MOBILESPACE—As promising as open source products, platforms and markets may be, they also contain some weaknesses that are coming painfully clear to app developers. That, at least, is the result of a survey of 188 Android developers conducted by Open-First, according to an article in the Register.
The results of the survey are expected to be published next week, but the paper got a sneak peek and passed the results along.
“Nearly half [of the developers] aren't making the money they'd imagined they'd make off of Android, and the lack of decent search, filtering, and ratings have been blamed,” reported the Register, adding, “Google's laissez faire approach to gate keeping means the quality stuff's hidden by porn and inferior apps, while a lack of enforcement is allowing publishers' software to get ripped off by pirates.”
Also of concern was the fact that there are no price controls in the Android market, which tends to charge less than Apple. Developers say they would like to see Google exert some control over the market, even if it seems contrary to the company’s laissez faire approach to business and life.
More specifically, Open-First found that “49 per cent of publishers earned less than they had expected from the Android Market. Twenty seven per cent are making more and 24 per cent about what they'd expected.” Google’s lack of quality controls and marketing support got the major share of blame from those unhappy with their revenue.
Google fared better when it came to the speed with which applications were approved, but the speed had the accompanying downside that fast approval meant lax enforcement.
“Among the steps Google could take would be to better filter and help promote apps, improve the search and ratings system, improve payment options by permitting local currency and allowing in-application purchases, enforcement of patents and copyright and setting a minimum price for applications,” reported the Register.
Support also got poor grades, with 45 percent of developers saying they were dissatisfied in some way with the help they were getting from Google, and 54 percent reporting that a fifth of all customers complaints also were directly attributable to Google inattention.
The article concludes by allowing that while the results leave a lot to be desired, they are hardly atypical considering that only one app store regularly beats out the Android Market—Apple’s!
“Around half said the App Store was better than Android's Market. Blackberry App World, Windows Mobile Marketplace, Palm App Catalogue and Ovi all rated worse among devs who expressed an opinion,” said the paper.
For updates, check back with Open-First.
