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Android App Quality Pathetically Low Says Developer
Hugh Pickens writes "Christopher Mims writes at MIT Technology Review that Mika Mobile, developer of Battleheart, a big hit on both the iOS and Android platforms, says that 'a polished, high quality product is more likely to be embraced on Android than on iOS because the quality bar on the android market is so pathetically low.' Evidence to that effect comes from the fact that 'on iOS, user reviews for Battleheart average 4.5 stars (4000 total ratings), which is quite good. On Android it's a stunning 4.8, with 1000 ratings,' writes the developer. 'So not only is it reviewed more highly, it's also reviewed more often, with a huge percentage of android users taking the time to rate the app. I think the lack of competition makes quality apps really stand out, and generates a lot of enthusiasm from app-starved android users." Mika Mobile adds that the most frustrating part about developing for Android is dealing with the deluge of support e-mail, most of which is related to download and installation problems which have nothing to do with the app itself, and everything to do with the Android OS and market having innate technical problems. 'Do some googling for "can't download apps from android market" or similar wording, and you'll see that this is a widespread chronic issue for all devices and all OS versions,' writes the developer. 'Based on the amount of e-mails I get every day, download problems effect 1-2% of all buyers, or in more practical terms, somewhere between two and three s**t-loads.'"
In other news:
Stay tuned for tomorrow's report: "Everything Was Better When I Was Younger, Reports Random Asshole on Street"
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Greedy bastards don't get in heaven !!
Android App Quality Pathetically Low SaysDeveloper
Title Quality Pathetically Low, Says Commenter.
Yet Another Tech Blog
(but so much more, including game and movie reviews)
http://yanteb.peasantoid.org
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My impression was iPhone users are more likely to pay (if only $1 or $2) for apps, whereas android users are less so - is there any truth to that? People making more money developing their apps surely work harder on them.
It does not seem to be rated that much more highly, and it is certainly not reviewed more often.
FUD much, Mr. Mika Mobile "developer"?
So from "quite good" to "stunning" is a 0.3 rating on a 1 to 5 scale? That's quite a non-linear scale.
I think the biggest problem is probably due to the proliferation of low quality Chinese tablets and phones that are running hacked ROM's to gain access to the Android Market Place. These devices don't meet Android quality control standards and are usually underpowered devices.
Am I reading this correctly, it has a higher rating on Android (4.8 vs 4.5) - but it says it is also rated more often (1000 is more than 4000) ??
So Apple users aren't as likely to give feedback, and if they do, it's lower? Why doesn't the developer just come to the conclusion that Apple people are snotty?
on iOS, user reviews for Battleheart average 4.5 stars (4000 total ratings), which is quite good. On Android it's a stunning 4.8, with 1000 ratings," writes the developer. "So not only is it reviewed more highly, it's also reviewed more often
1. Wow, that's like a whole .3 different. I'm sure this says something meaningful about something but then I'm nt sure there's any reason to suppose that the ratings would be the exact same on both platforms anyway, and this doesn't look like much of a difference on a sample size of one. Compare a couple of hundred product review ratings between platforms and you might be able to conclude something mildly interesting.
2. If I remember my advanced mathematics then technically speaking, 4000 ratings would actually be less than 1000 ratings so maybe reviewed *less* often? Not that I understand the relevance of how often it's rated anyway.
Before this i had never heard of 'Battleheart'. /. advertising at it's best.
or does this guy really not understand numbers?
iOS = 4000 ratings
Android = 1000 ratings
Somehow Android has a huge percentage more users that rate the app? Wha? And with that vast gap in total ratings, I don't think the .3 difference is even statistically significant yet.
There are games on PC Gamer getting 9.5/10. However, the game is crap. Why? Because they rate games not on quality but on who made them.
The same could be happening here.
Consider it.
I hate (really HATE) branding myself. I hate folks who say I am a "Liberal" or a "Conservative" ... an "Apple" guy or a "Microsoft" guy ... or a "Ford" or a "Chevy" dude.
I take a stance on a case-by-case basis. I own a Samsung Galaxy S phone and love it. Most of my apps are utilities I use to make life easier (i.e. I am not one who aspires to play games on a tiny-screen footprint device). I really dig the phone (except for the crappy AT&T service).
About two months ago .. I purchased my FIRST-EVER Apple product - An IPAD 2. About one month ago, I bought a Asus Transformer Tablet - which I promptly returned.
