I was looking through the Android Market and I found some very sad
stats.
Glu Mobile, a big and reputable game company has 4 games (according to
Cyrket) on the Android Market. Of those games, 2 are free (Bonsai
Blast and Brain Genius Deluxe). Both of the free games have had
downloads through the roof, over 250,000 each!
The other two games (Build-a-Lot and Diner Dash 2) are both priced at
$4.99. These games haven`t been nearly as successful. Build-a-Lot
only sold 100-500 copies ($350 to $1,750), and Diner Dash 2 sold LESS
THAN 50 copies ($0 to max of $170).
Those are horrible findings, and no one can expect companies to pour
money into android projects if no one is willing to buy them.
Especially games.
But they also show that Android users seem to favor the Google way of
business (free with possibly ads). Maybe placing ads on bonsai or
brain genius would yield more cash for glu mobile????
Read your way through this forum and you will find that many believe
these stats are a result of characteristics of the Android Market in
its current form rather than the unwillingness of users to shell out a
few bucks.
> I was looking through the Android Market and I found some very sad
> stats.
> Glu Mobile, a big and reputable game company has 4 games (according to
> Cyrket) on the Android Market. Of those games, 2 are free (Bonsai
> Blast and Brain Genius Deluxe). Both of the free games have had
> downloads through the roof, over 250,000 each!
> The other two games (Build-a-Lot and Diner Dash 2) are both priced at
> $4.99. These games haven`t been nearly as successful. Build-a-Lot
> only sold 100-500 copies ($350 to $1,750), and Diner Dash 2 sold LESS
> THAN 50 copies ($0 to max of $170).
> Those are horrible findings, and no one can expect companies to pour
> money into android projects if no one is willing to buy them.
> Especially games.
> But they also show that Android users seem to favor the Google way of
> business (free with possibly ads). Maybe placing ads on bonsai or
> brain genius would yield more cash for glu mobile????
Are you taking into account the time that these apps have been
available on the market? I thought Diner Dash 2 just made it to the
market a couple of days ago. Also, $4.99 may be a bit high for a
mobile app, unless it is revolutionary. They may have more sales if
they lowered the price, although the total revenue may be the same.
P.S. The world economy, and especially the US economy, are not doing
to well now, I personally will do without a mobile app when times are
tough.
> I was looking through the Android Market and I found some very sad
> stats.
> Glu Mobile, a big and reputable game company has 4 games (according to
> Cyrket) on the Android Market. Of those games, 2 are free (Bonsai
> Blast and Brain Genius Deluxe). Both of the free games have had
> downloads through the roof, over 250,000 each!
> The other two games (Build-a-Lot and Diner Dash 2) are both priced at
> $4.99. These games haven`t been nearly as successful. Build-a-Lot
> only sold 100-500 copies ($350 to $1,750), and Diner Dash 2 sold LESS
> THAN 50 copies ($0 to max of $170).
> Those are horrible findings, and no one can expect companies to pour
> money into android projects if no one is willing to buy them.
> Especially games.
> But they also show that Android users seem to favor the Google way of
> business (free with possibly ads). Maybe placing ads on bonsai or
> brain genius would yield more cash for glu mobile????
1. Not all countries are having paid Market
2. Not all countries are having device
3. 24 Hour Free and refund policy (At least Google can think to reduce this
time!)
Mahesh
On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 9:22 AM, SizzlingSkizzorsProgrammer <cbo...@gmail.com
Build applications that people need and sales will come.
Personally I am not interested in games on Android, if I am going to try one
out I'll go for a free game. I have done this in the past but you'd be
lucky if I played them twice, I dont have the time or patience to play
games. For me the phone is a productivity tool and mostly use it for the
web/email and twitter.
The only other apps I have and use regularly are an alarm clock, Googles
MyTracks as I do a lot of cycling and the most recent RepliGo Reader for
viewing PDFs, this is the only app I have paid for so far.
As a developer I have an idea for an application, which I will not be
sharing with you, but any money to be made from this will not be from the
initial application but from the added value service I can provide outwith
the application, this would be through a subscription model.
On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 7:07 AM, Mahesh Vaghela <mah...@indianic.com> wrote:
> There are many reasons behind this:
> 1. Not all countries are having paid Market
> 2. Not all countries are having device
> 3. 24 Hour Free and refund policy (At least Google can think to reduce this
> time!)
> Mahesh
> On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 9:22 AM, SizzlingSkizzorsProgrammer <
> cbo...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Still it would be interesting to see if they went the ads road how
>> well they would fare...especially with the sky high download nums.
