Android Tries Harder

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/19/android-tries-harder/

by bensummers • 16 years ago

237 94 16 years ago

pogue.blogs.nytimes.com

tvon3• 16 years ago

This is very smart on Google's part. What Android seems to lack is polished apps (at least on the scale of the iPhone), and wooing specific developers could go a long way to remedying that.

mortenjorck• 16 years ago

Exactly.

Apple managed to get quantity, and with that the quality that you can often expect from the top 5% given enough quantity.

Google's much more surgical approach makes sense in that they can't realistically compete in quantity of apps any time soon, and thus have to specifically seek out quality to compete with Apple.

frederickcook• 16 years ago

Reminds me of the "first-to-market advantage" that entrepreneurs talk about all the time. Apple took a huge, huge chunk of market and has had it since the iPhone came out. I think we'll see over the next year or two how well that works for them, and if developer sentiment is an early indicator, there could be some big changes in market share.

tvon3• 16 years ago

I think you're partially right, but I think some of that quality is just because the platform puts UX as a top priority. I'm speaking very generally, of course, but there is a reason OSX apps have a reputation for looking very polished vs other platforms.

pkulak• 16 years ago

It's a lot easier to make a good app for the iPhone than for an Android phone. Throw a table controller in a nav controller in a tab controller and you're done. With Android you can mess around with XML for a week and still have an app that looks like crap. I think it's good that they are reaching out, for sure, but I hope they are also really trying to build out their APIs a bit more to make it easier. I've wanted to make an Android app for a while now, but every time I get started, I quit a couple days later out of frustration.

postfuturist• 16 years ago

Most of the hard work of promoting the Android platform to developers has already been done by Apple.

Originally, I wanted to spend my tax return on a Mac so I could partake in iPhone development. Given Apple's recent actions, I'm just going to get an Android phone, and use my current laptop loaded with Ubuntu to develop for it.

vito• 16 years ago

I could not agree more. Sent from my Nexus One that literally just arrived. My semi-new iPhone is on Craigslist, and I'm already working on an Android app.

That's quite some free advertising.

icey2• 16 years ago

I just wish there was a "main" android phone, or one that was a clear leader. So far, it's felt like "the" android phone to have is whatever is next in the pipeline.

I understand that the Nexus One is probably the nicest piece of hardware out there right now; but it's hard to decide to jump to it when it constantly sounds like there's going to be something even better just around the corner.

I guess my complaint is that I feel like the Android ecosystem is still too volatile to want to spend money on a phone.

steveklabnik• 16 years ago

I also literally just got a Nexus One. Though I'm typing this on my new MacBook.

I'm just so confused! (Or not. Best tool for the job. I'd rather not rely on just one ecosystem all the time.)

mcantelon• 16 years ago

I've got one on the way in the mail as well.

I didn't plan to learn Java, but will do so to develop for Android and I feel it's the most interesting platform and has the most long-term viability.

barnaby• 16 years ago

In a similar story, I have been ignoring the entire mobile phone app craze until now. Something about Google's message really resonates with me and I'm thinking of writing my first phone app for Android. Gonna go buy one soon and make apps!

You can probably just apt-get everything you need to get started with android dev, no?

acj• 16 years ago

You can grab the general-purpose development tools (jdk, Eclipse, etc.) with apt-get. After that, you'll need to download the Android SDK and follow the installation steps. Eclipse will pull the remaining libraries for you. (If you encounter any strange errors while installing the SDK through Eclipse, try downloading the full Eclipse from eclipse.org and using that instead.) It's very easy to set up a virtual phone in the emulator and test your apps on various versions of Android.

Overall, my experience with the Android toolchain on Ubuntu (as well as OS X) has been a positive one.

iamdave• 16 years ago

Competition is good, but there's something in that article that made me think:

>“Contrast with Apple’s approach: it took us about three months of resubmitting our app to Apple before they stopped rejecting it for inappropriate content. And even now (after we peaked at the No. 7 paid app)"

It's the "after we peaked at the No. 7 paid app", part. While I think it's pretty amazing that Apple managed to create it's own microindustrial economy within the App store, it seems that a leading motivation for writing Apps is just to be in the App store and get ranked.

