I've had two apps on the Android market for 4 weeks. I've made ~$50 a week. Sales declined a bit for one of the apps, Booze Runner, because Android doesn't wait for five reviews so I got a 4 star review, then a 1 star review which destroyed my average rating. I definitely noticed a slowdown in sales as a result.
It should be mentioned also, that I charge $2.99 for the apps on Android as opposed to $1.99 on the iPhone. I figure the smaller potential market would require a hire price. I'm thinking of lowering the price on Booze Runner to decrease the amount of refunds requested.
Which brings me to the biggest problem with the Android market. I don't have a problem with providing refunds, but I think 24 hours is quite a long time. I think people treat the purchase more like a rental. I'm only retaining 60-some percent of Booze Runner customers, compared to 90 percent from my other app, Drag Tree.
It's also interesting to note that the free version of Booze Runner on Android had more downloads in two days than the free version on iPhone did in nearly a month. The extra downloads didn't seem to convert to sales at anywhere near the rate that it appears they would have on iPhone.
The paid versions of the apps on the iPhone store sell anywhere from 2-3 times as well as the Android market.
I do think that the market has potential, but first, Google has to decide to give a rats patootie about it. Right now it seems like an after thought. Very little room for descriptions, no screenshots on phones stuck on 1.5, reviews don't reset on updates, very little polish at all compared to Apple.
I've heard that palms WebOS store is doing fairly well, but with the sale of Palm who knows how long that platform will be around.
|