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Very cleaver, Google. Very cleaver.

You don't know the history of Android app developers' dissatisfaction.

I do.

Nov 30, 09 - 01:18 pm Comment from: HMCIV

@Tom

Wait... you mean it was Google's intention all along to build a crappy app development experience?

That means they planned to remove Eric Schmidt from Apple's board all along. And that can only mean... GASP!!!

Nov 30, 09 - 01:18 pm Comment from: G4Dualie

Take Android and increase the frustration level by an order of several magnitudes and you have the PC platform.

Imagine the developer's nightmare that is Windows and the Heinz-57-varieties of computers out there? Have you ever looked at the way RAM is sold in the PC world?

Further imagine all of the hate mail one might get from the many dissatisfied consumers who buy your product only to find it will never work on their particular configuration, and it's all your fault.

Coding for XBox has to be a lot more satisfying in that everyone is working from the same set of specs, more or less. Too bad Microsoft's only computer is just a toy.

Like the Macintosh and the iPhone, there's a comforting amount of consistency on these platforms and the pay's not bad either.

@ Tom

"cleaver" ?

"Coding for XBox has to be a lot more satisfying in that everyone is working from the same set of specs, more or less. Too bad Microsoft's only computer is just a toy."

They're trying to turn it into a Mac, but um, the Xbox experiment is about 5 billion in the hole... Oh well..Maybe it can be used to prop up the money losing Zune, which in turn can prop up... Windows Mobile??

*sigh

House of cards...

I think Android will have the "Linux effect". Linux is a good OS, but took so much time to make it good enough for the enterprise, but since it is free, there is no company supporting it properly. It is good for geeks and some one trying to experiment alternatives.

Iphone OS is backed by a strong company with very good reputation in software and hardware, Apple.
Even that Linux is free and is backed by thousands of developers, it has almost the same market share as the iPhone and the iphone only has 2 years in the market.

I would have to agree with Troy's take in this issue. However, I don't think Apple is taking Android lightly. Successful companies like Apple know that once they start to take the competition lightly, they become too comfortable in their own success that they eventually fade away and become obsolete.

Proof? Look at Microsoft and Windows Mobile.

Regards,
Julian @ http://no-spamming/

I'd be curious to know what percentage of Apple's App Store developers are satisfied with their profits. With 100k+ apps, I'm pretty sure that quite a few aren't making as much as they had hoped for.

Nov 30, 09 - 01:47 pm Comment from: MidWest Mac

Google and the rest of the manufacturers should have just COMPLETELY copied Apple.

You know, they should have just said the screen size will be exactly like Apple's and the resolution will be exactly the same. No exceptions. That would have helped.

Then, it might have been easier to port over some of the iPhone OS apps, too.

I figure if you're going to rip off as much of the look and feel of Apple's devices as possible, why not just copy the entire thing? What, they got a conscience right there on that last detail?

"Nope, any screen size/ratio is okay . . ." I'm sure there's more to it than that, but it just seems dumb.

What's this bad habit of bashing Google? Google is not the enemy, Microsoft is. Microsoft must be destroyed. Google is a blessing. I was as excited when Google demoed Chrome OS as I am with new Apple products.

Nov 30, 09 - 02:18 pm Comment from: Ray

Geez..MDN...Haven't I been saying that the Android SDK suffers from serious suck issues...for like more than a year!!

just my $0.02

Nov 30, 09 - 02:38 pm Comment from: MacMan

IMHO, Google is out to kill WinMo and nothing more. I think they're secretly plotting with Apple to kill that platform. Android is no threat to the iPhone, they are only really a threat to everyone else (same goes for the ChomeOS). Despite all the hoopla of Schmidt leaving Apple's board, I think they're still working together to defeat Micro$oft.

I'm a "conspiracy theory loony" you say? Yea, probably. But it's a nice idea, isn't it?

Nov 30, 09 - 02:42 pm Comment from: alansky

It sounds like Android developers are dissatisfied with their profits, not with the Android OS itself. What did they expect? Another gold rush? Not likely!

Android is a turd. iPhone rules, with the vassal Android on its knees, sucking.

Sorry to say, but the situation is certainly much worse on the iPhone platform for new developers. Being a developer myself for 1 year (having 10 apps on the AppStore with prices ranging from free to 4.99$), I'm pretty sure more than 80% of the iPhone developers are NOT satisfied and I'm one of them. I have to say that's not only Apple's fault: most developers don't know how to efficiently market their apps.

So far I think that the AppStore business model is only good for Apple and a small number of developers (and most of them just having been lucky enough to release their apps early in the AppStore life).

Nov 30, 09 - 03:22 pm Comment from: HazMatt

x, honestly… We don't need that imagery here.

HazMatt

Nov 30, 09 - 03:48 pm Comment from: HolyMackerel

An Android app developer should write a virus checker:

It won't be long until there are Android viruses, porn-pop-ups, unwanted background apps, key-loggers, celltower-crashers and free-call generators, that even Google cannot or will not stop (lest they are charged with doing what Apple has been doing all along).

There has to be a middle ground between laissez-faire and fascism.

Nov 30, 09 - 03:51 pm Comment from: Cubert

Reality's a bitch.

My ex-girlfriend, too, but that's another story.

Nov 30, 09 - 03:55 pm Comment from: UltraVisitor

Android is just a hobby for Google. They obviously didn't put much time planning its future as a software platform.

Their objective was simple: make it better than windows mobile, and able to run on the same hardware specs. Google is making Android just good enough to kick Microsoft out of the cell phone business, so they can protect its advertising business in the mobile space

Nov 30, 09 - 04:08 pm Comment from: prenzelberger

@whab

Interesting comment.
I have often wondered how on earth a developer would feel, to be submerged in that highly touted sea of 100,000 apps.