Now I know full well this isn't the only reason people write apps for the iPhone, and maybe it's because of the walled garden effect that once you write an App you're dying to get in and hope people use it. But personally, I like the Android ecosystem where writing and distributing software is as native as it is on any computer.

And based on that conjecture alone, I don't think it's an issue of 'quality control'. Taking one giant step back, when you have a format that's easily distributed across whatever medium you choose, and don't put quality apps beside apps of less quality in a closed-off 'store', people don't even notice. They go for the apps they want to use and they can search whatever marketplace has it, to purchase and install it.

Competition in the App Store is good. Consumer choice in the market place is even better. That's why I don't own an iPhone and never will purchase an iPad.

brown9-2• 16 years ago

I think that comment was just intended to highlight that even the developer of a pretty successful iPhone application (by the metric of popularity) hasn't received any outreach from Apple.

zppx• 16 years ago

> "And even now (after we peaked at the No. 7 paid app), we still have no relationship with anyone there."

This, for me, is a real problem with the Apple model (the "hide the engineers" model, also followed by Oracle), we can not simply write an e-mail about a bug (Apple do have a closed bug tracker) or suggest a feature or even get motives about why some features do not exist in the iPhone (such as OpenVPN support), compare this with the extensive network of blogs that Google and Microsoft engineers have.

This is sad, you're always dealing with a cold company and not with people just like you that probably have some good motives for including or not a feature in a product, I wish to be alive in the day Apple becomes more open.

proee• 16 years ago

Classic 80/20. 80% of the best apps in the App Store are probably created by 20% of the developers.

Therefore Google is smartly attempting to come in and skim the cream from the top.

barredo• 16 years ago

Apple's AppStore reminds me of Google AdSense policy of isolation and almost inexistent customer service. If they ban you: They ban you. There's no possibility to discuss things.

wmeredith• 16 years ago

Uh, I beg to differ, and hopefully help some people out, Google's Adwords customer service number is 1.866.2.GOOGLE.

I've had 2 great experiences with them, both involving multiple calls over a week's time solving Adwords account problems. (I'm only managing ~$15,000 ad spend per month, so it wasn't because I'm a big fish.) I do believe that's US support only, but I could be wrong. It's been the better part of a year since I've had to call in.

qeorge2• 16 years ago

AdSense is much different than AdWords. If you're rejected by AdSense there's no recourse.

Anecdotally, my past experience with support for both AdWords and AdSense has been terrible. I'm glad they've got an 800 number now.

lftl2• 16 years ago

Parent said AdSense whereas you said AdWords, gigantic difference in the service experience you get. Which is mostly logical since AdWords users are directly paying customers, while AdSense users are more like vendors.

jonknee• 16 years ago

You confused AdWords and AdSense, but I think it's odd that you don't think spending $180k a year with a company would be enough to get you special treatment. You may not be a big fish in Google's pond, but you're definitely spending enough to get noticed and dealt with as such.

My office chair quite literally comes with better phone support than AdSense (or AdWords since I've never spent much).

profgubler• 16 years ago

I still think Google's Adwords customer service is pretty pathetic. When you spend $50,000+ a month and have to go through a lot of work to get the phone number for the first time and then can't get a consistent account rep it is very frustrating. At those kinds of spending levels a lot of companies will roll over for you, even if it isn't a 1,000,000 dollar account.

They also apply their policies very inconsistently, and greatly favor large advertisers. I think their documentation is great, but they need to make a better effort to reach out to advertisers. I am not a huge fan of Microsoft's adcenter, but their customer service is incredible. Their number is always nice and prominent and when you call they will do anything to help, and work hard to get it solved then, where as Google will take their time.