Yeah, conversion from free to retail sales is amazingly poor.
Whether that is to do with the way the market is laid out, the
audience or the quality of applications is up for discussion.
> I was looking through the Android Market and I found some very sad
> stats.
> Glu Mobile, a big and reputable game company has 4 games (according to
> Cyrket) on the Android Market. Of those games, 2 are free (Bonsai
> Blast and Brain Genius Deluxe). Both of the free games have had
> downloads through the roof, over 250,000 each!
> The other two games (Build-a-Lot and Diner Dash 2) are both priced at
> $4.99. These games haven`t been nearly as successful. Build-a-Lot
> only sold 100-500 copies ($350 to $1,750), and Diner Dash 2 sold LESS
> THAN 50 copies ($0 to max of $170).
> Those are horrible findings, and no one can expect companies to pour
> money into android projects if no one is willing to buy them.
> Especially games.
> But they also show that Android users seem to favor the Google way of
> business (free with possibly ads). Maybe placing ads on bonsai or
> brain genius would yield more cash for glu mobile????
On May 7, 11:37 am, MrChaz <mrchazmob...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> Yeah, conversion from free to retail sales is amazingly poor.
Please don't make statements like that without numbers to back it up.
My game has a 2.8% conversion rate from the free demo to the full
version. From what I understand, that is fairly typical for the games
industry.
> On May 7, 11:37 am, MrChaz <mrchazmob...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> > Yeah, conversion from free to retail sales is amazingly poor.
> Please don't make statements like that without numbers to back it up.
> My game has a 2.8% conversion rate from the free demo to the full
> version. From what I understand, that is fairly typical for the games
> industry.
On May 6, 11:50 pm, mike quinn <mq5037...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> Build applications that people need and sales will come.
The customers we would want. We've had this discussion before - they
show, check things out, do not find anything useful, because apps are
not presented effectively through a web site that can checked out on a
desktop PC or something similar, and finally go away. No word from
Google if this is going to change. We've seen unannounced changes to
the Android Market that left everybody guessing, though. Overall not
an attractive picture to start building anything useful right now. My
2 cents.
If all the rules have been more developer-friendly, then it might
attract talented individuals to devote their time. Refund process is
just too simple. Even as a developer myself, I download lots of apps
just to see how the other apps are written. No questions asked.
Just a button click away to get your money back.
On the bright side, there are a lot more Android phones coming out
this year. The sale growth might be exponential considering that
more devices are out there and economy might turn around. Keeping a
decent fulltime job is always the right choice.
Cheers,
On May 7, 8:12 am, JP <Joachim.Pfeif...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On May 6, 11:50 pm, mike quinn <mq5037...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> > Build applications that people need and sales will come.
> The customers we would want. We've had this discussion before - they
> show, check things out, do not find anything useful, because apps are
> not presented effectively through a web site that can checked out on a
> desktop PC or something similar, and finally go away. No word from
> Google if this is going to change. We've seen unannounced changes to
> the Android Market that left everybody guessing, though. Overall not
> an attractive picture to start building anything useful right now. My
> 2 cents.
> I was looking through the Android Market and I found some very sad
> stats.
> Glu Mobile, a big and reputable game company has 4 games (according to
> Cyrket) on the Android Market. Of those games, 2 are free (Bonsai
> Blast and Brain Genius Deluxe). Both of the free games have had
> downloads through the roof, over 250,000 each!
> The other two games (Build-a-Lot and Diner Dash 2) are both priced at
> $4.99. These games haven`t been nearly as successful. Build-a-Lot
> only sold 100-500 copies ($350 to $1,750), and Diner Dash 2 sold LESS
> THAN 50 copies ($0 to max of $170).
> Those are horrible findings, and no one can expect companies to pour
> money into android projects if no one is willing to buy them.
> Especially games.
> But they also show that Android users seem to favor the Google way of
> business (free with possibly ads). Maybe placing ads on bonsai or
> brain genius would yield more cash for glu mobile????
My numbers back it up. A hundred thousand freebie downloads, less than
600 sales. And I'm in the top 20 with a solid 4.5 star rating. So what
he says is perfectly true in at least some cases.
Glad you're doing better than that!
On May 7, 5:17 am, Jon Colverson <jjc1...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On May 7, 11:37 am, MrChaz <mrchazmob...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> > Yeah, conversion from free to retail sales is amazingly poor.
> Please don't make statements like that without numbers to back it up.
