Is there a reason developer aren't converting apps over to android market?

takeshi

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I think it's because Android people don't want to pay good money for quality apps. I've said this many times.

this is complete BS imo. I, as well as many others, are completely willing to pay $$ for a good app. dont make your personal opinions about the entire android fan-base.
It's not complete BS and it's not one single person's opinion. Spend some time reading comments on the Market and forums and you'll see Android users constantly griping about the cost of inexpensive apps.

I would agree if your assertion is that this isn't the only reason. There are a number of reasons. As with most things, it's rarely a simple black-and-white issue. Development and support costs are certainly concerns as well.
 

kodiak799

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If you have an app that's used repeatedly and you can keep it "fresh" (like Angry Birds with new levels), the advertising model should make you more money. A program like ShopSavvy should make a lot more money (think about how valuable their data must be).

But for other programs certainly it probably makes sense to charge a one-time fee. I'll confess to almost always searching and trialing free apps before going to paid apps for a solution. And when there's 10 other apps in the App store for $1 then they each make a little bit of money but when they are all free in Market maybe not.

I think the development/support costs have more to do with it. A marginally profitable IOS app isn't going to be worth it on Android. The interesting thing is Gingerbread allows direct C++ code which all developers are pretty much raised on whereas IOS is new and different and requires learning, so the scales might start to tip.
 
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knighthonor

knighthonor

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You guys are wasting your time and being trolled lol.

I have to question your Troll-meter because if asking a question is a troll, than maybe most people in the newbie forum need a troll ban as well right?

Sent from my DROIDX using DroidForums App
 

dcook12

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Well take my friend for example. Him and a friend write iPhone apps. Some proprietary stuff for companies, some apps for the market. But they don't have Android devices, don't know much about them. They're very good programmers but just don't have any experience with Android.

It would be a legitimately large amount of work to port things to Android. Some programs like Titanium allow you to write in javascript/python and cross compile to multiple platforms, but not everyone uses it, and even then it's only so powerful compared to writing natively.

So its' not like you just take an iPhone app project, hit "build android app" and submit it to the Android Market. Even large companies would have to devote a lot of resources to supporting a separate development team for Android. And if they use their current iPhone developers, that slows down iPhone development.

And for really big companies, these decisions take a long time to make. A lot of people need to agree on it and those meetings aren't short. You'll see most companies develop for both in time. Most big apps like Pandora are quickly available on all platforms.

Yeah..I agree...when you look at your phone...it's a small computer...so say you have windows xp on one PC and on another PC you have a the Mac with the Apple operating system. They are two totally different monsters and each have their own software that works with their operating system. So apps are the same. Iphone apps are written one way and Android another way. Since most of these developers make little or no money and this is a hobby on their spare time, to ask them to write the same app in two totally different environments is a lot.. Also props to the android developers!!!!! Never get as much thanks as you deserve!!!
 

Dave12308

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Piracy runs rampant on android and it's honestly not worth the time for successful ios developers (individuals) to port their successful apps over to android.

I would venture to say that piracy is MORE rampant on iOS than it is on Android. Heck, I won't mention any specifics; but on a jailbroken iOS device; one can download an alternate market app SPECIFICALLY designed for downloading cracked iOS apps from file hosting sites. And the content pretty much mirrors what is in the app store, if what I was reading is correct.
 

Dave12308

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The interesting thing is Gingerbread allows direct C++ code which all developers are pretty much raised on whereas IOS is new and different and requires learning, so the scales might start to tip.

Actually, i'm pretty sure that Apple's Xcode allows the use of C, C++, and Objective C.

Gingerbread's support of direct C++ coding MAY make it easier to cross-compile. Currently, I believe that the Android NDK supports partial coding in C++; however everything is still packaged into an APK and runs on a VM. Direct support in GB should make apps run more efficiently, since there are less layers to go thru, so to speak.
 

kodiak799

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Actually, i'm pretty sure that Apple's Xcode allows the use of C, C++, and Objective C.

Gingerbread's support of direct C++ coding MAY make it easier to cross-compile. Currently, I believe that the Android NDK supports partial coding in C++; however everything is still packaged into an APK and runs on a VM. Direct support in GB should make apps run more efficiently, since there are less layers to go thru, so to speak.

I believe Apple does, although not sure if it is as direct. That's what Google had to say (so how true vs. spin I can't say) about Gingerbread, that basically the entire app can be written in C++ and then it's very easy to run a sort of java plug-in as basically a front-end. They believe this will make it much easier to port apps, especially games, from the PC. Again, I'm not a developer but it seems developers still have to learn OSX, so it would appear that's one advantage tilting in Android's favor but there's other advantages to IOS.

I stand by a good app that's profitable on IOS will be profitable on Android, except for niche apps where 10-20k users spread across the different Android platforms no longer make sense from an ROI perspective. Certainly if I already knew OSX it's easier and smarter to test market an idea on IOS, and that's a pretty big advantage that will never go away. That probably means they get some of the better apps a few months ahead, which could seem like an eternity in the space but once an app hits critical mass/profitability on IOS you'd have to have almost 0 business sense not to start working on an Android version.

And not to say piracy doesn't hurt the pocketbook, but if it's 10% (which would seem high) that's not going to prevent you from rolling out a profitable app on Android. If 10% is $100, that might make a difference, but again if that's the case you're talking an app of very limited usefulness and/or audience. If you can make $10,000 off an app in Android you'd have to be an idiot to walk away because you might lose $1000 to piracy.
 
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