by cjmartin
Google “not happy” with slow Android app sales
[Via AppleInsider]
Despite brisk hardware sales to consumers and large numbers of apps sitting in in marketplace, Google’s Android platform isn’t resulting in healthy app sales, a problem the company is trying to solve.
Speaking to “anxious app developers” at the Inside Social Apps conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, Android platform manager Eric Chu said Google is actually “not happy” about the limited number of apps actually being purchased, according to a report by Forbes blogger Oliver Chiang.
[More]
Since Google only makes money if people use the ads placed in the apps, slow app sales hurts its business model.
Apple makes money because it sells the hardware needed to run the apps. Any money from distributing the apps is gravy.
Not Google whose model requires people use the apps for it to make any money at all.
So Google is going to ‘innovate’ by trying to do what Apple already does – in-app billing.
But that only works if people are getting apps and want to spend money directly. But the typical Android user seems to want everything to be free, resulting in fewer paid apps. This would suggest that finding ways for them to spend money in an app they got for free may need some work.
And Google looks to be applying more of a curated approach to their Marketplace, just like Apple does. So much for the free and open bazaar heralded by my Google fans as a contrast to the ‘walled garden’ of the app store. Maybe this will get rid of malware which gets put up on the Android Marketplace.
I bet the Google plan to allow apps to hook into someone’s contact list will work out well. Malware and hooks into my contacts – a match made in heaven.
Of course, I may have to ask any Android using friends of mine to remove my name from their contact lists.
by 
by 
