Android Market would benefit Developer instead of Apple App Certification?

Develop apps for Android or develop mobile apps for Apple, some days its hard to figure out just what to do. On this website I’ve written a lot on Android phones and apps.

Around 6000 apps have been removed from the Apple store recently due to their erotic nature. It’s not that Android Market has no quality control - Adult or Erotic does not exist as a content category in Android Market but dating apps or other soft-porn apps so far have not shown huge growth (ahem) on Android.

Why Android Mobile Apps and Android Market should appeal to developers

As a platform, Android should appeal to developers because

1. Android Market provides a multi-country sales platform for apps and developers.
2. Sales of Android handsets are around 60,000 units a month and expected to grow
3. Major handset manufacturers are supporting the platform like HTC, Google (HTC), Motorola, Sony Ericsson
4. International Mobile Operators like T-Mobile, Vodafone and Orange have all been keen to sell the phones (in fact it was Voda that took Android to the rest of the world with its ’exclusive’ of the HTC Magic)
5. Android Market is not as rigorous at quality control or moderation as Apple. You can add an app to Android Market in 24 hours

Why Android Market didn’t take off yet!

So the conditions seemed right for Android and the Android Market - but what happened? Nothing went wrong - it was just a freak set of circumstances

• App Store has a PC & Mac client for easier discovery when Android doesn’t. Android Market website doesn’t allow you to make purchases.
• Apps and Content installation is tethered to iTunes - have you tried to mount an Android in Windows Vista and given up?
• iPhone launched first with much hype - the Android ‘major’ promotional launch came late in 2009 with the Verizon Droid in the USA
• App developers were tooled up and focused on making and selling apps only for iPhone
• Purchase and payments for Apps using iTunes was already setup for many existing iPod users buying songs and videos
• Mobile operating systems (Symbian, Java, Android, iPhone, Blackberry) all differed in how to develop for them
• Adult content and many apps didn’t need to have a home on the Android thanks to the mobile internet and improvements in HTML standards
• Finally - App Developers stuck in the maelstrom of certification, moderation and content restrictions via Apple wouldn’t have wanted to start a new app development!

So what do you think? Does Google need to appoint a Director or Head of Android Market to focus on sales, promotions and support for Apps to make it easier for customers? Do the Handset Manufacturers need to do more?

Meet the author

Damien Saunders
An experienced management consultant and business leader interested in digital transformation, product centred design and scaled agile. If I'm not writing about living with UCTD (an autoimmune disease), I'm probably listening to music, reading a book or learning more about wine.