The problem is not the device itself - its the lack of apps. APPS is the main driver. Don't own a boat if you don't live close to the water. To make full use of that boat ... you need water ! Not a small pond ... but a lake so you can enjoy your purchase.
That's the problem with the Android Tablet world - not enough quality apps.
Don't take my word for it - do a Google News search for "New Ipad App" and filter it to show the last one week. Just see the amazing number of apps. Yes, not all of them are great ... but its testament to the fact that software companies realize where the highest ROI is.
I would never own an Android tablet until they standardize the hardware platform to ensure that apps work consistently. I agree with the article.
when my iPhone friends play with my phone they are pretty much always impressed.
When your iPhone friends play with a block of wood, they're pretty much always impressed too. Don't give that too much weight.
"Based on the amount of e-mails I get every day, download problems effect 1-2% of all buyers"
Download problems cause people to buy apps?
a metric or imperial sh!tload?
yeah, I caught that too. Maybe there's a time scale that was missed here, i.e. being available for longer on iOS or something.
It is, though, if you look at the distribution. For most decent apps, people pick between 4 stars or 5 stars. A technically functional, resonably thought out app isn't going to get 1 or 2 stars. Occasionally you'll get a 3, but mostly 4 or 5s. Based on this, about half of iPhone users rate it a 5. But 80% of Android users do. The 4.8 gets even more impressive when you throw back in the 1,2,and 3 ratings.
Evidence to that effect comes from the fact that "on iOS, user reviews for Battleheart average 4.5 stars (4000 total ratings), which is quite good. On Android it's a stunning 4.8, with 1000 ratings," writes the developer. "So not only is it reviewed more highly, it's also reviewed more often, with a huge percentage of android users taking the time to rate the app.
4.5 vs 4.8, How is that a big difference on a scale of 0-5?
4,000 is less than 1,000? That must be a typo and either way it doesn't matter unless we also know how many downloads each version has had as well.
If what I just said sounded like a troll, it was probably just a failed attempt at humor.
How do we know that Apple users aren't having similar issues but are asking in apple forums how to install stuff or at the genius bar, and those comments aren't deleted from the apple forums ?
Am i reading this wrong?
Quote: "Evidence to that effect comes from the fact that 'on iOS, user reviews for Battleheart average 4.5 stars (4000 total ratings), which is quite good. On Android it's a stunning 4.8, with 1000 ratings,' writes the developer. 'So not only is it reviewed more highly, it's also reviewed more often, with a huge percentage of android users taking the time to rate the app.'"
I'm a little confused. How is it reviewed more often if it has less reviews?
I knew as soon as I saw the title in my RSS feed that the summary would be a load of old bollocks. I didn't realise just how much old bollocks it was really going to be though...
Or is this the new math?
Evidence to that effect comes from the fact that "on iOS, user reviews for Battleheart average 4.5 stars (4000 total ratings), which is quite good. On Android it's a stunning 4.8, with 1000 ratings," writes the developer. "So not only is it reviewed more highly, it's also reviewed more often,
Or is he saying that there are more than 4x as many iOS users as Android users?
Thought I read very recently that Android was more prevalent.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Seriously, I'm not sure what the point of this article is. He dismisses higher ratings and then compains of technical issues. Err, okay.
From what I can tell, there's a real fear of the breaking of the Apple monopoly right now. Froyo and Gingerbread and Honeycomb are really on par with Apple's usually excellent mobile quality. Android phones are now moving into dual cores and with Gingerbread can do hardware acceleration. I think we're looking at a lot of people who have invested themselves into iOS and are now complaining that their customers are moving to Android. Now these developers have to learn a new mobile ecosystem and deal with its issues.
Christ, imagine if these people were as whiny about Windows as they are about Android. "OMG, one of my customers is using a slow Pentium 4!" Grow up, whiny devs. Either you move with the market or you fall behind. Someone else will make the next fart simulator or tip calculator. You're not some genius the world needs, you're 100% replaceable. If you can't code for my phone that fine because your competitors can.
In the course of a working day I use maybe 4 or 5 programs, with a dozen others getting occasional use. Exactly what are all these things you need to do, that you can't and would expect to, on a tiny computer?
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
funny - and it wasn't a copy&paste error of TFS but is a direct quote from the developer's blog.
and to blame the coder more: it seems he believe what he wrote; at the moment his game is rated in the Android market 1400 times...
my iPhone friends
What is that a euphemism for?
