A little over a year ago, Verizon announced their intention to create a multi-platform app store for devices running on their network. This was met with a decidedly Chilly response because customers and commenter’s feared that Verizon would supplant native app stores to push their own.
Fast foreward to today. Verizon sucessfully launched their app store on Blackberry, with those devices still shipping with the native Blackberry App World installed, and now they want to do the same thing to Android. And no, this isn’t the end of the world (At least, it doesn’t have to be).
(Source: http)
Read moreRecently, Android Central, posted a link about how a very popular app in the marketplace, Astro File Manager, recently updated. The New update added several features, but also included in app ads.
Android central’s question was simple, “If your favorite app add ads, would you leave it?” I think the question itself points to a larger one.
Do we, as the android community, want to foster a marketplace where developers will push the platform to it’s limits, or will we just settle for whatever we can get for free?
It’s no secret that the Android marketplace is a bit of a catch all at the moment. You have your high quality professional applications sharing the same virtual shelf as “sexy girl time 4” iterations. There’s a lot of really great apps out there, most of them still free, but finding them is a bit of a crap shoot.
But Android is GROWING. Over 160,000 devices are added to the ranks every day. Big app developers like Openfeint and several large media companies are all looking at the platform as the next big thing, and this is great for consumers.
But there’s one thing that has them nervous about Android, and that’s the topic of monetization. At last count 57% of the apps on the marketplace are free, and of those paid apps, most don’t see more than a few thousand downloads, and those are the lucky ones.
Believe it or not, not all developers spend hours in front of their computers developing a program for you to enjoy just because they like to see you smile. Sure, satisfaction of a job well done is part of it, but there are some people who are trying to make a living (or at least supplement one) by making applications for your phone.
For a developer, there are three different ways he can try and make some money off of his product.
- Charge money for the download- While this is the most obvious way to make money on his product, it’s also really risky. At the moment, most android owners seem unwilling to pay for an application, at least those that cost more than $.99. The argument could be made that most paid apps arn’t worth purchasing, and while this is certainly true for some apps (I’m looking at you sexy girl time 4) for the most part, it’s just us justifying our desire to get everything we want at no cost.
- In app advertising- You know what I’m talking about. Those little squares that pop up along the border of the application from time to time. Don’t you just hate them? But here’s the thing. They cost you nothing, they’re barely there anyway, and their presence gives the developer the potential to make some cash. I think Google needs to do some serious work to the advertising system still, but its not something we should be complaining about (more on this later)
- Ask for Donations- This is the “ideal” option. If we like an app, we’ll navigate to that developers paypal account and send some cash their way to tell them to keep up the good work. But how effective is this? I’m not an app developer, but if someone who is a developer and asks for donations reads this, could you tell me how effective this is for you? I’d be willing to bet the numbers arn’t all that high.
Since the article that started this topic was about advertising, let’s look at it a bit more. There are applications on the marketplace that will help you block all ads on your phone and in the browser. Some custom roms include this functionality as a default. But here’s the kicker, if ads arn’t effective for the advertisers, they’ll stop paying as much to the developers to display them, so the developer is down to two choices to try and make money. Realistically one choice, because the average developer isn’t going to expect donations and put out the same quality of work as he would if he was already getting paid.
So where does this leave us, the consumer? If the developers can’t make money without charging, then the only quality apps we’ll get will cost us money, and high end developers won’t even consider the market. The market will still be a mess of shoddy, never updated free apps and a slim collection of premium apps.
If we want a better market, we NEED to make it possible for developers to make some money on their products. So what will it be? Are we going to work with developers to foster a marketplace that benefits us with quality and them with cash? Or will we just complain about costs, block ads, and accept whatever anyone will throw at us for free?