Personally, I find the AppStore way too complex to even bother any longer. Once in awhile a quick look at the Top 25s, but the 10 or 20 apps I have already downloaded will do me just fine.

I wonder, how many others have that reaction to all this quantity?

Nov 30, 09 - 04:36 pm Comment from: AAPLguy

@whab

It seems to me that the problem you're describing is not that it's hard to develop and sell programs through the iTunes store, but actually the reverse - it's too easy, and thus creates more competition for the individual titles. Marketing a product is a part of doing business, and developers need to learn it, or else hire someone who can do it. If you build the world's best mouse trap, but nobody knows about it, how are you going to sell it?

Hahahahahah, really? You're pretty sure over EIGHTY PERCENT of iPhone developers aren't satisfied?

There are a lot of reasons why that bullshit fails, but I think the biggest one is that nothing is locking developers in to the iPhone. If they're feeling dissatisfied with it, then they can just jump ship to another smartphone platform.

So why haven't they?

Because the claim that "most iPhone developers are dissatisfied" isn't true.

Ahh... Simplicity.

@prenzelberger

As an iPhone user, I feel the same, being submerged by thousand of apps. The apps categories are too broadly defined and it's just too hard to find apps you are interested in directly. The Games section is the exception as there are subcategories available. Too bad Apple has not done the same for all other sections of the AppStore... The need is there and it should not be very difficult to implement!

This feeling makes it even worst for a developer as he knows in advance that his newest app will be inevitably buried in this apps sea just after a couple of days :(

@ AAPLguy

You are right and this problem is not specific to the AppStore: all other appstores have or will have this very same problem. I'm not totally pessimistic as I think Apple will have no choice than to help its developers in better marketing their apps or to provide them alternative ways to make money with them (eg. through ads).

"Hahahahahah, really? You're pretty sure over EIGHTY PERCENT of iPhone developers aren't satisfied?

There are a lot of reasons why that bullshit fails, but I think the biggest one is that nothing is locking developers in to the iPhone. If they're feeling dissatisfied with it, then they can just jump ship to another smartphone platform.

So why haven't they?

Because the claim that "most iPhone developers are dissatisfied" isn't true.

Ahh... Simplicity."

An even simple counterclaim is that, as an unsatisfied developer, I still have many good reasons to remain on the iPhone platform, one of them (though not the most important one for me) being that there is not better mobile platform to switch to...

I have around 142 aps at the moment, many less than others. I enjoy playing with them. But I usually only play for a while. There are only a few aps I have time to consistently use, though many more really are worthwhile aps. Games have to be simple & quick to fit my schedule. I play Falling Balls the most, but even that can take too long. Other aps sit there waiting for their specialized use to be needed. But, even for the ones I don't use much, I'm still happy to have them on the phone... just in case. And I do appreciate the work the developers do, especially the free ones and the 99 cents ones. I know there are lots more I'd like, if I just knew about them. Yes, I know it's tough to be a developer for the phone. But it's still early in the iPhone's history. I have hope that things will get better both for the iPhone and for the developers. Thanks for your insight, Whab.

Dec 01, 09 - 08:06 am Comment from: SKY LARK

Sure, Apple needs to ameliorate the app store and no doubt they are working on a solution that will be deployed ... in their own time ... no doubt, due to constraints that we do not appreciate.

Clearly 100K+ apps will contain X amount of nonsense, but then again so does the average shopping mall, however consumerism vis-à-vis the free market, is about a variety of choice and a multiplicity of options and - "quod ali cibus est aliis fuat acre venenum" - what is food to one person may be bitter poison to others. The wheat will be sorted out from the chaff, you select what is useful or valuable and reject what is useless or worthless.

Thankfully, in an ever increasing world of homogenization, our peculiarities are wonderful and excessively heterogeneous.

The games are fun and addictive ... out of all my games, I love a "Connect Four" style game called "Four Free", but for me it's the functional, practical, utilitarian and vocation based apps that have indubitably validated the iPhone / iPod touch.

A prevalence idioms. :(

cobbling crap together does not make it good, look at 99.9% of the linux distros out there; complete garbage.. for stuff to work correctly you have to design it correctly from the ground up. if all cars were built the way most people built operating systems we would all be driving around in model Ts!

Dec 01, 09 - 11:36 pm Comment from: Wireless Test Man

Bought an HTC Droid... previously I had an original iPhone... couldn't stand AT&T;anymore..

Some things with the Droid work very well, yup even better than the iPhone, others not so good.. and the fragmentation between the handset manufacturers makes it really difficult for Android.

The integration w/ Google services is great. I have set up so my iCal & Address book synch with Google Contacts & calendar... I can add a new card in Apple address book on my laptop, & almost instantaneously, the update's in the address book on my phone. Same thing w/ calendar updates. Updates are immediately pushed out to the phone whether on WiFi or 3G.

I don't know if Apple has upgraded the weather on the home screen since I had mine, but my Droid uses the GPS location info to automatically give me the most local weather possible without me doing a thing.

Believe it or not, HTC's Sense UI actually handles some thing better than Multitouch... The virtual keyboard on my HTC is actually easier to type on w/ less mistakes than on my iPhone. So much for Apple's 200+ patents on multitouch!

The real thing missing form the Android platform is the seamless end-to-end integration w/ iTunes. This integration is the same thing that allowed Apple to dominate the music player market.

Apple makes products that are elegant & at the same time, stupid-proof (or a more politically correct word, 'intuitive') From my experience w/ both devices, this is the biggest thing missing from Android.

Just my 2¢

Dec 01, 09 - 11:39 pm Comment from: Wireless Test Man

P.S. The VZW 3G network coverage ROCKS! Don't ever have to worry about falling back on the pokey EDGE network... Yay!