It’s no secret that Apple’s App Store has been leaps and bounds more succesful than Android’s comparable Market, but it isn’t often we get concrete data that shows just how poorly Android’s store is faring in comparison. Today Android developer Larva Labs has posted some of the sales figures for its top applications, and the results are not impressive: Larva has two apps in Android’s top paid apps list called Battle For Mars and RetroDefense, ranking #5 and #12 respectively, and between them the company has raked in an average of $62.39 per day over the last month. Ouch.
Larva’s Matt Hall attributes this poor performance in part to Android’s shoddy App purchase flow. Unlike the iPhone’s integrated App Store, Android Market doesn’t have screenshots of apps, forces you into the browser at times, makes you use Google Checkout, has some unintuitive navigation issues, and a handful of other problems. These issues are widely known — you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who thinks the purchase process is as smooth as it is on the iPhone — but they’ve been around for quite a while.
Hall also points out the poor sales of the smash-hit iPhone game Trism, which pulled in hundreds of thousands of dollars on the App Store. On Android, it has seen fewer than 500 downloads. Granted, there’s no guarantee that lighting will strike twice when there are many other games available for both markets, but that isn’t exactly an encouraging statistic.
Hall also writes that the rumored Android market size of $5 million a month (which still pales in comparison to the App Store’s) is likely an overestimate. He concludes that if Larva is considered an average developer, then half the other developers on the platform would have to be seeing similar sales figures to reach that figure, which isn’t likely.
This news comes at a time when many developers would be happy to leave Apple’s troubled App Store, with its ridiculous approval policies and poor treatment of developers, in favor of greener pastures. With a slew of new devices coming out this year and policies that are much friendlier to developers, Android has the opportunity to give these apps a new home — now it needs to build out a marketplace that gives the App Store a run for its money. Google has said improvements will be coming soon, likely with support for PayPal, credit cards, and carrier billing; let’s just hope these come sooner rather than later.
good to know. the android market has a long way to go – i ‘d actually suggest that google allows other companies to run their own stores – maybe some better alternative will come up. I cannot sell my android app yet, because google checkout is only supported in a few countries at the moment.
“i ‘d actually suggest that google allows other companies to run their own stores”
google allowed that from the beginning: http://www.slideme.org
that’s great. well then, would like to see them taking off, because the android market seems stuck
Now it’s time for Google to expand and improve their Android app very soon from their backdown to compete with the legend Apple iPhone but Android has a nice opportunity to give people a new app home and now it needs to build out a marketplace that gives the App Store a run for its money.
Let’s wait and see how far the Andriod app and their policies are friendlier to developers!!
At SlideME, we’ve had steady growth since the beginning (well before Google launched) but are just recently seeing a big uptick in applications and user/developer registrations. A number of developers have expressed frustration to us about the Android Market and want to migrate over apps and users. We are working to accommodate them.
We offer screenshots (on both mobile client and web portal) as well as video on the portal, which is important to users in judging the app. Many of our users are people from countries that don’t have access to paid applications from the Android Market, so SlideME is a good alternative for buying them.
We are more about building a community than app distribution and are always happy when a top developer stocks to SlideME, as it generates a lot of user interest.
bad news for android. what a tacky phone. we are going back in time.
There are now 4 different Android phones on the market. You obviously don’t know what you’re talking about, so why did you comment in the first place?
Android has the opportunity to give these apps a new home — now it needs to build out a marketplace that gives the App Store a run for its money.
>>>>>> Apple’s tedious app approval process makes the app developers frustrated. Apple’s move paves way to new home for the app developers in Android.
Sure, Apple digs itself and create opportunities to develop Android apps. Whether Apple rebuilds itself or not Android uses this golden time to build itself strongly.
It’s not about the developers. It’s not about the app store. It’s about the number of customers buying the phones, of which only a percentage will also buy apps.
Sales of the G1 are crap, thus there is nobody to download the big hit games. It’s not caused by the marketplace – it’s simple math: few users = small market = few sales (no matter how highly rated your app is).
Of course, you can point to your source showing sales of the G1 were “crap”, as you say.
android phones needs better marketing.
lack of tv ads showing off the phone and their app store.
