Android's "Flea Market" Needs Urgent Attention

andylim writes "According to Barry O'Neil, ex-President of Namco Bandai Network Europe, Google needs to understand that a constantly evolving 'beta' product doesn't cut it. It has to learn from the mistakes of the Java business in order to save Android. 'If Google is to present a threat to the Apple App Store ecosystem, it needs to address discovery and purchasing as a matter of urgency, or abandon control and hand over the entire management of the Android Market to carriers, OEMs and trusted publishers.'"

Comments

What

[blhack]

I'm sorry, but does android really need saving? I see more and more and more android based phones every day.

Re:What

[nomadic]

It does, according to the ex-President of a company of which I've never heard!

I know, I mean who's heard of Namco? What the hell have they made? Something called "Pac-Man"? What the hell is a Pac-Man? It sounds like a type of food.

Re:What

[catxk]

If you look at it from an Apple perspective, I guess you would think that the key to mobile OS success is a well-functioning software market. Android, apparently, does not have one. The fact that more and more phones run Android is no more a sign of success than the fact that the Ipad is sold out. Initial high sales indicates little more than successful marketing, but to ensure long-lasting success, the users also have to be satisfied after the purchase. Then again, this is from an Apple perspective. In my opinion (and I use an S60 device), the Android OS seems solid enough with or without an official marketplace.

Re:What

[Aladrin]

You joke, but how successful have they been lately? I couldn't name any recent games, so I went to check their site. Almost every title listed in their 'new games' section is junk. The ones that aren't junk are just sequels to things that weren't junk... And there's not many of them. (And for some of them, I don't think they held the rights to the originals.)

So he's going to tell a massively successful company like Google how to run their software business? Seriously?

I don't get it?

[ckaminski]

I use the Android app market, and I find what I need. I think the Apple App Store is more plagued with marketers vying for positioning in the vaunted "Top 75" than in any other fashion. How about letting me sort by "5 stars"? Anybody?

I'm not sure I want anyone except the community "in charge" of what gets bubbled up in each category.

Re:I don't get it?

[geekoid]

http://www.android.com/market/

You can't search for apps. You can on the phone, but consumers need better integration and ways to access information.

Lets say you were interested in an Android device, how do you find out what apps are in the market?

Re:I don't get it?

[RootWind]

http://www.cyrket.com/ http://www.androlib.com/ http://www.appbrain.com/ http://www.androidzoom.com/ Just to name a few... Sure, one by Google might be nice.

Re:I don't get it?

[NeutronCowboy]

I think the problem with the Android app market is that you have no idea what you're missing in your searches. There are categories, sure. But do I really want to browse 5000 apps in entertainment to make sure that that's not where the video players are hiding? Or when I search for a battery management app, do I search for battery management? Battery? Battery saver? And if I scroll down more, what do I get? Do I get results that are less relevant? Less used? Older? Combination thereof?

In short, I have no idea how the Android app market works, and the search results are haphazard enough that I don't trust it. And as you pointed out, I can't even organize the search results. No sorting by downloads, by popularity, by ratings, or by developer.

The Android App store is right now my biggest gripe of the entire Android ecosystem. Google and others have produced some outstanding apps, but I have no idea if they're there, or what it is that I should search for.

Here are a couple of suggestions that would drastically improve the user experience:
- have a web interface available. Seriously, that's a no-brainer.
- let me order the results by ratings, downloads, date, publisher and name. Another complete no-brainer.
- Allow me to recommend apps to friends and contacts. Or allow me to set my download privacy so that friends and contacts can see what I installed.
- Provide a staff pick

3 out of 4 of those are brain dead to implement, and don't even require much computational complexity. Considering that the app store is part of what makes the iPhone the iPhone, I don't understand what's keeping Google from actually offering a usable experience.

Re:I don't get it?

[karnal]

Picture this:

I have a phone now. I'm looking at the nice and shiny android phones. But I am not quite convinced that the apps are what I might need.

How do I find out from a PC that there's something that would push me over the edge?

That's the mole hill that you tripped over.

Re:I don't get it?

[StayFrosty]

There's an app called "Where's my droid" that is useful for this. If you text "Wheres my droid" to your phone number it will start ringing...even if it is on silent. This is mostly useful if you lost it in the house or car or something. If you text "Wheres my droid GPS" it texts back with the coordinates. You can change the text strings it responds to--this may be a good idea so people don't mess with you when you have your phone on silent.

