Android Market Forces Dev To Spam So They’re Banned
So Android has a shitty market that lets everyone and their grandparents join in in. It gets so inundated with apps that the good ones can’t make it to the top, so what’s a dev to do to try to make a buck? Flood the market with their own spam, naturally. Well that’s what So Wallpaper did. See, they had 1,500 apps in the market and Google removed all of them. Some of them were spam but others were real apps and in an attempt to promote the real ones they threw spam into the market. Apparently Google also recently cleaned 6,000 spam apps also. But let’s get back to the motivation here. Here are a few quotes string together:
We didn’t want to have to do that. But the Android Market doesn’t have many people who like to pay for apps. So how is a developer to live? Just off of ad revenue?
We have many developer accounts, such as avgirl.inc, rosa, honggang.li, and gogopwz. Each of them also has many apps.We will still flood the Android Market until it provides a better profit environment. We will fire in the end! We welcome other developers to join with us.
I’m not really convinced that pissing everyone off by ruining the market is a good route to take…and probably even worse to be so vocal about intentionally doing harm. Obviously developers want and deserve to get paid for their hard work and in a good market they should. The good apps should float to the top and the developers get compensation in the forms of straight money or ads. Is it the developers fault (for not making a good enough app) or Google’s (for not making a good enough market/structure)? is Google the new Apple who is about to take control of the market? Those of you who use Goog share your thoughts on the ease of finding good apps and if you ever pay for apps, only get free apps, use ad apps, etc.
via Android Guys
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About The Author
I have been an Android user for two weeks, and I am not a developer. I have downloaded over 50 apps from the market. So here are some comments from a new user — the type developers should go for.
Putting out a free “lite” version and a paid “pro” version of an app is not usually a good developer strategy. If the lite version has good enough function, we will stay with it. If the lite version is too crippled, we will be turned off. A better strategy is to put out a full function app that is free for a limited time. If you want to get paid, just put out the best app in its class.
The scope and function of the app must be significant. No matter how solid the app is, if the function is too narrow or easy, we will not see value in paying. For example, I happily paid $30 for Slingplayer Mobile, because watching my TV from anywhere is valuable, and the app is complex. I would not pay for a calendar widget, because no matter how good it might be, I can get the same info for free with a couple of clicks on built-in function.
An unobtrusive scrolling ad at the bottom of the screen does not bother me. If an app uses popup ads that require me to clear, I will uninstall immediately.
It is a fact of life that many excellent developers have big hearts and choose to give away their apps, even complex ones. God bless them. If an app is exceptional and clearly required much work to develop, I will use it for free but will eventually donate to the developer. Donations are a nice way of saying thank you, but are not a good business plan.
User comments matter. You cannot control what users say, but most of us can filter out the idiots pretty easily. Again, high quality apps will eventually build up a strong set of positive comments.
Well said Rick, and your comments could pretty much apply to any platform’s app store or marketplace. Hope their listening.