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
I purchased a Motorola Xoom (my first Android device) about a month after it came out... Wow was I ever disappointed. It would crash several times an hour just browsing the web (especially on Motorola's own Xoom website), but I chalked that up to "being an early adopter". Then I started downloading apps from the Android market and things got even worse, if the app even loaded without crashing, I felt like I was teleported back to the late 90's from a design / look & feel standpoint. Other than the rare exceptions ( Angry Birds ) every app I downloaded didn't even compare to a similar app on Apple's App Store, it felt like companies/developers were publishing an app for Android just to say they did it, without the intention of it actually being used. Many apps that did have an iOS counterpart (*cough* thinkorswim *cough*) hadn't been updated in almost a year and were pathetic at best.
Needless to say after two weeks of torture I took it back and purchased an iPad2, I've been quite happy with it.
Hopefully in a few years it will be a different story, I would much prefer if Apple had some decent competition.
Open Source Time and Attendance, Job Costing a
Wow, the Android drones are out in full force this morning.
Facebook is the new AOL
You can rate apps without writing a review. The developer was saying that a greater percentage of ratings come with reviews on the Android market.
When you lower the barriers of entry sufficiently, you reap the rewards. All of the rewards. Not really news.
when my iPhone friends play with my phone they are pretty much always impressed.
When your iPhone friends play with a block of wood, they're pretty much always impressed too. Don't give that too much weight.
Only if it has an Apple logo on it. Otherwise the fanbois will say that Apple could make superior wood blocks.
Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
Is the fact that Android developers have so many different variations to develop and test for at fault? IMO, it is. This adds a level of complexity that iOS developers just don't face. Kudos to those Android developers and their testers that do turn out an excellent app that runs well on all the variants. Obviously not everyone is capable of that effort.
Software quality in general has been pathetically low for about the last 15 years.
you can also develop c or c++
I don't understand why I should pay for an app on my Android phone when I can often do the same thing for free on my browser on my computer or even inside my phone.
Because not everybody has an Android phone. Some people have a Wi-Fi-only tablet and are paying for use of the application away from open-to-the-public Wi-Fi coverage.
phone status, full internet connection
An application that pauses multimedia playback when a call comes in needs to get notified of incoming calls through "phone status". An application that downloads advertisements or verifies the user's license to use the application requires "full Internet access", as does a game that publishes the player's high score or other achievements.
When your iPhone friends play with a block of wood, they're pretty much always impressed too. Don't give that too much weight.
What rolls down stairs
alone or in pairs,
and over your neighbor's dog?
What's great for a snack,
And fits on your back?
It's log, log, log
It's log, it's log,
It's big, it's heavy, it's wood.
It's log, it's log, it's better than bad, it's good."
Everyone wants a log
You're gonna love it, log
Come on and get your log
Everyone needs a log
log log log
*whistle*
LOG FROM BLAMMO
That's odd. I have had a Nexus One for over a year now and have never had any issues with downloading/installing apps from Android Market.
Since I've been a denizen of the Linux/BSD world for over 15 years, I find it goes against the grain to pay for software - not because I am a cheapskate, but because I prefer the Free model.
One place where the free software model has tended to fall down over the past couple decades is video games that aren't of the single-screen-puzzle type. Even if a video game's program is released as free software, the 3D artists, level designers, etc. still need to eat, and single-player video games don't offer as much of an opportunity to sell support as business applications. What's the best way to involve artists in the production of free video games?
"Can't download apps from the Android Market"
Yes, but has it been out for a year on the iPhone and 2 months on Android? If thats the cause, the android version IS selling faster at this point.
Statistics you don't understand aren't useful. Please try to understand the statistics you're looking at before you talk about how great/evil/right/wrong they are.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
How is 4.8 vs 4.5 all that much of a difference? If android had just as many reviews, it could easily drop that .3 stars and be just as equally rated as the iphone version.
When apps on Android ARE truly lower quality than their iphone counterparts, it's usually because the developers saw android as a lower priority and only put a half-effort into developing the app. When i see this it seriously annoys the heck out of me. Tap Tap Revenge is a prime example of a pretty solid app on iOS that is a total piece of crap on Android, directly through the fault of the developer.
Also, the news item can't make up its mind what it's about. Are the apps low quality or is the android platform?
Froyo and Gingerbread and Honeycomb are really on par with Apple's usually excellent mobile quality.
