Ed, I think one of the biggest problems is features that don't come as part of the platform
We need to admit we're chasing Symbian, even the report that said that in 2012 Android will outsell the iPhone says that at that time Symbian will still be the market leader, so if we compare the G1 to the Nokia 5800 (A modern Symbian touch screen device) we see that out of the box the 5800 has; For CIOs; - Viewers for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDFs - Supports Microsoft Exchange For "Cool Kid" Games players; - It has access to all the J2ME games already developed - Has good enough loudspeaker audio to act as media player For your Sister - Plays 3GPP (H.263), Flash Video, H.264/AVC, MPEG-4, RealVidea, and WMV 9 videos at around 30fps. - Has a long standing picture viewer which shows almost any format you want In General - It's cheaper - Has Flash Lite 3.0 in the browser - Supports bluetooth tethering & file transfer Again, this is all out-of the box. No need to hunt down additional apps, not need to reflash the firmware, this is what you get from day one. To me that's something that only Google, OEMs, and the Android distributors can do something about. Al. Full specs are at; http://www.forum.nokia.com/devices/5800_XpressMusic Ed wrote: > Stoyan, > > I think you're probably right, it seems that most G1 users aren't > willing to pay right now. There should be some new marketing by T- > Mobile and/or Google (we've all seen the iPhone ads)--something along > the lines of Apple's "There is an app for that" campaign. > > I believe that many professionals that would have been the most > desirable customers tried out the G1, hated it and returned it, and > then told their friends to do the same. A CIO who is a good friend of > mine is returning his G1 despite my protests that it is finally > becoming what it should have been to start with. I notice that there > is now a PDF viewer, MS Office viewer, and an Exchange push client on > the Market. Too late for him. > > Another group that ditched was the younger game-playing crowd that > grew tired of the "paid apps are coming" mantra, and the relatively > simple games (not all, but most) that were available for the phone > until recently. I argued with one of these guys on xda recently, but > it was tool late for him also. > > Finally, people like my wife and my sister hated the fact that good > video players weren't available until later on, and apps like the > picture viewer were woefully behind the iPhone in utility. Of course, > the camera problems and the lack of a motion camera was another > problem for them. > > The people that are left are those that want free apps and/or an open > source platform (not a noted segment for profitability). > > This trend is reversible, but the G1 needs good and ubiquitous PR > ASAP. > ---Ed > > On Mar 9, 4:15 pm, Stoyan Damov <stoyan.da...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> It's not that paying users complain Ed. On the contrary, my paid game >> has a rating of 4.56 and no complaints but has 200 downloads, and my >> free demo has 3.82 with ~8K and lots of complaints in the line of >> "great game, but too short" (it's 10 levels) and bang a 1 star. I even >> saw a great paid game (can't remember which) which had this comment - >> "great game, the 24 hour period is great, thanks Google, uninstall" >> and again a low rating. Both of my games were released around ~19th of >> Feb, so maybe I'm expecting too much, but the thing is that there are >> many apps who existed long ago before Market w/ paid apps support was >> launched, had a lot of "where's the paid version" and have laughable >> sales as well. >> >> So it appears that either G1 owners are [1] not willing to pay for >> apps (this might or might not change), [2] the apps really suck, or >> [3] seem expensive to users, [4] users are not comfortable with Google >> Checkout, or [5] are enjoying the 24-hour period. >> >> [2] is not the case, because I've seen quite a lot of great apps (all >> free, I don't have access to paid apps yet) and even the free versions >> are worth some money! >> [3] should not be the case, because many great apps are $0.99 or in >> general less than $5 >> [4] might be the case but I don't have any evidence of that >> [5] might be the case for games (especially arcade ones, and even >> those w/ replay value) >> [1] is what concerns me the most - you see, iPhone, and iWhatever in >> general is bought by users to support their lifestyle. Now, iPhone >> might not be as capable as G1 (theoretically), but you gotta have it >> (I don't because I'm not of these guys who *ought* to own an iPhone). >> G1, on the other hand seems to be bought either by geeks who want to >> have that phone w/ the open source Android OS, or geeks who ought to >> have a G1 because it's the latest gadget (and thus will throw it away >> when the next one comes up), or some other people who I can't classify >> :) >> >> Cheers >> >> On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 10:50 PM, Ed <edmundcl...