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Android App Quality Pathetically Low Says Developer

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the bleep-bloop dept.

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.'"

9 of 336 comments (clear)

  1. 99% of everything is crap, says everyone by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    In other news:

    • Film director reports that most movies suck ass.
    • Musician reports that most music is subpar at best.
    • Writer reports that most writers are not all that, much less a bag of chips.
    • Person reports that most people are boring dipshits.
    • Slashdot poster reports that most Slashdot comments are garbage, just fucking garbage.

    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.
    1. Re:99% of everything is crap, says everyone by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Funny

      "Scientists Discover Onion Writer Who's Not Obnoxious, Cynical Prick"

      "We were are surprised as everyone else," says lead scientist.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    2. Re:99% of everything is crap, says everyone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Stay tuned for tomorrow's report: "Everything Was Better When I Was Younger, Reports Random Asshole on Street"

      "Today's cantankerous curmudgeons aren't a patch on the cantankerous curmudgeons you got when I was a lad. You call that griping? That's not even mumbling discontentedly! If you want griping, you should have talked to old "Jawbone" Perkins. Now there was a man who could complain about falling standards! Why, I remember a time when he heard about this new car ...."

    3. Re:99% of everything is crap, says everyone by the_hellspawn · · Score: 0, Funny

      He's mad because he can't use goto in his code like the good ol' days of spaghetti code in BASIC.

      --
      "The laws of science be a harsh mistress." --Bender
  2. Re:Uhhh... by localman57 · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

  3. Re:Uhhh... by jd2112 · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.
  4. It's LOG!! by Sectoid_Dev · · Score: 5, Funny

    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

  5. Re:Uhhh... by delinear · · Score: 3, Funny

    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.

  6. Re:Uhhh... by BitZtream · · Score: 2, Funny

    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