Unlike iOS, which has the iPod touch, Android doesn't appear to have a flagship pocket-size Wi-Fi tablet. Sure, there's the Archos 43 Internet Tablet, but its touch screen is resistive and thus incompatible with applications requiring multitouch such as Cordy. Archos 43 also doesn't come with Android Market, instead relying on AppsLib and Amazon Appstore and missing out on Market-exclusive applications such as my bank's check deposit app.
Maybe the developer's app runs better on Android?
Can't download apps from app store
Stock Android that came with your phone? Or did you follow the most common path to fixing Android issues, which is "root your phone/install 3rd party mod?" ;-)
Because 4000 is a typo.
If anyone bothered to look at the App on the App store to verify it, they'd see that his current version has a little over 450 reviews, not 4000 ... making a typo and 400 sound much more correct.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
Unrooted Android G2 running stock OS here - never had any problems with market downloads, installing apps, or any other problems that was an Android problem, and not an app problem.
Do some googling for "can't download apps for iPhone" or similar wording, and you'll see that this is a widespread chronic issue...
Do some googling for "can't download software to computer" or similar wording, and you'll see that this is a widespread chronic issue...
Do some googling for "can't stop vcr clock from blinking 12:00" or similar wording and you'll see that this is a widespread chronic issue...
Do some googling for "toast stuck in toaster" or similar wording and you'll see that this is a widespread chronic issue...
This post has got to be flamebait right?
Read a bit better and you'll notice that he says:
4.5 > 4.8
4000 > 1000
or
4.5 < 4.8
4000 < 1000
Depending on what "it" is. Does not compute.
Typical blame the apple fanboy's for the lack of quality apps and the technical problems of android.. All you slashdot android fanboy's are such a sorry bunch of whiners. It is clear that in the mobile space the android users are the fanboy's not the apple users that is the big difference from the pc world where the apple users are the fanboy's
Because it sounds like one, look my app is rated very well on both markets, which means you should really buy i, but first I need to discover a round about means to get free advertisement. So lets start a flame war
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Angry Birds tip: my gf plays Angry Birds with the phone in Flight mode. This keeps it from contacting the ad server, I guess, and and the net effect is you don't get an ad and the game gets to use the whole screen. She says there are some levels where you really need to see/click into the area where the ad shows. But of course, once you turn on Flight Mode in order to play those levels, you never have reason to go back and turn the radio back on...
You're missing the point - 4.8 and 4.5 are both great scores, and this guy's just managed to tell thousands of people about it online. The story is incidental to the outrageous self promotion.
yes, I read the later comments about "reviews per sold copy" may be a solution for the strange sentence. Maybe my wording was too harsh but I stick to my opinion: The meaning of the statement is not understandable without a high level of interpretation
No. It's "blame apple fanboys for FUD and rhetoric".
I enjoy the fact that I dumped Apple every time I need to manage media or clean out my SMS messages.
I am less interested in the store, or how much money Google is making, or how much money app developers are making.
I am more interested in the actual phone.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Go on the Android Market and check out any widget. Invariably you will see comments along the lines "I installed the widget, but now I can't open it. It sucks."
People can't even be bothered to understand that widgets and apps are different. You open apps but you add widgets to your screen. Is it intuitive? Probably not. But that doesn't change the fact that some people are unwilling or unable to understand anything about the devices they use.
I've been using an Android phone (LG Thrive on AT&T prepay) for three months now, after having used an iOS device (iTouch) for a couple years along with a "dumb" phone. I mainly did this to consolidate devices - I got tired of carrying a phone and an iPod around. My conclusion thus far is: Android is a mixed bag.
Several of the apps Google itself offers are awesome (I love the beta Voice Navigation app! But, notably, the stock music player sucks). The mainstream commercial apps (read: "Angry Birds") are, as you'd expect, on par with their iOS counterparts. However the bulk of the apps do feel somewhat klunky and unpolished compared to similar apps available for Apple devices. Often they don't look as good, and expected features are not there - Google searches on the product will return a lot of "you've said that feature was coming for over two years now!" sorts of posts.
There are niggling issues in terms of integration with one's desktop environment, for those apps where that's relevant; but I don't think that's the developers' fault - I suspect Google doesn't do anything to make that easy because they want you to live in their ecosystem 100% of the time.
That said -
#DeleteChrome
I think Android apps have just as high quality but there is a lot of trash.
As it is an open market, I think some people like me feel more likely to leave a comment to show appreciation for quality apps especially when they are free. And likewise when they are not.
I would say the reason Android apps are slightly lower rated overall on that marketplace would be because there are some down right trash apps on android market and android users care more about privacy. Several times, I have read reviews with why do you need access to my contacts, 1 start until it changes and the like.
when my iPhone friends play with my phone they are pretty much always impressed.