Again this is a sample size of one, but google goes out of their way to not talk to you, they even hide their customer support chat service through several layers of help screens.

hockeybias5• 16 years ago

An interesting chapter in what is likely to be a long and interesting story. As a 17+ year Microsoft developer I have always been impressed with Microsoft's developer support & tools relative to those of Apple and, earlier (for me) Sun's Java. I am often SO VERY underwhelmed with the support offered to non-Micorsoft developers. Google seems to be using this (the Microsoft) approach and I imagine they will have a lot of success with it!

sman• 16 years ago

The person driving the Google's developer relations is Vic Gundotra who was responsible for Microsoft developer relations and development tools for close to 10+ years(I think from 96-06). He is using all the strategies that worked for Microsoft plus new ideas which would never have been possible at Microsoft due its closed nature.

adnam3• 16 years ago

I still get the message "Sorry, the Nexus One phone is not available in your country or region" on google.com/phone. I can buy a Nexus1 for 500€ on eBay, compared to 139€ for an iPhone 3G with a data contract. I'm still holding out for a decent Android option though.

there• 16 years ago

that's kind of comparing apples to oranges. an unlocked iphone is about $1000, but an unlocked nexus one is $529. a t-mobile locked nexus one is only $179, and an at&t locked iphone is $199.

adnam3• 16 years ago

Sure, but right now my only two options are a bad apple and an expensive orange.

dagw5• 16 years ago

The HTC Desire is for all intents and purposes exactly the same phone as the Nexus One, and is available just about everywhere for a bit less than the iPhone.

SingAlong3• 16 years ago

Nexus One isn't the only phone running android. The other popular ones I've heard of are Motorola Droid (the GSM version is called Cliq/MileStone i think so) and HTC Hero.

Also there's a low-end Android phone by HTC called HTC Tattoo. But I would say no to it since you get what you pay for. Not many apps run on it coz of the type of screen it has.

Also no to Sony's Xperia X10 coz it runs Android 1.6 although it's a new phone.

HTC Desire is awesome. Also it has the same specs as Nexus One minus the Google logo. It also addresses some N1 problems :)

I would suggest that you investigate if the manufacturer is the kind that would support you by offering OS updates if a later version of Android releases. HTC seems to be one. I dunno abt Motorola.

Get something that runs the snapdragon processor coz there's a very high possibility that these phones will get updates to a new OS version coz it's capable of running them better.

A tip - develop using the emulator first and then buy a phone :)

P.S: I'm getting a Desire later this month when it releases in my country.

adnam3• 16 years ago

I'm very interested in the HTC Desire. Unfortunately, in Spain the options are rather limited at the moment.

credo• 16 years ago

So if your app does well in the iPhone app store, you may get an email from Google evangelists. OTH if your app does well in any other app store, you don't get emails from any evangelists.

This seems to speak to the strength of the iPhone app store and this strength also explains why most developers seem to prefer the iPhone app store :)

Note: I wrote a prototype Android app (with their beta SDK) long before the first Android phone was in the market (and before the iPhone app store was launched). I have successful apps in the iPhone app store, no apps in the Android app store/market.

orangecat2• 16 years ago

OTH if your app does well in any other app store, you don't get emails from any evangelists.

A few months ago Google gave out free Droids and N1s to developers whose apps had over 5000 downloads and at least a 3.5 rating. (Of course at the time my app had 4200).

gojomo• 16 years ago

Anyone want to try guessing a date when the Android Market passes the Apple App Store in raw application count? (I know ultimately quality is more important, but it could be a symbolically important day... and might prompt a lighter touch towards developers from Apple.)

My wild guess: November 15.

webwright2• 16 years ago

More important guess: Will Android pass Apple in terms of market share? They went from nothing to 1/3 of the way there in 1 quarter, pretty much.

Depends on how quickly Apple can make it to other carriers. If I were the carriers, I'd have a few backroom meetings to NOT offer the iPhone (lest they become dumb pipes!).

If I were Android, I'd drop the rev-share for apps to 15% from 30% so developers make more money with less sales. And I'd make sure the carriers got a bit of the rev share.

If I were Apple, I'd take that pile of cash and build out a cellular network ASAP. ;-)

dannyr• 16 years ago

The advantage of Android is that it has an army of hardware manufacturers that can churn phones of different price points. Android can be released in much more countries quickly than the IPhone since these HW companies will be the ones making deals with carriers in different countries.

This is why I think it's a matter of time for Android to overtake the IPhone in terms of unit sales. If the 30+ Android models are actually released later this year, Android will likely surpass the IPhone early next year.

