Google Inc. has had something of an uphill battle on its hands with the Android Market. Although it is now comparable to Apple Inc.’s gargantuan App Store in terms of raw number of apps, it has been plagued with issues that wouldn’t crop up in Apple’s heavily-regulated outlet. Spam and zero-functionality apps litter the Android Market, and, as we saw recently, there is a fair amount of malware hiding in there too.
Despite its problems, Google’s democratic approach – to let the best apps float to the top on the back of user downloads and ratings – seems to be working. A very interesting piece in Computer World has shone the spotlight on Spacetime Studios, who develop popular MMO Pocket Legends. Originally just for the iPhone, the game was recently brought to Android and the developers have enjoyed such a level of success that Android is now their primary source of income.
Currently the app is download two to three times more per day on Android than on iOS (9,000 vs. 3,000 to 4,000), and is played roughly three times as often by Android users. As the game relies on in-app purchases for income, this is good news.
Spacetime Studios have also found that Android users click in-app advertising around three times as much as their iOS counterparts, and as such have abandoned the Apple ecosystem entirely as far as their advertising is concerned. Attempting to explain the phenomenon, Spacetime’s CEO Gary Gattis theorises:
“Android’s a smaller pond for apps right now. The support on the Google side has been much more tangible – they’re really trying to nurture the gaming community.”
Which strikes us as a very astute observation. Angry Birds aside, Android hasn’t seen nearly as much success or acclaim in gaming as the iPhone, as such the bar for entry is low enough that if you come along with a polished, quality game, its only logical that users will flock to it.
Google have been making some very public noise about their ongoing efforts to effectively promote quality apps in the Android Market. Their newly-launched Web Market has gone a long way towards aiding discoverability, and hopefully as the number of good quality apps continues to rise, we will see the useless ones sink further towards the bottom, which will mean profitability, usability, and good times for all.