Failed attempt to compete with iPhone has failed.
failed? not yet. developers NeedMoney
Google App Store should start blocking high-profile applications in lieu of getting at least bad publicity, which as the saying goes…
good idea. Google should ban Google Voice
I think the folks on this good forum, who are mostly technology professionals, fail to understand that Apple’s strategy is to not neccessarily cater to every whim of developers, but to be extremely friendly to the consumers. It is clear the consumers are voting with their dollars, and lots of it.
What surprises me is how vicious this business is. It really is a winner-take-all business. I feel sorry for all the Android developers, which looking happily at my 8 pages of (mostly paid) app icons on my iPhone 3GS
exactly, exactly, exactly! This is why Apple succeeds. You put the person who PAYS for your product first, however much that inconveniences the developers who want a slice of the action. What did they invest in the R&D of Iphone? What did they spend on marketing? The idea they have a god-given right to a place on Itunes is ridiculous.
Personally, I thought there was a stench of decay around Android from the beginning (well, anything that involves Nokia). I wouldn’t be surprised if it goes nowhere. It smacks of an industry consortia response and not a consumer-experience oriented one.
To put this in perspective, on my 3rd day on the App Store with NO promotion, my extremely niche medical app made $70 in one day (although it’s not constant). And I think I hit #29 in the medical app section then: http://bit.ly/nLqoc. And the #1 medical app doesn’t even make the top 100 apps in the iPhone App Store!
I think it’s just because the Android Market is quite limited in the number of devices that are available. Plus, I argue that the first “real” Android device worth owning is the HTC Hero (which looks amazing btw). Plus, there’s only one device, the Creative Zii EGG, that uses the Android OS as the basis of a media player. More hardware OEMs can use Android as the basis of their hardware, so they already have a ton of great software which they can access and no one has to re-invent the wheel!
Anyway, Android needs to be thought of less as a cellphone OS and more in terms of media and apps. It will really take off if several devices support it on any carrier which you’re on.
For me, this is the key point in all this — it’s the install base of phones that’s the issue, not the app store process.
In fact, not only is there a limited install base, but if it’s made up of early adoptors then they may be less-than-average likey to be buying apps.
The early adopter crowd segments into the “they’ll pay whatever to be fasionable” and “uber geek pays for nothing”.
I think the former has naturally favored the iPhone and the latter has ended up on the Android platform.
What we need is for more regular consumers to jump onto the platform and that is only going to happen when “real” phones start appearing like the Hero.
I’m sure a lot of people getting android phones are being given them by their network rather than actually asking for them. The mass market is totally clueless about android. It hasn’t been marketed at all, let alone coherently.
They know Ipod, they’re familiar with itunes and they want iphones. The multi-device/manufacturer strategy is a mistaken mess. It confuses the message even more.
Consumers never ever respond to campaigns to buy something to help out, in this case the development community’s desire to see Android succeed. They buy what they want for themselves.
We’re about to start coding our iphone apps for android and this report is disheartening. But, we’re still moving forward with making istorytime books available on Android, Google should be able to work out the kinks at some point…. hopefully sooner than later.
I’m not sure why this is seen as a bad thing. As an Android user, I’ve downloaded 250+ free applications through the Market and not needed or wanted to pay a penny/cent/centime for any others. This is great for the consumer! Most Android developers seem to be writing apps for the love of the OS/content, not for cash.
yea but its not sustainable, people buy smartphones for what theyre capable of and a major part of that has to be apps. So how many people are going to bother buying android phones if there are no major apps. and app developers arent going to bother making major apps if nobody buys them. geeks might keep playing with android, but if nobodys buying android phones, nobody will make them either.
well you need to define what’s a “major app”… mobile games are not “major apps” to me (and I bet for 99% of Android users), and are not mandatory for the platform success… and I agree with the fact there’s already a boatload (even too much now) of nice free apps to try
there are tons of apps for android, it is def not the problem. the way i see it, android has a much smaller user base than iphone right now.
also, maybe ppl who use android just dont like to pay for apps when there are free alternatives. apple has hit the goldmine with its target audience – hip, young, love to waste & on useless programs… whereas google has got the more cerebral crowd
Uhh..it’s a bad thing because unless you’re a communist you don’t code for the love of code but hopefully to make a living, pay mortgage, buy food, stuff like that. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy what I do, but I tend to be more productive when I’m not homeless. So you’re not helping the argument by saying that you’ve download 250 free apps and never spent a penny. Unless you want Android to become a wasteland of half-ass little free apps you might consider buying an app every now and then and supporting the developer community.
