Android Gaming and the Android App Store

[Cerveza mas fina]

I read that only 5 games on the Android App store have surpassed 250k sales. On the Apple App Store this apperently happens all the time.

What is google doing wrong with their store?

[Vizzys]

ipods/iphones/ipads are always the same hardware

android runs on more varied hardware so its harder to develop for?

[Cerveza mas fina]

True, but doesn't have Android have a bigger install base overall?

[MCD]

Android users don't buy, they just pirate.

[naff]

I bought game dev story on Android. And uh, I think that's the only game I've bought on my phone. Don't really care about phone gaming. There's a few games exclusively on iDevices I'd buy on Android if they ported em, and I think I'll be more inclined to buy games once I get a tablet, or a better phone. There's so many different Android SKUs and only some are appropriate for gaming, it's the biggest boon and downfall of the OS. It's great because it's so versatile but I imagine it's frustrating for devs working in the environment.

[naff]

No, they really don't and won't. There's enough room for differing philosophies, Google made Android to provide an open platform, while they have recommended specs and uses for the OS they don't enforce their views on vendors. For instance, they recommended nobody use Android for tablets until Honeycomb was released

[demi]

Android gaming is a clusterfuck just to get the game. I told someone about the Plants vs Zombies up today since it was free, and he had to jump through hoops just downloading it.

[Rman]

Use the Amazon App Store if you can.  It's a much better experience.

[chronovore]

No, they really don't and won't. There's enough room for differing philosophies, Google made Android to provide an open platform, while they have recommended specs and uses for the OS they don't enforce their views on vendors. For instance, they recommended nobody use Android for tablets until Honeycomb was released

Yeah, when going up against Apple to try and gain ground, it's probably not a good idea to simply ape their playbook. Especially since Google's not even making the hardware.

[naff]

Definitely, and the open nature of the OS doesn't have much to do with why the store isn't that good. I guess I need to play with it more though, because I've never had a problem with it. So far my experience has been - I search for what I want, press download and away it goes. Do other people have different experiences?

[MCD]

No, they really don't and won't. There's enough room for differing philosophies, Google made Android to provide an open platform, while they have recommended specs and uses for the OS they don't enforce their views on vendors. For instance, they recommended nobody use Android for tablets until Honeycomb was released

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_15/b4223041200216.htm

[naff]

Yeah, Google will never be as good with abiding to OSS standards as real open source companies like Canonical Still, giving access early and withholding rights on retooling the OS is pretty different to enforcing what hardware is allowed to run it.

edit: There are hardware limitations with Android Honeycomb, but it's not part of the same Android open source project as previous releases and it will never be merged. However it's features will apparently be brought into the project with 2.4 Ice Cream Sandwich

[The Sceneman]

the more open the platform the better. Also Steve Jobs would probably charge his own grandmother to develop for iDevice