Google Android platform financially interesting already? [closed]

Question

Good afternoon,

with all the buzz around the iPhone / AppStore etc, I felt it to be a no-brainer to create a nice iPhone application for the web-application I've been putting together, but how's your experience with the Android Platform so far - is it interesting already from a sales & user-volume?

I've had a quick look at the T-Mobile G1 and from an end-user perspective I didn't think it is all to appealing and to me it seems it'll take a while until all this takes off.

Does anyone of you already have an or multiple apps finished for the platform? How's your take on this.. are sales lower/higher than you expected them to be? Is it worth investing the time & money (right now) to build an android version of my app? Being 'worth' obviously is a very flexible term and depends on someone's point of view, but basically right now every hour I don't work on the webapplication itself basically 'has' to pay off fairly quickly.. and that's why I'm reaching out for some real-life experience.

Cheers and thanks, -J

Answer 1

Regarding making money by charging for your applications: "Starting in early Q1, developers will also be able to distribute paid apps in addition to free apps." [Source: http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2008/10/android-market-now-available-for-users.html ]

I have studied the API of both platforms. If I went to make a two-sentence comparison, I would say that:

iPhone focuses on providing a consistent user experience.

Android focuses on providing freedom to developers to implement or improve whatever they want.

You should also consider weather your particular app benefits from either. E.g. is it text-entry heavy (android) or browsing based (iPhone)?

Is it suitable as an add-on to a basic app, e.g. maps? (android)

Answer 2

AFAIK it's not possible to publish "non-free" application through Android Market right now. All apps in AM are free at the moment.

Though Google is working on this feature intensively and release is expected soon.