I have yet to find a paid app that I wanted/needed to purchase. I don’t play games so I have no idea about the quality of the free games. But most of the apps that I download and use are excellent. The free Android apps are much better than the free iPhone apps. Now, I don’t use a task list app, but if I did, with an excellent free app like Astrid, why would I pay for another app. BTW, Astrid is donateware and if I were to have used it, I’d have donated.
There seems to be a feeling that open source free apps are somehow less well coded. As FireFox, Google Voice, Astrid, Shop Savvy et. al. have proven, that’s simply not the case.
Many people write apps for the love of it. Since they write quality apps, it makes it harder for the people trying to make money off of it, if they are not adding sufficient value.
The other thing with the Android market which is much better than the App store is that I can return it within 24 hours and get a refund if I don’t like the app. So the reasons given above of no screenshots etc are not complete deal breakers.
I like my G1 just fine. It does what I need it to do without paying for the Iphone name. Most apps I have were free. I have yet to find an app I would pay for. I also don;t like having to use the android market app. I’d prefer something like the apple app store. So it would be easier to find an app than digging through the marketplace. I might also be able to better tell if I want an app before I buy/download it.
Are you serious!? The App Store sucks compared to the Android Market. I’m an owner of both phones and I prefer Android’s Market. It’s actually much easier to use and I don’t have to go through a million pages and wait for things to load to download what I want.
The real problem seems to be that Android offers refunds, something the App Store doesn’t. Maybe instead of pointing fingers, they should take a look at the reasons people might be refunding.
You really go through a million pages to buy an iphone app? Are you retarded or do you just count in multiples of 1 million?
Honestly, have you used both? You have to click “Show me more” just to see all of the apps using the iPhone (and depending on how far you need to look, it can be quite a lot.). Android just scrolls forever. And searching the Android Market is a lot faster, too.
Could it be that the iPhone is a much bigger market? I don’t know the head to head sales figures but anecdotal evidence (I see iPhones all over the place vs. I only rarely see Androids) tells me that iPhone App. developers are fishing in a better stocked pond.
Nobody buys an Android phone to play stupid games. I personally purchased useful apps that make me money and save me time, but I would never spend even a penny on such games.
In all fairness, these are pretty decent games.
Decent or not, games have their demographic and that demographic will most possibly buy an iPhone… in the States… until Zii comes out. I wonder why the author is ignoring the recent announcement that Pixelpipe apps are performing really well on Android Market?
Yeah, I don’t think you should waste your time on games, beer or girls. Keep it up Nikolay. You sound like a blast to hang out with.
When did I say anything against beer and girls? I’ve been to a few parties here in SoCal where young and healthy guys and girls meet in nice houses on the beach to… play LAN games. Are you one of those “party animals”, appcoder?
And, you appcoder sound like a loser who plays games and drinks beer all the time – while “dreaming” of girls. Loser.
what do you expect when the store is run by geeks versus apple’s store run by marketing.
Wow I thought it would be bad, like a fraction of iPhone revenues, but this is nuts, a fraction of a fraction of iPhone revenues.
How could anyone even break even on an app at these levels?
I’ve noticed recently it has been pretty fashionable to bash Apple, mostly for its secret and closed culture. I think people who jump on the Apple bashing bandwagon often don’t spend enough time appreciating what an amazing achievement Apple made in making products that are loved BY THE CONSUMERS (note: not necessarily by technology wonks).
My best evidence for this is what I observed my 2 boys, 4 and 6, and how they naturally love to play with Apple products: iPhone, iPod Touch, Mac. Children don’t lie and certainly don’t have a hidden agenda. How often have you seen a kid play with an Android G1?
Enough said.
right. apples are great until you ‘re 10
@Li An
That wouldn’t have anything to do with what the parents are providing for the children to play with now, would it?
FAIL
Well put, Mike. Li An is stupid, what an idiotic logic.
My five month old LOVES playing with my G1. He likes it better than my old iPhone.
FAIL
Ummm my two kids use my G1 all the time. Stupid argument.
Free is best. Apple is for suckers.
Carrier billing is the only way to go for Android, all other options (credit cards, paypal etc) won’t help Android.
Don’t forget there are a lot of G1 dev phones out there that can’t buy many of these apps because of the DRM. I recently got a Magic and was surprised by all the apps I hadn’t seen before.
