Archive for category Android Market

Top Paid Apps

Posted by Simon Judge, Freelance Mobile Developer in Android, Android Market on May 4th, 2010

androidmarketI did a bit of research over the weekend to see what were the top paid apps, their prices and how many had been sold.

These are the only paid apps on the Android Market that have achieved 50000-250000 downloads…

  • Better Keyboard $2.99
  • Open Home $3.99
  • Beautiful Widgets €1.49
  • Power Manager Full $0.99
  • DocumentsToGo Full $14.99
  • Advanced Task Manager $0.99
  • PicSay Pro - Photo Editor €2.99
  • WeatherBug Elite $1.99

My first observation is that these are not $0.99 apps. People are willing to pay more for the right app. There are no games selling over 50000 copies - they are all utilities. Controlling and customising your phone seems to be popular.

Android Market API

Posted by Simon Judge, Freelance Mobile Developer in Android, Android Market, Coding on April 16th, 2010

androidmarketapiI have been investigating how to gain programmatic access to the Android Market. There’s no official API but obviously it’s possible because of the many Android app catalog web sites.

There’s a useful (but incomplete) Java implementation called android-market-api as well as an article on how to download market applications without the vending app.

Also, don’t forget, on the phone you can simply reference an application using the following link for the following form:

market://search?q=pname:com.simonjudge.database

(obviously change to point to your app)

Can’t Find App on Android Market

Posted by Simon Judge, Freelance Mobile Developer in Android Market on April 13th, 2010

androidmarketI am having reports that new HTC Desire users are having problems finding my apps on the Android Market. I have done some digging and here’s the problem.

This problem (with the Desire - I know it has happened previously with other devices) has been around for at least 2 weeks now. It’s time Google improved their end-user support.

Number of Android Applications

Posted by Simon Judge, Freelance Mobile Developer in Android, Android Market on April 6th, 2010

androlibAndroLib has an interesting chart on the number of new applications added to the Android Market over time. It shows that March was a very strong month…

androidnewappspermonth

However, you should look beyond the numbers. Last week, I had a long look through the applications and was surprised how many were variants of dictionaries or clocks/watches with fancy images. The number of applications with substantial functionality is far less that the headline numbers might suggest. There’s still lots of opportunity to be the first to create many kinds of Android application.

Posted by Simon Judge, Freelance Mobile Developer in Android, Android Market on March 30th, 2010

engadgetThere’s a very interesting post at engadget explaining how Google might be reducing platform fragmentation by introducing a more component-centric OS upgrade mechanism.

Also…

“Google may be nearing the end of its breakneck development pace on Android’s core and shifting attention to apps and features”

If Google are now looking for something to do, they should take a look at improving the Android Market.