Android apps make only 24% as much as iOS apps

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A

alent1234

Diamond Member
Dec 15, 2002
3,915
0
0
i had an android phone for 6 months this year, A LOT easier to find GOOD free apps on iOS.
 
B

Brian Stirling

Diamond Member
Feb 7, 2010
3,964
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alfa147x said:
Honestly most people here talk out of their ass. They haven't either used a specific platform or they've used it for a few minutes. Take that into consideration with the internet.

That said. I lead a team of mobile app developers. We develop for both iOS and Android. We get new phones all the time. Though I still have the thunderbolt (ugh what a PoS)

Earlier this year my personal phone was an Android device. Currently my personal phone is an iPhone 4s. So I know my way around both platforms quite well.

Android has quite a few apps on it's App Store. iOS just has more. Plain and simple. Apple gives out a plethora of resources when it comes to building for their devices. Why is it better? Because it's easier. When you're building a SDK is it easier to build for 5 devices or 100+?

Android free apps are lacking in quality. Just something to accept. It's obvious. One of the biggest reasons? Inconsistant use of UI object. Another reason: Developers are pushed to make deadlines. One of the biggest things i've seen cut is checking for bugs. This is one of the reasons we have some many Android phones/ tablet or two. It's not easy to make sure the App is consistant across all android devices. A lot of smaller dev teams look over this. Just due to time constraint.

Most of my paid apps are worthy of their cost. I've never needed to ask for my money back. I do however do some research before dropping more than 99c on an app. Similar experience for both iOS and Android.

My guess as to why more iOS users buy more apps?
1) More games. Most high end mobile games cost some $$$
2) More options on how to pay. iTunes gift card. Credit card. Paypal
3) Longer in the market. Apple's been selling Apps a bit longer than Google.
4) A lot of apps come out for iOS first.
Click to expand...

My nephew is also an app developer and his views are much like yours. I do, however, think that the percentage difference is too great to be limited to the reasons you list. I do think there is something more fundamental about the payment expectations difference between iOS and Android users. For me that difference is down to age. The iOS user is somewhat older and is less likely to have 'learned' the benefits of getting things for free -- lessons learned by the younger Android users in school with file sharing!


Brian
 
alfa147x

alfa147x

Lifer
Jul 14, 2005
29,303
103
106
Piracy could also be a big factor. Since the app we work on is free i've never looked into it.

Is it easier to pirate an app in android vs iOS?


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AstroManLuca

AstroManLuca

Lifer
Jun 24, 2004
15,628
5
81
alfa147x said:
Piracy could also be a big factor. Since the app we work on is free i've never looked into it.

Is it easier to pirate an app in android vs iOS?


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Click to expand...

Yes, because you can sideload apps on Android without rooting or anything. Except on AT&T, because they have blocked the sideloading feature on all of their Android phones. With the iPhone, you have to jailbreak to install apps from anywhere other than the app store.

I am not sure how prevalent Android app piracy is. There are so many avenues to legitimately get free or cheap apps... several legitimate app stores have free app specials (Getjar, Amazon), and of course the official Android market is just wrapping up their 10 apps for 10 cents thing. And you can always get a refund if you uninstall within 15 minutes of buying.

More Android apps nowadays (especially games) are going with DRM authentication. Of course that has led to a whole other set of issues where legitimate buyers are sometimes unable to play a game they bought because it can't authenticate. Browsing some of the 10 cent apps on the market this past week, a lot of the comments bring that up and it doesn't surprise me that DRM servers are a bit swamped with all the people buying these games at once.
 
senseamp

senseamp

Lifer
Feb 5, 2006
35,787
6,197
126
alfa147x said:
Options:
Android: Not as many apps. Free ones are mediocre. Paid ones are worthy
iOS: Many Apps, Free ones are better quality when compared to android. Paid ones are worthy.
Just summed up this thread.
Click to expand...

