Very good, our parent company, Fasmicro, paid $25 to join the Google Android Market. If we have been building apps on Apple, what might have happened? Of course the model would have been different, because Android Market and Apple App Store are different. These two companies simply do not see eye to eye in the strategy on how to sell apps. This is one thing you must consider before you choose your platform for development. It is tougher to get apps in Apple. But that does not make it better for you.
With the Android Market, all you need to do is pay a one-time $25 registration fee. In Apple, you must submit and then wait until they review and possibly accept your apps. People choose Android because of its simplicity to get the apps right and into the hands of customers. It is flexible and fast.
What you get with that easy process is what you can lose in spyware. It is easy to rig Android Market by the bad guys than Apple store. Android Market is full of un-regulation, open pure democracy. But after all the considerations and looking at the fact that Amazon Appstore for Android is there, one can just buy from Amazon that has the experience in selling things online. The Android appstore run by Amazon is safer and is more orderly.
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These are the two platforms that matter most in the apps world– it is either iOS or Android and all the issues in the market are secondary.You truly do not have a choice – you must use either Google or Apple. Windows Mobile or RIM Blackberry is not a big option, at least for now, since their base is very limited. Ovi store from Nokia is not seen as being elite because Nokia is not assumed to be making premium brands. Why? When people can buy cheap phones at less than $30, it will be hard to convince them that you can serve those that care for $900 category. Those cheap phones erode the brand.
So, at the end, it is Android vs. iOS. The secret is the network effect. People will develop where there are more people and that is what is happening now. We go for Android, but iOS was closer. The reason is simple: in the developing world, the projection favors Android because the liberation in the OS will enable any player to get in and make more phones on Android. And that is sustainability!