And… iPhone has a three(?) year head start on the Android. It’s an unrealistic comparison. The Android train is just starting.
10 months for Android VS 28 months for iPhone. Far from a three year head start.
Where is Sunshine pumper Arrington to spread the gospel of Android?
isnt it pretty much down to the fact that, virtually nobody has an android phone? i dont know what the numbers are, but that probably has something to do with it.
I think so, and the people who do have Android phones generally do not buy mobile software.
I’ll buy an android phone as soon as one is available with verizon. Unless either the iphone or Pre beats them there. Then I’ll buy that one. In other words, I’m network first, phone second.
Android F.U.D. campaign in full swing here.
The Android Marketplace app needs help, that’s for sure. Google should enable users to search for apps on the regular web site where there’s plenty of speed and screen real estate. I’d like to be able to find an app that I want on a big browser on my laptop and send a link to my phone to remind me to download the app.
Android sales are not great but they are NOT as bad as indicated by this one developer.
I create an application on Android and is currently sitting at 15,000 sales which mean I have earned around 10,000 after the 30% cut and this is over a span of 90 days which equates to roughly $117 a day.
Android is a tougher market mainly because the users are seriously not as dumb and are not willing to pay for unnecessary items. Farting apps or apps like sound grenade which made a living in the iphone market do extremely poor here. People will download, notice how stupid it is, and refund.
Developers are being babied by the sheer size and seriously “stupidity” of the iphone crowd which buys anything since Apple refuses to add an appropriate refund option.
1++
+2
Wow. I didn’t realize order flow is so important. Apple really is kind of not cutting corners, where Google always seems to cut corners in UX
http://traderbo...spx?symbol=goog
http://traderbo...spx?symbol=aapl
One thing that I imagine hurts is the initial registration process to buy an app. With an iphone, one has already given their CC info to apple; with android, you must enter info the first time. I suspect that a higher percent of android users have never bought any apps than iphone apps.
Other than this, the android store should be encoraging more sales (at least for people in the top 20); the refund ability reduces friction significantly – and I suspect it is rarely used for higher-quality apps.
I think Android Market should allow purchases on the desktop. You read an article about an app, you get excited, you click on the link and purchase it. This spontaneous purchasing is currently unavailable on Android Market. It’s a much smoother process and ready about an Android app, switching to your phone, and wasting 5 minutes searching for the app and still not being sure if this is the right app you read about or somebody has recommend to you. Yes, there are QR Codes, but those are not built into the platform and many consumer are not yet familiar with them.
I agree, but that isn’t the primary issue hurting Android sales. 90% of iPhone purchases are done on the phone.
Yeah, but iPhone App Store has screenshots, so, you can see what the app is all about. Android Market – nada! Just a title, an icon, the version and developer info, some narrative (which is reduced by latest version’s release notes), and 3 comments/ratings initially. Also, iPhone App Store gives you info on each update (i.e. the release notes). In other words, iPhone App Store is just a better app store for now and I really don’t understand why Google doesn’t just blatantly copy Apple’s iPhone App Store!
Agreed. The market has a lot of flaws, esp. the ones you noted.
A changelog alone would help a lot.
thats not the problem. the problem is that you don’t see how the app looks before you purchase it. introducing some sort of previewing system would work great. 99% of apps use simple android GUI
Perhaps, but d/l rate is just as high for regular apps.
With the 24h refund, I don’t find myself scared to buy an app.
Well how about opening up the paid Android Market to other parts of the world? It boggles the mind that as a Canadian I don’t have access to the same Market as the US. My money is just as green as yours!
Actually that’s not true. Our money is not made of moose fur.
The apps and moreso games for Android are generally rubbish. Even when you don’t compare them to the iPhone.
There are some many awesome games available for the iPhone and there really isn’t one decent one on Android.
I love Android but it still has a long way to go and the hardware needs to be a lot more powerful.
The simple reason why the Android Apps Market is underperforming is due to the fact that only a limited number of Mobile Smartphones have been released that feature the Android O/S.
Add up the sales of those Android Mobile Smartphones against Apple’s iPhones & iPod Touches and pretty easy to understand why the Apple App Store rules the roost.
Google is doomed to fail with the Android App Store as it has no real experience in dealing with high street consumers.