YES!

[geekoid]

I ahve sent several emails, and posted on the form.

There online market SUCKS.

I have a G1. it's running Google android OS. It is fully integrated with Google.

Why can't I go to android.com and do a search for apps?
Yes, a Google site and you can't search for market apps.

http://www.android.com/market/

Not searchable. I'm sorry, what is Google's core business?

Re:YES!

[JustinOpinion]

Agreed. I keep thinking I'm doing something fundamentally wrong... I can search for apps on my Droid but I can't find a website that lets me search through the apps or browse the app categories. Apparently there are roughly 30,000 Android apps, but if you click around the marketplace, you'll get a sense that there's maybe 50 or 80 apps out there. This is both a problem for Android users (who can't find what they want... doing it on the phone is okay but not as efficient) and for uptake (it makes the platform look amateurish).

On the flip side, though, I can't imagine a worse move than "hand over the entire management of the Android Market to carriers, OEMs and trusted publishers." The carriers would turn it into a painful nickel-and-dime opportunity (forget free apps!), and letting OEMs and publishers do whatever they want would make the Android platform even more fragmented. Google is (in theory) the right entity to mange the Android Market: they have a good reputation, they are really good at sorting and search, they know how to make a good web UI, etc. In fact, it's fundamentally surprising that they didn't put together a slick interface for the Android Market...

Re:YES!

[ionix5891]

click the market app on your G1 and search

You mean like...

[Darkness404]

Google needs to understand that a constantly evolving 'beta' product doesn't cut it

You mean like Gmail, Chrome, and a ton of other products that people use while in beta? Android's main strength is that it is open, cutting edge and changeable. A crappy interface or design on Windows Mobile is going to be slow to change, a crappy interface or design in Android is going to be quick to change.

Don't want something -slightly- unstable? Get a BlackBerry and its outdated architecture. Want something that is going to be nearly the same from beginning to end? Get an iPhone, but don't expect stability.

I had a Windows Mobile phone for a bit, it crashed so often I went back to my "dumb" phone before getting an Android handset that rarely crashes.

Android is doing the most things right at the moment. Windows Mobile is screwing customers by not offering software upgrades, Apple is screwing customers by not allowing them to use their apps, BlackBerry simply is a crappy environment to code for, and despite how much Palm wants WebOS to gain marketshare, it simply isn't happening.

Oh and never, ever allow OEMs, carriers or "trusted publishers" to take over app markets, otherwise you screw your customers even more. I don't want my carrier telling me what I can and can't have on my phone, same with OEMs and I don't want a "trusted publisher" removing all competition to their product.

Re:You mean like...

[BJ_Covert_Action]

Also, whoever said that Google does want to be a threat to Apple? Granted, Google is a corporation and corporations like to make money, but that doesn't mean they have to present a direct threat to any other company. It always seemed to me like Google just did what Google did because:

A) It would be good for Google.
B) They thought it would be really helpful and/or cool.

I mean, sure, Google made a competitive product with the iPhone in releasing the Android architecture. They also made a competitive product with Mozilla in releasing Chrome. They also made a competitive product to Hotmail, Yahoo mail, Lycos mail, etc. by releasing G-mail. Hell, now they are even getting into a market where they seem to want to compete with companies they've never even had contact with. Look into the types of business decisions they are making with regards to alternative energy technology and power management technology. Then of course there are their products that weren't really designed to compete with anything, but were meant to bring an entirely new product to the market. That is, they developed Google, their search engine, and Google maps/Earth to bring about products that really were so polished and impressive that they completely revolutionized the way we work.

So, yeah, Google has some products on the market that compete with Apple. That doesn't mean they want to threaten Apple. Hell, I'd wager that doesn't even mean they want Apple to fail So far as I have seen, Google seems to foster the notion of fair competition through product development, rather than other, shadier, business practices like embrace, extend, extinguish. That is, Google may not want to the threaten Apple or anything else. It seems to me that they just want to innovate and be creative. That's why I've always respected them. They don't intend to shutdown competitors. They just intend to be on par and/or better then them. So why make assertions that Google needs to threaten Apple? It doesn't need to do that at all. So far as I can tell, Google just needs to keep on doing what they are doing and people will continue to use their products if they find them to be superior. It's that simple.

