app on your own, you'll have to cover those costs yourself.