When your iPhone friends play with a block of wood, they're pretty much always impressed too. Don't give that too much weight.
Only if it has an Apple logo on it. Otherwise the fanbois will say that Apple could make superior wood blocks.
The people I know with iPhones tend to be more technologically challenged than those in my circle with Android phones, IMHO. While it may not be a statistically significant sample, the fact that someone went to the trouble of making this animation leads me to believe I might not be the only one who thinks so.
"No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up." -- Lily Tomlin
I think the big news from the summary is that 1000 > 4000. Welcome to the future!
No one cares what your captcha was
Houston TX, USA
Rethinking Apps for the iPad By Christopher Mims
App Developers Sticking to iPhone By Christopher Mims
can the Creators of the iPhone Make Home Energy Management Sexy? Christopher Mims
No bias towards Apple there. Nope, none at all.
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
The article does point out a big problem with Android. I use very few apps because most do not function well. I'm not sure if it's the developers or the tools google gives them to aid in development, but most aren't worth a penny.
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Not flaming: I am an iPhone4 and iPad2 owner, and I love them. But, I feel a little guilty about it. I an in a walled garden, my freedom is curtailed, etc. etc., and as a geek, I feel guilty about that. So, I don't spend any more money than I need to within this walled garden, and I don't speak up about it very often.
If I had an Android device, I would be much more vocal and enthusiastic about it, I would buy more apps, and probably be inclined to rate them more often and more highly, because I would be getting a "feel good" factor for being on a platform that has more "geek cred" than the iOS.
About a year ago, I told my brother that my next phone would probably be an Android, and I expected that it would be around about now that I would be looking for one. One week later I accidentally dropped and smashed my iPhone3 so I went out and got an iPhone4 the next day because I didn't have the luxury of a period of time in which to transfer my important habits and data over to the new platform. Since my new iPhone4 is likely to still be useful this time next year, I expect maybe I will get something else, maybe Android, around Christmas 2012.
Relevant Ren and Stimpy reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP0kWqJJZa4
Drop every apostrophe and move that extra period from the end of the first sentence to the end of the last one.
I have found many high quality apps for Android. I have developed for both platforms, and its no secret that I absolutely detest the process of building iPhone apps. For me to load a helloWorld program onto my iOS device took me $100.00 for the licensing fee, several hours to figure out Objective-C, and several days of reading blogs and tinkering to actually get the provisioning profile and app to sync up and ALLOW me to load code that I had written onto a device that I own. In contrast, it took me about 2 hours to get my development environment set up, download the SDK, write and load my program to my Android device. The moral of the story is that Android is a much more welcoming platform, and in my view quite superior.
Also, the news item can't make up its mind what it's about. Are the apps low quality or is the android platform?
Um, yes?:)
Sorry, I couldn't help it and I am an Android developer just having a laugh.
A) The bar to entry is lower, so there are more apps, and more poor apps.
B) Who is app starved? What does the iPhone have that I don't have an equivalent of?
The iPhone was a great bar setter when it came out, now? not so much. It's been later with several feature then android was.
""Do some googling for "can't download apps from android market" or similar wording, and you'll see that this is a widespread chronic issue for all devices and all OS versions,""
I did, just last week, I found that a tiny number of users sometimes have problems.
Personal anecdote: The only time I ever had a problem was when I tried to use the amazon downloader on my G1. And it was pretty clearly Amazons fault.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Score:5,Flamebait
tell your iPhone friends to get WoW for iPhone... I mean, order and chaos. Stupid name but it's a perfect wow clone. They will never ask to touch your precious again.
Did you miss the part of the story where he says Android users have more support issues? So much for being more tech savvy. In my experience it's been the opposite, iPhone users are tech savvy and went iOS because it has all the big developers and the good apps and the android users were not tech savvy but easily impressed by the whiz bang features (ohhh... 8mp!) and could not really afford an IPhone. I've never met a droid user who bought it because they wanted it, every smartphone argument includes "yeah but you paid $200+ for your iPhone and I only paid....".
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
I am more interested in the actual phone.
Really? Then why did you buy a device where the phone is a secondary function? Seems like it would have made sense to by a device where the phone was the primary function.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
Ditto, Dell Streak 7 and HTC Hero running 2.2 and 2.1-update1, respectively.