What they should be doing with the Global Mobile Operators that sell their Android O/S Smartphones is launching Instore Promotinal Campaigns that can hype up the Android App Store.
SpoofApp does great in the Android Market. It’s one of our largest sources of revenue. Our business model is much different than the model of these apps though; our app is free to download but additional minutes must be purchased online with a credit card or through PayPal, while these apps use the Android checkout process that you mentioned.
It’s interesting that they have such a few amount of downloads as well. SpoofApp has over 50,000 downloads/installs. Don’t have the exact number on me right now, but it’s probably close to 75,000.
Guess the freemium model > the paid model for Android right now.
http://en.wikip...ainty_and_doubt
Andriod will never take off under google’s wing. Look at google’s web page. If it so ugly compared to Apple or even Microsoft. I agree that the “ugly” is exactly what we want for search. But if you have a ugly phone, you will be afraid of even making calls in public. Not to mention buying apps.
“But if you have a ugly phone, you will be afraid of even making calls in public.”
yes, if you are 10 years old.
“Andriod “?? u must be 5 at least. stupid coment ever!!
for those who make profit with games that require high touch experience, I am rather skeptic about playing game with google phone due to the poor senstiveness of its screen. Puls, manipulating keys to play them isn’t graceful experience either if they are considered as alternatives.
The main reason is two-fold why apps don’t sell on Android at the minute:
1) Apples handset design is suited to games / reading et al. Take the Android HTC handsets at the moment, they are not designed (inc.battery life, touch capabilities) to be a multi purpose handset in this way. They’re phones not “really” internet tablets / gaming platforms / e-book readers
2) Maturity of the apps available – the only real outstanding apps I have seen on Android are the Google native apps (mail, maps etc) and herein lies the waiting game of course. They will improve but it takes time and users. The Apple app store didn’t wow straight away!
Of course this is a generalisation, and a broad one at that, but changes will come.The rest of the issues have been well trodden here, advertising etc, but it’s like everything in life – good things come to those who wait.
Samsung is the only hope for Android.
They can bring the mass market thanks to their worldwide retail distribution.
And Google should allow to make the payment for the apps by the telecoms operator
It’s getting old now. iPhone users are stupid and spend money on worthless shiny stuff, whereas Android users are simply more intelligent and less likely to mess around with silly games. Apple gets rich by catering to the lowest common denominator. It’s hardly uncommon, most industries work this way. Evolution please help us.
Not a good sign at all. Who’s got the ecosystem happening? Is this a repeat of Windows versus OS/2 (if anybody even remembers that)? No apps and even a superior OS can’t make it.
It might be more like Mac vs. PC in a year, when more Android handsets are sold (close versus open anybody?).
For all its success, it will be quite difficult for iPhone to keep up beating Motorola, LG, Samsung, HTC and Sony-Ericsson at the same time.
Not only more handsets to choose from, but different price ranges.
Or will iPhone be able to repeat its still indisputable lead in mp3 players…?
Even in the worst-case scenario they will keep an extremely profitable business and bragging rights for revolutionizing the industry, but I think they are likely to lose in the volume game in the medium term.
The non-free apps are buried when searching for applications in the Android market.
They need to strike a better balance or path for the higher quality, paid applications to rise to the top. As is, they stay at the bottom and can never get any momentum building. Maybe a featured applications section (that is more prominently displayed) from the top application developers.
The amount of misinformation about the Android platform, the phones, and the market are amazing. So far, it appears that 65% of the posters here have no idea what they’re talking about when it comes to real, hard facts about the subject.
Forgive me if someone already brought this up but… maybe people who buy android phones just aren’t that interested in games.
I have a couple of ad supported free puzzle games. These are great for killing a minute or two when I’m in line somewhere or waiting for a friend. I would never pay for a game on my phone. No interest.
Getting pumped in the behind by Apple is just as comfy as lessons learned by Microsoft. Apple is just as evil, just has a smaller dick and hardware integrated software. Both iPhone and Android fanboys should strangle each other and leave the way for a more serious approach on mobile software and hardware. Nokia N900. Let the FUD campaign commence!
The problem with all the non-apple AppStores is that they have not been thought from ground up..Most of them are in reaction to what apple has done with iTunes.The fault lies in the fact that these devices are inherently not geared to work with an Appstore.. I’ve written a blog post about this here http://thetechstig.com/?p=22