app development – The Crow's Groove

Erosion in Interest to Develop for Android due to Growing Fragmentation

The Register published the following news on their website a few days ago:

A new study conducted by IDC and mobile-developer platform and services company Appcelerator has determined that as Google’s open source Android operating system becomes more and more fragmented, fewer and fewer developers are putting it on their “must-code-for” list.

When this subject comes up, I always point to these statistics, published by Tweetdeck in October 2010:
http://tweetdeck.posterous.com/android-ecosystem

If the Android ecosystem was that fragmented already 18 months ago, consider how fragmented it is nowadays now that we have Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) and 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) added to the equation.

Oh, and don’t forget about tablet support that was added to Android 3.0, which makes the number of screen sizes and types of hardware even more diverse than it was 18 months ago.

Link : The Register – Fragmentation bomb wounds Android in developer war

Two Important Reasons Why Android Developers Are Losing Money

In my previous post I asked your attention for Loic Le Meur’s opinion on what an average app developer can earn. The conclusion of that story is that for the majority of developers it’s not profitable enough (yet) to live from app development only. (For his detailed analysis, please refer to my previous post.)

Within 24 hours I stumbled upon a post at Royal Pingdom that is even more bad news for app developers. This time it is focused on the Android platform. According to the post, piracy levels are very high on the platform. But this is not the most important the Android developers are losing money.

Loic Le Meur’s Take on App Developer Earnings

People who are familiar with Seesmic, a company that is specialized in creating third party clients for Twitter, may have stumbled upon the name Loic Le Meur, the founder of Seesmic. Because Seesmic creates apps for all kinds of platforms, both desktop and mobile, I think that his opinion matters on this subject.

Recommended reading! (And don’t forget to check the comments for opinions of other people that operate in this business.)

Amplify’d from www.loiclemeur.com

How much can you really make developing mobile apps?

There is a huge buzz around mobile applications and app stores such as the AppStore and the Android Market which look more and more as a new Eldorado. Of course everybody starts dreaming when an app like Angry Birds shares that 6.5 million units have been sold generating $4.5 million for the developers after Apple’s cut. But how many Angry Birds are there?

Read more at www.loiclemeur.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/8rmp