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
Don't blame tap tap revenge. Like the angry birds story on here a few months ago, the android market is horribly fragmented so developers have to develop games that will work on the lowliest of devices otherwise risk pissing off customers by telling them the game wont work on their new free droid (which is actually from 2009) and a support nightmare. Angry birds had to make two versions of the game for that reason, one for slower devices. Hence you get games that look like they're for the NES rather than developers making two versions of the same game. iOS avoids all that, if your device isn't fast enough it just won't show you those textures or lighting effects or whatever but the game still works.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
The thing I picked up from that is how well the Xtranormal voice synth copes with 'shitty ass'. Practically fluent!
(more work needed on 'motherfucking' though, alas)
Only if it has an Apple logo on it. Otherwise the fanbois will say that Apple could make superior wood blocks.
Coming soon from Apple, Brazilian wood.
It does not seem to be rated that much more highly, and it is certainly not reviewed more often.
From reading the developer's blog post, it's clear he's sold a lot more on iOS than Android. It's not clear from the linked article, but he's saying that Android users are more likely to give a rating for a purchased application. The 1000 Android ratings represent a larger proportion of sales he's had on Android, than the 4000 iOS reviews measured against the total sales he's made on that platform.
So a phone users was impressed by a phone someone took the effort to set up, tweak and hand select good apps. That's no surprise. Give them a brand new Android phone and set them loose on the market themselves to wade through the shit.
They claim that Android is a great place to make money for decent apps, but what they fail to state is that if Battleheart hadn't had such a success on iOS, then their Android story might be completely different ... it's not just that their Android App looks great and plays nice, it's that it's had 6 months of free marketing on the Apple App Store, and Android users have been waiting for the game to be ported.
I would love to see a similar game come out only on Android and compare the sales.
Would Mika Mobile be willing to make their next game initially exclusive to Android just to test this theory?
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
Only if it has an Apple logo on it. Otherwise the fanbois will say that Apple could make superior wood blocks.
Don't you mean iBlocks?
As a developer for both, I will say that making an elegant and attractive UI for iOS is exponentially easier than on Android. The Android gui designers suck ass.
Good for you. But if you were only interested in the phone, then perhaps you'd be better off with a dumbphone. For many of us, though, we are interested in the apps, and how much money people are making.
It's been a while since I've looked at doing higher end graphics stuff on Android, but doesn't the SDK give you a way to query the device to see if it supports the higher end features like the textures, shading/lighting effects and such?
It is, though, if you look at the distribution. For most decent apps, people pick between 4 stars or 5 stars. A technically functional, resonably thought out app isn't going to get 1 or 2 stars. Occasionally you'll get a 3, but mostly 4 or 5s. Based on this, about half of iPhone users rate it a 5. But 80% of Android users do. The 4.8 gets even more impressive when you throw back in the 1,2,and 3 ratings.
The number is the big deal. At around 1000, you are mostly getting the folks who love the game and were waiting for it. At about 5000, you get some folks who were "hyped into buying" and end up disappointed for some reason. Also the haters and idiot reviews start piling up here. I'd say 4.8 at 1000 vs. 4.5 at 5000 is pretty much equivalent.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
The walled garden keeps out unremovable crapware, non-standard UI's, and other carrier shenanigans used to screw Android users out of a great user experience.
It's significant because 5 is the maximum score. Getting that last .2 is exponentially harder than the second-last .2.
Yeah, the ">" disappeared from my subject line. I should learn to pay attention to that 'preview' thingy.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
App Starved? Really? Over 200,000 apps on the google market say otherwise.
And if you want a more carefully curated market, look no further than Amazon's App Store...
I'm looking for some free total conversions for GPL Quake 1-3 to try on my computer. (Assets from retail Quake aren't free.) Which do you recommend?
There are only 1/4 the votes though. Quadrupling the votes could very easily drop it more than .2 points.
Apparently it's only pompous when Apple users say it. When Android fans say it, it's "+5 Reinforces My Preferences".
No. It's "blame apple fanboys for FUD and rhetoric".
You complain about "FUD and rhetoric", then immediately writes FUD and rhetoric. Why am I not surprised you got modded up?
I enjoy the fact that I dumped Apple every time I need to manage media or clean out my SMS messages.
I am less interested in the store, or how much money Google is making, or how much money app developers are making.
I am more interested in the actual phone.
Really. So you're telling me there are Android fans who are telling Apple fans that they bought iPhones because they're too poor to afford an Android phone?
That'd be complete nonsense.
