There is also the association of Android with the Open-Source culture, which might be philosophically opposed to paying for software itself, but maybe not as much to paying for services and customization around that software.
Even though you to basically own a cellphone factory to take advantage of Androids open-source license, it is designed very much to lower the barrier for just about anybody to write and deploy applications for Android based devices. It still requires some programming skills, but in a way this is taking the user-generated-content revolution to mobile apps - and this might be here to stay. In a way this reminds me a bit of some discussion on flickr.com, where professional photographers are feeling the pressure from enthusiastic (and some very talented) hobbyists with digital cameras undermining the very lucrative market for stock photography. Why would you pay for a stock picture of the Eiffel Tower, if you can get a few thousand decent ones with Creative-Commons public license as easily? People who want to sell apps on Android may have to think a lot harder who their target market is and what value they are adding. Bernhard -- Enthusiastic Android hobbyist (and professional programmer by day) On Feb 28, 7:58 am, maribou <sla...@sympatico.ca> wrote: > I think Al is right about the current Android user base. G1 is viewed > as a "smarter" and "less over-hyped" alternative to iPhone. As such, > it attracts that category of people who enjoy tweaking their Linux > desktop as opposed to getting themselves a shiny new Mac :) > Unfortunately for the developers, it's the Mac people we need to sell > our apps to. You know, the kind of people who are used to paying > 0.99c or more for a silly song. > > I only hope that Android will become more mainstream by the end of the > year with G2 and other phones coming to the market. Until this > happens, no matter what you do trying to increase the sales of your > app, your profitability will remain quite pathetic. Geeks are happy > to spend a week figuring out how to get for free something they could > buy in two minutes for a monetary equivalent of a cup coffee. I know, > I am one of them :) --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