> My game has a 2.8% conversion rate from the free demo to the full
> version. From what I understand, that is fairly typical for the games
> industry.
And of course, there's the marketing angle. I see Apple's "There's an
app for that" iPhone commercials *constantly*. Those leave the
impression that the iPhone is *the* tool for doing anything you might
want to do on the go. Android, on the other hand, has a single T-
Mobile commercial. No mention of applications at all. So people
think it's just another cell phone, and get an iPhone for all the cool
stuff it can do.
On May 7, 8:40 am, schwiz <sch...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I was looking through the Android Market and I found some very sad
> > stats.
> > Glu Mobile, a big and reputable game company has 4 games (according to
> > Cyrket) on the Android Market. Of those games, 2 are free (Bonsai
> > Blast and Brain Genius Deluxe). Both of the free games have had
> > downloads through the roof, over 250,000 each!
> > The other two games (Build-a-Lot and Diner Dash 2) are both priced at
> > $4.99. These games haven`t been nearly as successful. Build-a-Lot
> > only sold 100-500 copies ($350 to $1,750), and Diner Dash 2 sold LESS
> > THAN 50 copies ($0 to max of $170).
> > Those are horrible findings, and no one can expect companies to pour
> > money into android projects if no one is willing to buy them.
> > Especially games.
> > But they also show that Android users seem to favor the Google way of
> > business (free with possibly ads). Maybe placing ads on bonsai or
> > brain genius would yield more cash for glu mobile????
And the iphone add says "only on the iphone", which is obviously untrue so I don't know how they get away with that line.
On May 7, 2009 4:50 PM, "Mark Anacker" <closecr...@riven.tzo.com> wrote:
And of course, there's the marketing angle. I see Apple's "There's an app for that" iPhone commercials *constantly*. Those leave the impression that the iPhone is *the* tool for doing anything you might want to do on the go. Android, on the other hand, has a single T- Mobile commercial. No mention of applications at all. So people think it's just another cell phone, and get an iPhone for all the cool stuff it can do.
On May 7, 8:40 am, schwiz <sch...@gmail.com> wrote: > 5 bucks is a lot to ask for a cell phone game...
How would you know? These are downloads with an unknown number
returned within the 24h period @ 0 zero earning for the developer.
Plus, the free version is placed prominently on the top bar. What
qualifies the app for that favourable placement? What are the
criteria? And so on and so on.
These are all unanswered questions that hold the Market back.
On May 7, 8:40 am, schwiz <sch...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On May 7, 11:37 am, MrChaz <mrchazmob...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> > Yeah, conversion from free to retail sales is amazingly poor.
> Please don't make statements like that without numbers to back it up.
> My game has a 2.8% conversion rate from the free demo to the full
> version. From what I understand, that is fairly typical for the games
> industry.
Does anyone know if a user can still get a refund for a paid app even
though there is a free/trial version? I thought if there was a free
version, then users could not apply for a refund since they are able
to try the trial version prior to buying. And if this is the case,
has anyone seen any success with that model?
On May 7, 11:57 am, JP <Joachim.Pfeif...@gmail.com> wrote:
> How would you know? These are downloads with an unknown number
> returned within the 24h period @ 0 zero earning for the developer.
> Plus, the free version is placed prominently on the top bar. What
> qualifies the app for that favourable placement? What are the
> criteria? And so on and so on.
> These are all unanswered questions that hold the Market back.
> On May 7, 8:40 am, schwiz <sch...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > 5 bucks is a lot to ask for a cell phone game, take a look at
> > abduction, charging 2 bucks and the guy has sold 1000-5000 copies in
> > just 2 weeks.
On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 4:32 AM, clark <clarkd...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 2.8%? Thanks for the numbers, now we can say that is "amazingly
> poor."
> On May 7, 4:17 am, Jon Colverson <jjc1...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On May 7, 11:37 am, MrChaz <mrchazmob...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> > > Yeah, conversion from free to retail sales is amazingly poor.
> > Please don't make statements like that without numbers to back it up.
> > My game has a 2.8% conversion rate from the free demo to the full
> > version. From what I understand, that is fairly typical for the games
> > industry.
IMO the main problem with the Market is that it's the only place to
obtain apps and with the small interface being so tiny and with so
many new, dump apps coming out all the time, most applications are
gone within a few hours from the main page. Unless users scroll and
check constantly they will miss all the new apps.
Other problems such as having no screenshot capability, not enough
different ranks such as most downloaded, best rating, or recommended
for the day hinder users from wanting to try different apps and
finding them.