The profits crown will remain with Apple though for a very long time.

sandipc• 16 years ago

way too early. it will happen, but I'm thinking 2011 at the earliest.

mclin• 16 years ago

If Google doesn't do anything to quell the hordes of spam apps hitting the market, it could happen even sooner.

http://www.androlib.com/android.developer.myapp-builder-qinw...

jpeterson• 16 years ago

Still not hard enough. Google needs to focus on what they do best: Search.

neonfunk• 16 years ago

Gotta love the competitive spirit... Now if only their other services would offer such "human" support, as opposed to the maddening, hair-pulling, teeth-wrenching -- yes -- god-questioning expereience it is trying to contact Checkout or AdWords support. (Don't get me wrong -- these are great products when working proper -- it's just when they aren't working, and I'm giving them $500/mo., it seems reasonable that I would be able to talk candidly with someone.)

keltex• 16 years ago

Adwords has excellent human support. Of course, you have to reach the level where they take enough interest in you. I've found that to be about the $2000/month level.

If you get to the $100K+/yr level then you get a rep. with a direct line that you can appeal to.

Then once you have your adwords rep on board, they are good at helping you get support from other groups... Checkout, Google products, etc.

bradly• 16 years ago

Developers will develop where they think they will make the most money. Currently, that is Apple's App Store. A $500 phone isn't going to push someone to spending the time and resources to release to Android. At least not someone with very much business sense. I'm not trying to be a hero; I'm trying to make a dollar.

qeorge2• 16 years ago

I know an excellent developer who just took a significant paycut to work on something he's passionate about.

I largely agree with you that its still the bottom line that matters, but mindshare is often under-appreciated.

hockeybias5• 16 years ago

To develop for android does one use a large subset of Java? ...There must be many more developers with a medium-to-heavy Java background than there are Objective-C developers. Any thoughts?

arebop• 16 years ago

Java's not a very big language, so yes to that. The android libraries aren't dependent on a large subset of the famously huge Java library space, so no to that.

I think you're right that many more programmers are immediately available for Android development than for iPhone/iPad development.

DanielRibeiro• 16 years ago

Actually, with Android Scripting (http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/) you can use other languages that run on jvm, such as ruby, python, javascript and others. Charles Nutter even supports a ruby version on Android directly: http://blog.headius.com/2010/01/busy-week-jruby-with-android....

If you like static typed languages, you can even use Scala on Android (http://www.scala-lang.org/node/160).

Many possibilities beyond plain old java.

theBobMcCormick• 16 years ago

It should be noted though that Android Scripting isn't usable for producing a standalone .apk. ie, you can't use it to build an app to put in the market.

Scala on the other hand, is supposedly production ready. I haven't tried it yet myself, but it's on my to-do list. :-)

nicpottier• 16 years ago

The reason they try harder is because there is far less money to be made on Android. I have the 6th top paid app in the store, Newsroom,(app, not game) and the revenue is nowhere near enough to live on. If I had the 6th top paid app in the iPhone catalog, I'd be writing this on my solid gold Macbook Pro.

There's a reason they are giving away handsets like mad (we've gotten two droids free in the past month).. Money is not enough of a draw yet.

alanh• 16 years ago

As soon as Google stops caring so much about Android marketshare -- and they will get bored, or will lose against Apple, or start dominating -- as soon as that happens, developers' helpful "personal contacts" will disappear.

Ask any Adwords advertiser or Google Checkout implementor.

jsz0• 16 years ago

Smart move by Google but at the same time I feel like they have some bigger issues to address. We know Android devices are selling pretty well. Why aren't good apps appearing organically? I'd look at 5 major problems:

1) Descriptions and other meta data for apps in the Android Market is atrocious. Lots of apps don't even have an informative description of what they do. Most apps don't have screenshots. This is the developer's responsibility however it hurts the platform as a whole when the user gets frustrated.

2) The top charts are heavily biased towards geeky applications. I have no doubt they register the most downloads but they may discourage people from exploring the Market deeper. A "top grossing" list would be valuable here.

3) The Market displays apps in other currencies. This is confusing. Easily fixable.

4) Some apps in the Market simply aren't compatible with some devices or are otherwise very buggy. This also may discourage people from digging deeper

5) Google Checkout is a total flop. Few use it outside of the Android market. Not sure what the solution is here but it impedes impulse buying for lots of people.

elai• 16 years ago

Now android has to try harder with it's marketplace software and infrastructure, where it will really make a large difference in getting developers over.

Android Tries Harder

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