Moral of the story? It seems this guy's discussion is founded on the baseless assumption that all corporations/businesses prefer a monopoly/severe-market-dominance over a healthy competing economy. I don't see where that assumption is ever verified or validated in any way. That makes the whole damn thing dribble in my opinion.

Carriers

[silas_moeckel]

Lets think about this, carriers love to nickle and dime you to death, hate anything that gets in the way of this, and only wish to allow enough function to sell stuff. The LAST thing the droid needs is the carriers getting involved. All I want from my carrier is fast reliable service. Some of my least technical friends have droids and after a few days of hating them they come to love them.

Re:Carriers

[Darkness404]

Exactly. How hard is it to provide decent data, voice and text communications? Stop trying to get phones and integrations and let customers buy their phones at other places and use their service. You know, for all the money Verizon and AT&T have spent in their dueling ad campaign I think they could buy and deploy several towers to actually give their customers decent service.

How to Search Android Market from a PC

[anonsdo]

You *can* search the Android Market from your PC, without having an Android phone.
1. download the Android SDK
2. start an Android Emulator, this gets you a virtual phone that uses your PC's internet connection
3. load the Android Market application on to the Emulator
4. Open the Android Market application
5. Search the Android Market

This is not an easy process. But, I have done it, and it works.

Re:How to Search Android Market from a PC

[revlayle]

... and, it's not that much worse than installing iTunes!!

Re:Flea Market Analysis

[ColdWetDog]

The Android market on the other hand is more about open source, freeware, rough around the edges apps that more technically savvy users can work with.

Right you are! All of the handset makers using Android would just love to cater to a couple of thousand nerds who would rather spend an hour looking for a free solution than spend 5 minutes and 99 cents downloading a commercial one. Surely, those economic mavens rejoice at the pen-protector-and-taped-glasses set instead of the teenager with dad's credit care. A customer that thinks the best part of the day is installing some obscure patent free codec is worlds more important that somebody that wants to spend ten dollars and watch a movie.

I find your ideas fascinating but definitely do not want to subscribe to your newsletter (besides, it's free - right?)

Android app store needs consistency

[papasui]

You can't buy 100% of the applications on any android phone. For example on my wife's Motorola Backflip she can't get Google Goggles. Sit right next to her on the same network using a different Android phone we can download it. Other applications such as Facebook and Pandora are resolution limited and won't work on certain phones. Now you can argue that its up to the developers to make applications that work across the board but perhaps it should be a requirement for getting listed on the Android store. Either way, I currently have 2 Android phones in my house and an iPhone3GS. The iPhone is the one that I use the most.

As an iPhone and an Android developer

[Trolan]

Apple wins this one. I'm sorry, but the AppStore is far more polished and suitable for business use.

iPhone/AppStore:
- Daily reports, with regional totals for downloads and updates.
- Five screenshots for your apps
- Keyword search
- Large app descriptions
- Descriptions for app updates
- Semi-opaque approval process, but it's getting better and tools are moving many of the code-level stoppers to dev visible before submission.
- iTunes. For as many things that have been bolted onto it, it's better than nothing, and gets the job done.
- Up to date SDK with current examples on all major code paths, and iTunesU access to the Stanford iPhone Dev course.

Android:
- No reporting aside from a total download and currently installed count. (Yes, your android device phones home and lets Market know that app hasn't been deleted)
- Two screenshot max (Pet peeve: zero or two screens... one isn't permitted.)
- No keyword search
- 325 character app description
- No update descriptions, you get to fit them in the above.
- No approval, aside from the $25 to register on Market.
- No access to your app reviews, unless you're on the handset.
- SDK docs are up to date, but can be annoyingly sparse or wrong in spots. What examples there are often down-rev, hiding on the net and using deprecated APIs. Alas, it's a common fault in OSS: the code is the fun bit, the docs and examples aren't so much fun. They're often quickly written, are terse or flat out wrong.

The biggest problems I have, aside from the search problem, are the seemingly arbitrary limits on things, and the last of any meaningful web side to Market. It really feels like Market is someone's 20% project.