Other additional problems such as extremely POOR monetary conversion
rates for other countries and seriously not having any other means of
payment (or even at least have Google Checkout accept most major
credit cards!) will benefit extremely.
Lastly, FIX all the market bugs. I can't believe Android Market even
got passed QA with the large amount of bugs in there.
On May 7, 11:45 pm, Mariano Kamp <mariano.k...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Compared to what?
> I am not trying to be a smart ass here, but have you got any other numbers
> that suggest that this conversion rate is poor?
> I guess a direct marketeer would say it is fantastic.
> On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 4:32 AM, clark <clarkd...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > 2.8%? Thanks for the numbers, now we can say that is "amazingly
> > poor."
> > On May 7, 4:17 am, Jon Colverson <jjc1...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > On May 7, 11:37 am, MrChaz <mrchazmob...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> > > > Yeah, conversion from free to retail sales is amazingly poor.
> > > Please don't make statements like that without numbers to back it up.
> > > My game has a 2.8% conversion rate from the free demo to the full
> > > version. From what I understand, that is fairly typical for the games
> > > industry.
Sites like AndAppStore.com need support from developers by the developers listing their apps on them, making improvement suggestions, and remembering to keep their listings up to date.
If Market really is that bad then helping to build up alternatives which better serve the needs of users and developers is in everyone's interests.
-----Original Message-----
From: android-discuss@googlegroups.com [mailto:android-discuss@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Aaron
Sent: 08 May 2009 08:28
To: Android Discuss
Subject: [android-discuss] Re: Sad Application Sales...
IMO the main problem with the Market is that it's the only place to
obtain apps and with the small interface being so tiny and with so
many new, dump apps coming out all the time, most applications are
gone within a few hours from the main page. Unless users scroll and
check constantly they will miss all the new apps.
Other problems such as having no screenshot capability, not enough
different ranks such as most downloaded, best rating, or recommended
for the day hinder users from wanting to try different apps and
finding them.
Other additional problems such as extremely POOR monetary conversion
rates for other countries and seriously not having any other means of
payment (or even at least have Google Checkout accept most major
credit cards!) will benefit extremely.
Lastly, FIX all the market bugs. I can't believe Android Market even
got passed QA with the large amount of bugs in there.
On May 7, 11:45 pm, Mariano Kamp <mariano.k...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Compared to what?
> I am not trying to be a smart ass here, but have you got any other numbers
> that suggest that this conversion rate is poor?
> I guess a direct marketeer would say it is fantastic.
> On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 4:32 AM, clark <clarkd...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > 2.8%? Thanks for the numbers, now we can say that is "amazingly
> > poor."
> > On May 7, 4:17 am, Jon Colverson <jjc1...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > On May 7, 11:37 am, MrChaz <mrchazmob...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> > > > Yeah, conversion from free to retail sales is amazingly poor.
> > > Please don't make statements like that without numbers to back it up.
> > > My game has a 2.8% conversion rate from the free demo to the full
> > > version. From what I understand, that is fairly typical for the games
> > > industry.
I'd argue that having more than one store makes things worse.
What we need is a single entity that has both a good phone application
and web interface. What we don't need is to have to publish to a
bunch of places as that makes versioning, support, tracking etc much
harder.
On May 8, 8:34 am, Al Sutton <a...@funkyandroid.com> wrote:
> Sites like AndAppStore.com need support from developers by the developers listing their apps on them, making improvement suggestions, and remembering to keep their listings up to date.
> If Market really is that bad then helping to build up alternatives which better serve the needs of users and developers is in everyone's interests.
> Al.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: android-discuss@googlegroups.com [mailto:android-discuss@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Aaron
> Sent: 08 May 2009 08:28
> To: Android Discuss
> Subject: [android-discuss] Re: Sad Application Sales...
> IMO the main problem with the Market is that it's the only place to
> obtain apps and with the small interface being so tiny and with so
> many new, dump apps coming out all the time, most applications are
> gone within a few hours from the main page. Unless users scroll and
> check constantly they will miss all the new apps.
> Other problems such as having no screenshot capability, not enough
> different ranks such as most downloaded, best rating, or recommended
> for the day hinder users from wanting to try different apps and
> finding them.
> Other additional problems such as extremely POOR monetary conversion
> rates for other countries and seriously not having any other means of
> payment (or even at least have Google Checkout accept most major
> credit cards!) will benefit extremely.