It's been a while since I've looked at doing higher end graphics stuff on Android, but doesn't the SDK give you a way to query the device to see if it supports the higher end features like the textures, shading/lighting effects and such?
The problem isn't just whether it supports it, it's whether it supports it *well*.
I develop applications for Android, so I am most familiar with that. Recently I was using someone's non-jailbroken iPad, and wanted to put an free SSH application on it. I didn't find much for the iPad, I found a little more for iPhone apps that worked on iPad. The best one I could get conked out every 500 characters or so, and you'd have to close the app, open it again, and reconnect unless you bought the app for $1.99.
I would write an ad-supported SSH app for iPhone/iPad myself if I didn't need a Mac, a $99 a year App Store account, a knowledge of Objective C, a knowledge of the iPhone API, the ultimate application approval of Apple, and all the other hurdles.
Compare this to the myriad number of free SSH apps for the Android.
I don't have a lot of iPhone/iPad experience, but for the one thing I needed, Apple was app-starved in an area where Android is not.
I've been using Android phones since the first one came out. I'm also an iOS developer, so I've been using Android and iOS apps every day for years. There is a massive difference in quality. I choose Android because it's more open, it lets you do more, and because I prefer a hardware keyboard. But if I were to choose on quality alone, there would simply be no contest. Even the built-in apps on Android are terrible, it seems like even they were hastily slapped together. It is a perpetual disappointment.
Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
As an android user, I don't feel this way in the slightest. Actually, when my iPhone friends play with my phone they are pretty much always impressed.
That's because Apple users aren't the "fanboys" you slashdot nerds seem to think they are. When you show a cool lock-screen widget or whatever, we don't get defensive like Android fans do. We're like, "hey, that's pretty cool", then happily continue using our iPhones. We don't feel personally threatened if some other product is nice or better in some way.
Just take a look at the posts and modding going on with this story. This is a perfect example of EVERYTHING negative you all claim about Apple "fanboys". Say what you will about fanboys, but Fandroids are the worst.
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Yes, you can discover some features of your device. But it still doesn't solve the problem of the big differences between devices. Trying to accomodate low-ends smartphones takes way too much development time. But you somewhat have to, or as your OP said, you piss off users.
That's in my opinion the ONLY area where IPhone apps win. Devs know exactly on what it's going to run, there is 0 possibility for surprises. With Android, you need to be ready for anything...
WARNING: long rant.
I should start out by admitting that I have an android which I'm fairly happy with, but not entirely happy with. If I had to do it over I would strongly consider buying an iPhone instead.
However Mika says things in favor of iPhone and against Android that are so preposterous and silly that only a fanboi could have uttered them.
From Mika's website:
Anyone who has read the news in the last year knows that Android greatly outsells iPhone and overtook it a long time ago, and in fact Android outsells every other high-end smartphone OS by a very wide margin. Maybe Android has problems anyway. But it's silly beyond belief to claim that Android is "a much smaller market...but not a waste of time" with regard to revenue. Furthermore, it's silly beyond belief to say that "there is still money to be made" from Android; it's analogous to saying that "there are still people living in China" or something similar. While true, the word "still" implies that it's barely true, which is obviously wrong, and furthermore, is the opposite of the actual case.
Of course, there are lots of problems with android, but the author here is attacking its popularity, which is the one thing which obviously isn't wrong with android.
Lack of competition in the Android marketplace? App-starved? There are hundreds of thousands of applications, and almost all popular applications are available on both Android and iPhone. This would obviously be the case, since any popular app would generate enough revenue from another large platform to justify the relatively small cost of porting it.
It's not just the fact that Mika's point is obviously wrong. It's the evidence he used to support his assertion. His app was rated 4.5 on iPhone and 4.8 on Android. From that, he concludes that there is almost no competition in the Android marketplace.
Maybe Android users like games more. Or maybe there are about 100 other explanations more plausible than the one he offered. Or maybe a 0.3 difference in ratings just means that apple customers are slightly pickier on average as a matter of personality, or maybe it means practically nothing.
He thinks there must be a "chronic widespread" issue for "all devices and versions" because approximately 10-20 people posted questions on forums? Maybe those 10-20 people were having reception problems? It's a wireless device. Android phones are sometimes sold from very cheap carriers, unlike the iPhone which usually was sold only from one high-quality carrier.
