Electronic Arts: We can haz app store too?

[Bateluer]

http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/19/electronic-arts-ready-to-embrace-android-but-wishes-it-had-an-a/

Thought EA had no love for Android or Windows Phone 7? Not quite -- it's just the existing market opportunities that the company doesn't seem to enjoy. CFO Eric Brown told the Deutsche Bank 2010 Technology Conference that the game publisher is actually quite bullish on Google's rapidly popularizing mobile OS and plans to 'position its mobile business' accordingly, but first he said this: "I think the next big positive way to push better growth in mobile will be the deployment of an App Store equivalent for the Android operating system." Since we're fairly certain Brown would be aware of a little thing called the Android Market, we figure he's talking about the same mysterious reason that caused Gameloft (which produces a number of Android titles already) to circumvent the Market in favor of their own online store. One thing's for certain on the EA Mobile front: the company really needs to update their smartphone games page to support a wee bit more than the "Google Android-Powered T-Mobile G1."

First, I sincerely hope he's talking out his ass here. Android does not need an app store for every single publisher that wants to create an Android application. Google needs to clean up the Android Market as it is though, add various sorting and filtering methods, etc.

Reading some of the comments in the Engadget article pissed me off though. Few people in there call everyone who roots a pirate, because, apparently, the only reason people root is to pirate applications. Custom roms are a hot bed of piracy and people using them should be brought up on criminal charges. Idiots.

 

[theeedude]

If you had two choices to buy exact same app:
1. Buy app from middleman app store (Android Market) for $10, $3 goes to middleman, $7 goes to developer.
2. Buy app directly from developer app store for $7 with all of it going to developer.
Which would you chose?
I'd pick 2, but I think developers should just leave it up to the consumer, and offer both options. Pay MSRP at Android market, or get a nice discount by finding the developer's app store yourself, and cutting out a middleman.

 

[Bateluer]

If you had two choices to buy exact same app:
1. Buy app from middleman app store (Android Market) for $10, $3 goes to middleman, $7 goes to developer.
2. Buy app directly from developer app store for $7 with all of it going to developer.
Which would you chose?
I'd pick 2, but I think developers should just leave it up to the consumer, and offer both options. Pay MSRP at Android market, or get a nice discount by finding the developer's app store yourself, and cutting out a middleman.

Catch is, the EA App will be a 30MB, preinstalled, and unremovable program on the phone.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Catch is, the EA App will be a 30MB, preinstalled, and unremovable program on the phone.

Welcome to the future of Android...

 

[Yzzim]

Android Market is a joke. Hopefully v3.0 will clean it up.

Can't believe I long for the days of Windows Marketplace

 

[MrX8503]

Why do developers need their own App store? I don't get it.

 

[zerocool84]

Why do developers need their own App store? I don't get it.

Because they want 100% of the money instead of certain amounts going to Apple/Google.