> Lastly, FIX all the market bugs. I can't believe Android Market even
> got passed QA with the large amount of bugs in there.
> On May 7, 11:45 pm, Mariano Kamp <mariano.k...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Compared to what?
> > I am not trying to be a smart ass here, but have you got any other numbers
> > that suggest that this conversion rate is poor?
> > I guess a direct marketeer would say it is fantastic.
> > On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 4:32 AM, clark <clarkd...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > 2.8%? Thanks for the numbers, now we can say that is "amazingly
> > > poor."
> > > On May 7, 4:17 am, Jon Colverson <jjc1...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > On May 7, 11:37 am, MrChaz <mrchazmob...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> > > > > Yeah, conversion from free to retail sales is amazingly poor.
> > > > Please don't make statements like that without numbers to back it up.
> > > > My game has a 2.8% conversion rate from the free demo to the full
> > > > version. From what I understand, that is fairly typical for the games
> > > > industry.
You're getting a taste of what monopolies can be like from your experiences of Googles Market.
You may think that a single viable market serving everyone will do what you want it to, but it's more likely the one market would do enough to get apps to users and not be interested in costly frills.
======
Funky Android Limited is registered in England & Wales with the company number 6741909. The registered head office is Kemp House, 152-160 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX, UK.
The views expressed in this email are those of the author and not necessarily those of Funky Android Limited, it's associates, or it's subsidiaries.
-----Original Message-----
From: android-discuss@googlegroups.com [mailto:android-discuss@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of MrChaz
Sent: 08 May 2009 09:09
To: Android Discuss
Subject: [android-discuss] Re: Sad Application Sales...
I'd argue that having more than one store makes things worse.
What we need is a single entity that has both a good phone application
and web interface. What we don't need is to have to publish to a
bunch of places as that makes versioning, support, tracking etc much
harder.
On May 8, 8:34 am, Al Sutton <a...@funkyandroid.com> wrote:
> Market isn't the only place to obtain apps.
> Sites like AndAppStore.com need support from developers by the developers listing their apps on them, making improvement suggestions, and remembering to keep their listings up to date.
> If Market really is that bad then helping to build up alternatives which better serve the needs of users and developers is in everyone's interests.
> Al.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: android-discuss@googlegroups.com [mailto:android-discuss@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Aaron
> Sent: 08 May 2009 08:28
> To: Android Discuss
> Subject: [android-discuss] Re: Sad Application Sales...
> IMO the main problem with the Market is that it's the only place to
> obtain apps and with the small interface being so tiny and with so
> many new, dump apps coming out all the time, most applications are
> gone within a few hours from the main page. Unless users scroll and
> check constantly they will miss all the new apps.
> Other problems such as having no screenshot capability, not enough
> different ranks such as most downloaded, best rating, or recommended
> for the day hinder users from wanting to try different apps and
> finding them.
> Other additional problems such as extremely POOR monetary conversion
> rates for other countries and seriously not having any other means of
> payment (or even at least have Google Checkout accept most major
> credit cards!) will benefit extremely.
> Lastly, FIX all the market bugs. I can't believe Android Market even
> got passed QA with the large amount of bugs in there.
> On May 7, 11:45 pm, Mariano Kamp <mariano.k...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Compared to what?
> > I am not trying to be a smart ass here, but have you got any other numbers
> > that suggest that this conversion rate is poor?
> > I guess a direct marketeer would say it is fantastic.
> > On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 4:32 AM, clark <clarkd...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > 2.8%? Thanks for the numbers, now we can say that is "amazingly
> > > poor."
> > > On May 7, 4:17 am, Jon Colverson <jjc1...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > On May 7, 11:37 am, MrChaz <mrchazmob...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> > > > > Yeah, conversion from free to retail sales is amazingly poor.
> > > > Please don't make statements like that without numbers to back it up.
> > > > My game has a 2.8% conversion rate from the free demo to the full
> > > > version. From what I understand, that is fairly typical for the games
> > > > industry.
Clark, why would someone request a refund for a product they have already had a trial for. If they buy the app after trial surely they want the app so wouldn't be requesting a refund.
On May 8, 2009 3:35 AM, "clark" <clarkd...@gmail.com> wrote:
Does anyone know if a user can still get a refund for a paid app even though there is a free/trial version? I thought if there was a free version, then users could not apply for a refund since they are able to try the trial version prior to buying. And if this is the case, has anyone seen any success with that model?
On May 7, 11:57 am, JP <Joachim.Pfeif...@gmail.com> wrote: > How would you know? These are downlo...
