Why Smule won't be developing mobile apps for Android

http://www.edibleapple.com/why-smule-wont-be-developing-mobile-apps-for-android/

by anderzole • 16 years ago

16 18 16 years ago

freetard• 16 years ago

Here's why:

1) they don't have the money to develop for both the iPhone and Android.

2) announcing they won't develop for Android will bring them some needed publicity as it did for that gaming company who did last time.

3) if they don't have the funds to develop for android and make money out of it, they may as well try to cash on the fact that they won't be developing for Android.

All and all, pretty pathetic PR.

anderzole• 16 years ago

Over 4 million apps at around $2-$3 a pop? I'd say they have more than enough money. They also raised $8 million in December http://moconews.net/article/419-smule-adds-8-million-second-...

gte910h3• 16 years ago

I think you're trying to minimize the difficulty of the android platform:

1> Pure Compute Power between handsets varies widely. You can't do something that requires significant compute power without functioning poorly on the less powerful handsets.

2> Screen resolutions are all over the place (You have to test on 5-8 different resolutions). This is KILLER for someone doing a game or other fixed width layout. It's not like you see 15 different sizes of flash windows. MOST people can't afford to do multiple sizes.

3> Installed OS version is all over the place. While there is a supposed "upgrade to 2.1" happening later this spring for all handsets, I predict many handset owners won't do it, as it will require a data wipe.

4> The Tools Batman. Interface builder is leagues upon lightyears better than hand edited XML based java container layouts. You have easily 10x the layout and positioning work for Android, and you have to test this layout and positioning on all the different phones.

5> The installer: If your app has any amount of data in it, you have to write an installer and sell the installer, which then downloads your app. This is expensive.

So yes, you're technically right, they don't have the money or don't see it a worthwhile investment to try to target the crappy android development landscape.

Perhaps someone will make a unifying toolkit that does screen layouts well and is in Python or another one of the ASL toolkit, but with the current old school java development kit that is android, it's not going to be a winning target for many developers.

wallflower• 16 years ago

> The Tools Batman. Interface builder is leagues upon lightyears better than hand edited XML based java container layouts. You have easily 10x the layout and positioning work for Android, and you have to test this layout and positioning on all the different phones.

"Designing your interface on the iPhone is easy. It's fun. It's intuitive. On Android, it's fucking hell. It's like working with the evil offspring of GridBagLayout and XML. It's utterly horrid. But, Java has never done UI well and has never made it particularly fun so I can't say I was surprised by this, though it did exceed my expectations by being even worse than I thought humanly possible. The whole process is counter-intuitive and time-consuming, and that's just to make something that functions. It's even more time-consuming and painful to make a UI that doesn't look like ass."

Android SDK from an iPhone Developer's Perspective

http://iphonedevelopment.blogspot.com/2010/03/android-sdk-fr...

Rabidgremlin• 16 years ago

Re point 2. The iPad has a much larger screen then the iPhone so now you will be building apps with custom screens and layouts...

I think the biggest problem with the Android marketplace is that unless you are in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom or United States you cannot actually sell your apps since you cannot set up a Google Checkout account! No such problem with the Apple App store...

davidw• 16 years ago

Because they're very clearly an Apple-only bunch, being interviewed for an Apple news site?

stanleydrew• 16 years ago

I don't really get it. Are they claiming that "I am T-Pain" would be expensive to build on Android because they would have to test it against a bunch of different devices and UIs? As far as I can tell the app shouldn't require any fancy UI elements. You just need a microphone and a speaker right?

bmalicoat2• 16 years ago

It doesn't 'require' fancy UI elements but that's what makes a decent app good or a good app great. Having lots of fragmented hardware to support (eg multiple resolutions) is a pain.

vetinari• 16 years ago

Multiple resolutions is not a problem, it is just pathetic excuse of Apple fanbois. Just wait, until Apple comes with iPhone using higher res, then of course it will be best thing since sliced bread and Apple will be first with such a novel concept.

alxp• 16 years ago

Also what if Motorola's microphone is sourced from a different supplier and has a different level of noise coming into it and it causes the app to not function, thousands of angry users and Smule's reputation is ruined. Predictability is a huge advantage.

RyanMcGreal• 16 years ago

> lynch-pin

The word they're looking for is "linchpin".

starkfist• 16 years ago

There's also a technical reason. They use their own audio toolkit which evolved out of Chuck, which Ge developed as his PhD thesis.

This would be a bear to port to Android. It would either require a complete rewrite or they'd have to use one of the weird NDK/Dalvik VM layer hacks that may or may not be officially supported.

Why Smule won't be developing mobile apps for Android

Related Stories