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> >>> I am somewhat surprised. I have paid for 7 applications and games on >>> the Market for less than $20 total, and I am an extremely happy >>> customer. How can anyone complain about a $1 or $2 download? Is the >>> economy really that bad? >>> >>> I wonder if the problem is partly related to the payment method (just >>> a wild guess). I had never used Google checkout before, and most >>> people are comfortable with PayPal. >>> >>> On Mar 9, 3:40 pm, Sundog <sunns...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>>> My demo was at one time averaging a thousand downloads a day. My paid >>>> app is averaging 10 to 15. >>>> >>>> I think this is a watershed moment of sorts for the platform. Either >>>> Google figures out - rather quickly - what's causing the abysmal sales >>>> figures, or bye-bye serious developers, bye-bye any hope for decent >>>> apps, bye-bye customers, interest, etc. >>>> >>>> My suspicion is that no one cares, nothing will be done, the market >>>> will fail, and everyone will point fingers at each other. I apologize >>>> for my bleak outlook today, but I'm feeling a little silly for working >>>> in Android at all at this point. >>>> >>>> On Mar 9, 1:56 pm, Incognito <androind...@yahoo.com> wrote: >>>> >>>>> The iPhone continues to do great though. Sales are in the thousands per >>>>> day for a successful game. >>>>> >>>>> On Mar 9, 2009, at 10:20 AM, Sundog <sunns...@gmail.com> wrote: >>>>> >>>>> Yeah... I'm trying to be patient... but I have a game in the top 20, >>>>> rated OVER 4.5, with a 90% install rate... and a couple of hundred >>>>> sales in two weeks. About ten sales over the weekend. For a game whose >>>>> demo was downloaded almost a hundred thousand times. >>>>> >>>>> I've pretty much already frozen development of the other things in the >>>>> pipeline until I see if it's going to be worth it at all. So far the >>>>> sales are downright laughable. >>>>> >>>>> On Mar 9, 4:49 am, Incognito <androind...@yahoo.com> wrote: >>>>> That really sucks. Cheap bastards... >>>>> >>>>> On Mar 8, 2009, at 7:57 PM, Stoyan Damov <stoyan.da...@gmail.com> wrote: >>>>> >>>>> Ahahahahaha, I did look at the downloads of the top 10 apps - they are >>>>> PATHETIC, the max number of downloads I saw was 1000-5000. How many G1 >>>>> owners are out there, I'd bet on < 100K. >>>>> >>>>> On Sat, Mar 7, 2009 at 10:42 PM, friedger <fried...@googlemail.com> wrote: >>>>> >>>>> Android stats say here are 10 paid >>>>> applications.http://androidstats.com/ranking/applications?filter=paid >>>>> >>>>> However, I don't know what this stats are based on, better check the >>>>> market yourself... >>>>> >>>>> Friedger >>>>> >>>>> On 7 Mrz., 00:16, JP <joachim.pfeif...@gmail.com> wrote: >>>>> You can find out for yourself. Browse the market with a G1 and check >>>>> the number of downloads of some of the at-price apps that compare to >>>>> your friend's vision apps and that have been made available for >>>>> download for a few weeks now. This would be a 15 to 30 minute exercise >>>>> that will give you the business intel you are looking for. Then assume >>>>> a return rate, deduct Google's 30% cut from the revenue. You're friend >>>>> will now the applicable taxes, ODC etc. >>>>> This will be an order of magnitude estimate only, but should be >>>>> accurate enough to arrive at a conclusion. >>>>> >>>>> On Mar 6, 2:20 pm, Anil <anil.r...@gmail.com> wrote: >>>>> >>>>> An acquaintance who runs a small business (not in the mobile area) and >>>>> employs one programmer, is wondering whether to develop apps for >>>>> Android Marketplace. He wondered whether it is financial sense to do >>>>> so and I recommended the Android marketplace, but do not want to >>>>> mislead him. While the commercial success of the iPhone marketplace is >>>>> well known, what has been the commercial story of apps sold in the >>>>> Android marketplace? >>>>> How many downloads per month, how much sales volume in $, average >>>>> price of an app, how many are free downloads vs paid, how many apps, >>>>> how many G1 phones are around etc. Are there any reliable statistics >>>>> from Google on this? >>>>> >> > > > -- * Written an Android App? - List it at http://andappstore.com/ * ====== Funky Android Limited is registered in England & Wales with the company number 6741909. The registered head office is Kemp House, 152-160 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX, UK. The views expressed in this email are those of the author and not necessarily those of Funky Android Limited, it's associates, or it's subsidiaries. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. 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