Except if you are patient enough, you can get paid Android apps for free on Amazon or for 10 cents on Google :)
 
GoodEnough

GoodEnough

Golden Member
Apr 24, 2011
1,547
19
81
I'm a cheapskate who got a smartphone from VZ during the free promo. This tells you all you need to know about Droid users. Iphone users love to spend money.
 
A

abaez

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2000
7,155
1
81
ATT no longer blocks sideloading (due to the Amazon store pretty much).
 
M

mosco

Senior member
Sep 24, 2002
940
1
76
The amazon app store free app a day blows. When I had my captivate, I would try and check everyday for the free app. Maybe 1-2 out of 15 apps would have higher than a 3 star rating. If you these are the great free apps that android users talk about, then you have no idea what a good app is.

The iphone has http://freeappalert.com/ and http://freeappaday.com/
 
Last edited:
AstroManLuca

AstroManLuca

Lifer
Jun 24, 2004
15,628
5
81
mosco said:
The amazon app store free app a day blows. When I had my captivate, I would try and check everyday for the free app. Maybe 1-2 out of 15 apps would have higher than a 3 star rating. If you these are the great free apps that android users talk about, then you have no idea what a good app is.

The iphone has http://freeappalert.com/ and http://freeappaday.com/
Click to expand...

I actually agree with you, there were a fair number of good apps I got for free early on in the promo (Angry Birds Rio, Plants vs. Zombies, Peggle, Business Calendar, SwiftKey X, and Cut The Rope, just to name a few). But it seems there are only so many good apps they can offer for free before they start hitting the dregs. It reminds me of Steam sales - they have a different deal every day as well as Midweek Madness and a weekend deal, but eventually I got all the games I really wanted and nothing stood out anymore.

But really, couldn't this apply to iOS as well? Once you reach app critical mass, it's just going to be harder to find stuff you actually want. Even during this 10 day 10 cent sale, the first few days I bought maybe half of the apps on offer, but now I'm getting one or none. I just don't need any more.
 
alfa147x

alfa147x

Lifer
Jul 14, 2005
29,303
103
106
mosco said:
The amazon app store free app a day blows. When I had my captivate, I would try and check everyday for the free app. Maybe 1-2 out of 15 apps would have higher than a 3 star rating. If you these are the great free apps that android users talk about, then you have no idea what a good app is.

The iphone has http://freeappalert.com/ and http://freeappaday.com/
Click to expand...

I was really excited when they started doing that. But you're right. Those apps are kinda meh feeling


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alfa147x

alfa147x

Lifer
Jul 14, 2005
29,303
103
106
GoodEnough said:
I'm a cheapskate who got a smartphone from VZ during the free promo. This tells you all you need to know about Droid users. Iphone users love to spend money.
Click to expand...

How does you purchasing a phone tell you what iPhone users are like?


°
 
poofyhairguy

poofyhairguy

Lifer
Nov 20, 2005
14,612
318
126
AstroManLuca said:
But it seems there are only so many good apps they can offer for free before they start hitting the dregs.
Click to expand...

It goes in waves. Early on it had a lot of high-end games (like PvZ). Then months of crap. Then in the last month-and-a-half there was every decent MS Office-ish program for free.

Thanks to Amazon I have every app I want on Android without piracy...
 
zerocool84

zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
36,041
472
126
mosco said:
The amazon app store free app a day blows. When I had my captivate, I would try and check everyday for the free app. Maybe 1-2 out of 15 apps would have higher than a 3 star rating. If you these are the great free apps that android users talk about, then you have no idea what a good app is.

The iphone has http://freeappalert.com/ and http://freeappaday.com/
Click to expand...

There's been many great free apps on the Amazon store, SwiftKey X, PDF reader, Fancy Widgets, Car Locator, and tons more. You're right that 90% of the apps have sucked but there's been a lot of real good apps too.
 
M

mosco

Senior member
Sep 24, 2002
940
1
76
Luckily for developers, there is no un-tethered jailbreak for ios 5 and therefore no new app piracy.
 
M

mosco

Senior member
Sep 24, 2002
940
1
76
Just read up on Ipa god, which is what I assume you talking about. Seems you need a Mac and need to pay for it?
 
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