The problem with Mika's kind of nonsense is that it's so irritating to read things which are so silly or unfounded that they're not even intended to be convincing. It's very much like talking to the Mac fanbois. I talked to some recently who claimed that Windows is a "small market" and that Mac has destroyed it by outselling it. It's like they choose to live in their imaginations. Now, I hate windows, and anyone could say all manner of bad things about it which are actually true. Also, anyone could say bad things about android which are actually true. But the fanbois don't satisfy themselves with that. They say things which everyone knows are false, and which they can't seriously expect any reader to believe. The purpose of saying those things is not to convince or inform anyone, but rather to imagine
Right, because you didn't include "stupid" in your post? You're saying that's not pompous?
I never insulted apple actually.
Where did I claim you did?
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I think he meant 'phone' to refer to the entire product, apps and all.
Look, if you're not specific about what you mean, you can't get angry when it's not read the way you'd apparently like. It's your fault for not saying: "I don't like when they call me stupid."
I have a custom ROM on my phone, lots of Apps mysteriously break on download from market, and sometimes don't even install when sideloading. I supsect many users harass developers about their Apps when they shouldn't. If its not their own fault for riding the bleeding edge of OSS software then they should harass their carrier for it's dodgy customized Android. In my case aftermarket ROMs run better than the stock carrier flakeware ever did.
I also blame the evergreen problem of OS and applications lacking a meaningful and useful error messages about what is going wrong. Thus leading users down the wrong path trying to find help.
"Installation failed" - no shit, but why? I know how to find the logs through the terminal (but command like work is torture on a touchscreen with my fat fingers), but most users wont.
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
Yes, that's what I wrote. Very good, you know how to copy and paste.
Now, which part talks about insulting Apple?
> Then why did you buy a device where the phone is a secondary function?
I didn't realize this was the case with the iPhone before I got it.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Nice try, but it doesn't make your comment any less pompous.
FUD and rhetoric eh?
Then you will tell me how to quickly delete all of my text messages on an iPhone then. The other joker whined "get a dumb phone". It's funny because after having used an iPhone for awhile I actually pined for my previous "dumb phone" because it at least got that part right.
Apple are great products for people that don't use them very seriously or in any creative sort of manner.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.evojazz (my app where you breed new music).
There are 200,000 apps or so out there (about half free). Even when you write something you think is good, who will try it, especially if you charge for it? I tried a model of "three years paid and then that verison goes under the GPL", but who even cares about that (except me)?
The good news is, in three years people will replace their fancy Android SmartPhones, and those old ones can go to materially poor children around the planet so they can join in the global conversation as well as have fun and learn from all the free apps out there. That's overall got to be a good thing. Something I wrote about that on the p2presearch list:
http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/2009-November/006250.html
Anyone know of a foundation job I could get making more free educational software for the Android planning for that day?
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
You're missing the time scale here - the iOS app has been out for a long time, sold far more copies, and has gathered 4000 reviews, while the newly released Android app already has 1000 reviews. The rate of reviews/sales and reviews/time are much higher on their Android app. Or you could have just read the whole article...
Think outside the... Hey, where'd the friggin' box go?
I've never met a droid user who bought it because they wanted it
Hi, a Samsung Galaxy S2 (and previously Nexus One) owner here, pleased to meet you. I paid more for both of these phones - for starters, because I couldn't buy them on contract, and also because I had SGS2 shipped from Europe since it's not out in US. I knowingly did so because I wanted specific features only available in an Android phone.
Oh yes, in between Nexus and SGS2, I had an iPhone for a few months. It's good overall, and excellent in some aspects (most notably, battery life), but it doesn't match up to high-level Android phones.
I give. I'm done trying to correct for your poor reading comprehension and writing skills.
But you're not done being pompous about Apple customers, like you complained about being done to you. Nitpicking to try and divert attention doesn't make you any less pompous.
I was never complaining about what was being done to me, as I own neither kind of phone and have no dog in this fight.
It's also not pompous to use the word stupid to describe the way someone else is describing people.
Look, I get that English obviously isn't your first language, and I'm positive I speak whatever your native tongue is a lot worse than you speak English, but you're missing really basic things here and that's making it impossible to have a real conversation.
Um, you called iamhassi's post pompous. I just pointed out that Android fans make similarly pompous posts about Apple users.
You can nitpick about the specific *details* of the pomposity all you want, it doesn't change the fact that the pomposity is there.
> "... writes the developer. 'So not only is it reviewed more highly, it's also reviewed more often, with a huge percentage of android users taking the time to rate the app..."
So then 1000 > 4000?
I did not know that.
Explains a lot really.